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Unmanned U.S. Air Force space plane lands after secret, two-year mission

reuters.com

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Re: Unmanned U.S. Air Force space plane lands after secret, two-year mission

#101

Post by killjoywashere »

joshschreuder wrote: post #80
tammer wrote: post #20

Surprised nobody's mentioned this possibility as it usually comes up re: the X-37B. Terrifying but I think not out of the question given the strategic potential of such a weapon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_bombardment

> During the Vietnam War, there was limited use of the Lazy Dog bomb, a steel projectile shaped like a conventional bomb but only about 1" long and 3/8" diameter. A piece of sheet metal was folded to make the fins and welded to the rear of the projectile. These were dumped from aircraft onto enemy troops and had the same effect as a machine gun fired vertically.[3][4] Observers visiting a battlefield after an attack…

Flechettes have been horrifying since WWI.

Re: Unmanned U.S. Air Force space plane lands after secret, two-year mission

#102

Post by gibsjose »

dogma1138 wrote: post #51
gibsjose wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On-orbit satellite servicing and refueling has not been performed as of yet, but we are currently working on it: https://sspd.gsfc.nasa.gov/restore-l.html

Hubble fixes? Also it seems that quite a few shuttle missions were satellite servicing missions including relaunching sattlites that failed to get into the correct orbit: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-49

Yeah, the SSPD (NASA office behind Restore-L) started with the Hubble reservicing missions

Re: Unmanned U.S. Air Force space plane lands after secret, two-year mission

#103

Post by robotresearcher »

Diederich wrote: post #93
robotresearcher wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's cool, I didn't know that. So Dragon 2 is a Soyuz-like passive capsule when landing in atmosphere and a powered spaceship like the Apollo LEM when landing in vacuum. Very cool that they could cram those roles into one vehicle. Looking forward to seeing it work.

https://youtu.be/1_FXVjf46T8 Work in progress..Well along in progress.

Oh that was cool. I have a stupid grin on my stupid face now.

Re: Unmanned U.S. Air Force space plane lands after secret, two-year mission

#104

Post by gibsjose »

sandworm101 wrote: post #54
gibsjose wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On-orbit satellite servicing and refueling has not been performed as of yet, but we are currently working on it: https://sspd.gsfc.nasa.gov/restore-l.html

Refuelling sats won't ever be a thing. There is no real need. Any refuelling vehicle will need it's own propulsion/rcs system and a docking scheme. Once docked and/or latched onto the target ... job done. The refuelling vessel becomes the new orbital manoeuvring system for the depleted sat. Cost wise, that makes more sense than having a large tanker bouncing around between clients. With the switch to ion propulsion t…

Refueling satellites will absolutely be a thing :) Restore-L is going to do just that in 2020-2021, and do it autonomously to boot.

I work on Restore-L and believe me, there is a huge need for on-orbit satellite refueling and reservicing. The vast majority of satellites reach their end of life due to depletion of fuel, not due to electrical problems or sensor issues. This will be a huge business one day.

Re: Unmanned U.S. Air Force space plane lands after secret, two-year mission

#106

Post by gibsjose »

ceejayoz wrote: post #43
gibsjose wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On-orbit satellite servicing and refueling has not been performed as of yet, but we are currently working on it: https://sspd.gsfc.nasa.gov/restore-l.html

> On-orbit satellite servicing and refueling has not been performed as of yet Declassified on-orbit satellite servicing and refueling has not been performed as of yet. I wouldn't be shocked if the X-37 has refueled a NRO bird or two (or just simulated it) as a test.

While it's not entirely impossible that some classified mission has done some basic reservicing of a DoD bird, I know from working on Restore-L that we will be the first ever to do what we are doing, namely autonomous rendezvous and capture of another satellite in LEO and reservicing.

The X37 does not have the mechanical tools or sensors required to perform the kind of reservicing Restore-L is doing.

Re: Unmanned U.S. Air Force space plane lands after secret, two-year mission

#107

Post by gibsjose »

jfoutz wrote: post #21
gibsjose wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On-orbit satellite servicing and refueling has not been performed as of yet, but we are currently working on it: https://sspd.gsfc.nasa.gov/restore-l.html

Well, Restore-L looks to service satellites not designed for service. If you knew the X-37 was coming, and you knew it was a flying gas station, i'd bet that problem is far far easier. You don't have to take the target apart in space and put it back together. On the other hand, an easily accessible common connector seems like something we could have standardized on and implemented 15-20 years ago. Again, i have no ev…

Agreed. Most major satellites are now designed with potential reservicing in mind, at least to some degree.

Re: Unmanned U.S. Air Force space plane lands after secret, two-year mission

#108

Post by jjoonathan »

dpc59 wrote: post #78
jjoonathan wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Err, shoot the balloons?

The ressources required to shoot stuff that's in the stratosphere are on a whole other ballpark than what your average revolutionaries can do.

Intercepting stratospheric balloons is child's play, possibly literally, compared to intercepting chunks of metal flying at 10km/s, which are the alternatives under discussion.

> I'd be a lot more worried about them being dropped from stratospheric balloons - maybe not so useful for full scale bunker busting but extremely cheap to make and almost indefensible against as a strategic strike system.

If you meant to speak from the point of view of a revolutionary (why?) and note that stratospheric balloons would be a cheaper way of killing revolutionaries than ICBMs or Rods from God, sure, I agree. There are a million ways to shoot fish in a barrel. Forgive me for assuming your point-of-view party was militarily capable.

Re: Unmanned U.S. Air Force space plane lands after secret, two-year mission

#109

Post by knz »

hawkesnest wrote: post #98
nradov wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might think so, but the difficulty doesn't scale linearly with size and weight. For example there's a practical upper bound on airbags to absorb landing shock; we can't just build larger ones for a capsule carrying humans.

I would imagine that the airbag solution would be rather unpleasant for humans, even if it were possible/practical.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zorbing

People pay for a similar experience! ;)

Re: Unmanned U.S. Air Force space plane lands after secret, two-year mission

#110

Post by knz »

dogma1138 wrote: post #55
tammer wrote: post #20

Surprised nobody's mentioned this possibility as it usually comes up re: the X-37B. Terrifying but I think not out of the question given the strategic potential of such a weapon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_bombardment

Look at the payload capacity of the X37 it would do about as much damage as a bunker buster.

If the X37 is public they probably have something bigger and better tucked away in a hanger somewhere remote. Think about how long the F-117, SR-71, U-2, B-2, or RQ-170 were kept secret. There is no way they haven't thought about how to use this in a military capacity.
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