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SES-10 Mission

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Re: SES-10 Mission

#271

Post by di4na »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #180
jacquesm wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm ok with aiming high and en-passant solving cheap access to orbit. Anything else is gravy, imagine if that dream did not exist this whole saga would not have happened. Dreams are good, they allow people to expend energy chasing that dream and the spin-offs from that may be worth as much or more to humanity than the original dream, even if we may not be able to figure out what path that might take today. I'm certai…

It's a bit disappointing to me that poverty, human trafficking, addiction, habitat destruxtion, cultural erasure, genocide, torture, extinction, etc aren't very powerful motivators for such people. I feel such pressure to use our new skills to solve these problems, but I know 10 years ago they were a combination of invisible/impossible to me. If I hadn't been aggressively pushed by smart feminists to examine my life…

The thing about Mars is that it does not solve any problem. It just give us time to solve the problem. It mulitply the chance of humanity surviving a problem that kills our only "capsule", Earth.

And that dangerous event could be external to humanity. So Mars is a part of a solution for all that : buy all the rest of humanity time to solve that problem and making sure enough humans can be born and live so that at least one find a solution. It is the only thing engineers can do. Give us the chance.

Re: SES-10 Mission

#272

Post by ygra »

jacquesm wrote: post #72
ygra wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The grid fins are painted with ablative paint that's supposed to burn away while protecting what's underneath. Same with the legs. But they do suffer damage during re-entry as could be seen on photos of them from previous landed boosters. I'm fairly sure that's all expected and accounted for.

The legs are only flown once and are replaced in their entirety, they take the brunt of the impact from landing and may suffer non-elastic deformation.

I didn't say the legs were going to be re-used. I just said they were painted in a way that the paint can burn away, just like the grid fins. If you're coming down through your own exhaust you don't want to risk damaging the things you land on a few meters above the ground.

Re: SES-10 Mission

#273

Post by mksaunders »

nojvek wrote: post #254
boznz wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just need a pissing contest between SpaceX and Blue Origin now and everyone will benefit

Blue origin isn't even in the same league. Their rockets go straight up, stay there for a bit and down again. Spacex achieves magnitudes higher velocity, altitude and actually delivers things to orbit. BlueOrigin is Bezos' pet project akin to taking a heli tour around the city while SpaceX is doing a transcontinental flight half way around the world.

GP said we need a contest – not that we have one. And when New Glenn starts flying in a few years, we'll definitely have that contest. You're right that New Shepard doesn't compare to what SpaceX is doing at the moment, but Blue Origin is working on much, much bigger rockets...

Re: SES-10 Mission

#274

Post by Tepix »

JshWright wrote: post #96
jacquesm wrote: post #8

History was being made today. Super, congratulations to all of SpaceX. Now let's see the landing :) STUCK THE LANDING :) :) :) Apologies to my neighbors who I surely woke up. Hah :) Incredible! Now, will they fly this one again?

> Now, will they fly this one again? Probably not. For starters, Elon has said they only intend to get a few flights out of the Block 3 rockets. Additionally, the CTO of SES said Gwynne promised them some bits of the rocket for posterity. The Block 5 rockets (to fly later this year) are the ones Elon expects to fly more or less indefinitely, with regular servicing and part replacement.

Elon gave more details regarding reusability during the post launch press conference:

10 launches without maintenance

100 launches with moderate maintenance

They are aiming for 1000 launches for their upcoming ITS.

Re: SES-10 Mission

#275

Post by BHSPitMonkey »

Rebelgecko wrote: post #247
quotemstr wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you can combine cheapness and reliability by looking at total cost after launch insurance.

That's not really a fair comparison. The amount of money you lose if something bad happens is more than just the cost of replacing your payload (which is what insurance covers)

Why wouldn't they obtain insurance for the total cost of the mishap?

Re: SES-10 Mission

#276

Post by Tepix »

nickik wrote: post #145
tdy721 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As dictated by the market monopoly holder.

What? Prices are only dictated if you dictate to somebody else. They are just setting there own price. Also, there is no monopoly situation.

They have a monopoly on reusable orbit-class rockets (for now).

Re: SES-10 Mission

#277

Post by Tepix »

Someone wrote: post #83

I understand the enthusiasm, but I don't see enough hard data to convince me this will be a commercial success. Looking at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_He... , SpaceX has launched and landed about 10 of these rockets, and has so far reused one. That rocket was first used about a year ago. Factors that might prevent this from making this economically superior to 'just' ramping up productio…

Sheesh, one step at a time, ok?

They already stated that they want to hit 24h turnaround for the F9 core within one year.

Re: SES-10 Mission

#278

Post by bergie »

olegkikin wrote: post #186
nradov wrote: post #125

The launch video is amazing! How are they able to get clear video with stable tracking of a rocket >10km away? What sort of lens and camera makes that possible?

While they probably use something much more serious, you could technically use something like Nikon P900, which is 2000mm equivalent, and is very affordable.

Could actually be one of those. SpaceX uses lots of off-the-shelf hardware. For example, the cameras mounted on the rocket are (at least mostly?) GoPros

Re: SES-10 Mission

#279

Post by nickik »

Tepix wrote: post #276
nickik wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? Prices are only dictated if you dictate to somebody else. They are just setting there own price. Also, there is no monopoly situation.

They have a monopoly on reusable orbit-class rockets (for now).

Fortunately the market is about putting stuff into orbit, not about putting stuff into orbit with reusable rocket. ULA also has monopoly in Hydolox rockets. That however is not relevant and its not a useful use of the word monopoly.

Re: SES-10 Mission

#280

Post by bambax »

Flight instructors like to share this quote: a good landing is when nobody gets hurt. A very good landing is when you can re-use the plane.

Looks like SpaceX had (yet another) very good landing!!

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