What does this launch mean for humans? Does this mean we can send humans to Mars on the next mission? Is there step by step plan anywhere?
SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches
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Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches
#332Earlier quoted context omitted.
Center core lost, announced on internal feed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B_tWbjFIGI&feature=youtu.be...
But they also say the insertion was successful. So the payload made it, but they were planning to recover the center and that failed?
Correct. There were several goals with the launch. The primary was successful payload insertion, the secondary goals were the successful return of the outer two boosters to land, and the central booster to a drone ship down range (success unknown). Additionally the goal was to recover the fairings, but the success of that is not publicly known at this time.
Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches
#333"Update February 6th, 5:10 PM ET: This post has been updated to reflect that the center core did not land on the autonomous ship as intended."
https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/6/16971200/spacex-falcon-hea...
Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches
#334Earlier quoted context omitted.
According to SpaceX, the orbit could potentially last for a billion years if the timings work out.
Someone has a GIF (or explanation) of the Earth-Mars Orbit?
It's a Hohmann transfer orbit. It will be orbiting the sun, with a periapsis (point of closest approach) at Earth's orbit an apoapsis at Mars's orbit. It's not going to circularize at Mars, and indeed will intersect Mars orbit quite a ways behind Mars.
TL;DR: Elliptical solar orbit.
Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches
#335Anybody saw the 'Don't panic' thing on the Tesla? Made me chuckle, they sure have a sense of humor.
Still don't understand this waste of ressources. Waste of ressources to build this Tesla Roadster. And then the waste to kick it into space. It is not that we are littering our earth itself. We now do it in space as well.
Think of it as performance art.
Because if all you can think of is utility then all art should go as well. After all, it's all just a waste of resources. /s
Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches
#336Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're showing your biases here. The other people on the livestream are also rocket scientists. They aren't PR people. They just happen to be younger, or women, or of color. So you might want to re-evaluate what you think a rocket scientist "looks like", because your notion is outdated. Sorry to call you out like this, but these kinds of prejudices about who is the "correct" kind of person for tech jobs are harmful a…
I think you're wrong there.
The announcer has a bachelors in aerospace engineering [1], I'm pretty sure that qualifies one as a rocket scientist.
Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches
#337I'm just an amateur following along, but this seems likely to be one of the most important launches in modern rocketry history. This sets the stage for deep-space missions with reusable launch materials, which can greatly reduce the cost of future space exploration. Absolutely incredible achievement by the SpaceX team.
> this seems likely to be one of the most important launches in modern rocketry history SpaceX's Falcon project is the first major progress we've made in the field of human spaceflight since the Apollo program.
The ISS should count as major progress as well.
Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches
#338Earlier quoted context omitted.
Still don't understand this waste of ressources. Waste of ressources to build this Tesla Roadster. And then the waste to kick it into space. It is not that we are littering our earth itself. We now do it in space as well.
ADVERTISING. The amount of coverage both Tesla & SpaceX got from launching the Roadster equates to advertising costing considerably more than the cost of the car.
Best advertising ever.
This is what Pirelli used to say about their calendar. It costs so much to get a front page ad in a newspaper, it's worth all the costs of the calendar.
Who cares though, it's just so fucking amazing that there exists a geek with enough cash and gumption to get a car flying through space with h2g2 in the glove box.
Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches
#339There was something doubly awesome about the two falcons landing at the same time right next to each other!
They should name the landing "Double Eagle" or "Double Falcons".
Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches
#340Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're showing your biases here. The other people on the livestream are also rocket scientists. They aren't PR people. They just happen to be younger, or women, or of color. So you might want to re-evaluate what you think a rocket scientist "looks like", because your notion is outdated. Sorry to call you out like this, but these kinds of prejudices about who is the "correct" kind of person for tech jobs are harmful a…
> They just happen to be younger, or women, or of color. Maybe parent was referring to their mannerisms, rather than their appearance. It's not fair to jump to the assumption that parent was showing a bias against any of those variations in the human species.
Even mannerisms may be a bias we should try to fight.