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Rocket Launch in New Zealand Brings Quick, Cheap Space Access

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Re: Rocket Launch in New Zealand Brings Quick, Cheap Space Access

#41

Post by nicole_express »

calcifer wrote: post #33
sandworm101 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It gets worse than that. The russian site also has to not fly over chinese territory, further increasing their minimum inclination. Chinese dont want thier stinking rockets falling on china. (Literally. Russian rockets use some nasty stuff that groups like SpaceX have stayed far away from.)

> Russian rockets use some nasty stuff Do you have a source for that? What sort of "stuff"?

I'm guessing they're referring to the hypergolic propellants used on the Proton rocket? Which are, indeed, notoriously toxic.

In which case, they're not something SpaceX has shyed away from; they are indeed not used on the Falcon, but hypergols will power the SuperDraco engines on the Dragon 2.

When you need storable propellants (either for a launch escape system that needs to be ready to go at any time, or for ICBMs that can be kept in a launch-ready state), and a solid rocket won't do for whatever reason, there's just nothing else that will do the job.

Re: Rocket Launch in New Zealand Brings Quick, Cheap Space Access

#42

Post by tambourine_man »

nkurz wrote: post #24
dwd wrote: post #9

I'm still chuckling that they called the rocket "It's Business Time". I'm guessing partly a hat tip to SpaceX and the naming of their drone ships, but more so named after a song by the Flight of the Conchords.

For the those wondering why he chuckles, here's the song in question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGOohBytKTU

Thanks for that, I had a good laugh.

I’m still amazed there are videos of something you’ve never heard of with 35 million views.

Re: Rocket Launch in New Zealand Brings Quick, Cheap Space Access

#43

Post by baybal2 »

rsynnott wrote: post #40
calcifer wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Russian rockets use some nasty stuff Do you have a source for that? What sort of "stuff"?

They probably mean hydrazine. The Russian Proton rocket uses it, though it’s being discontinued. This isn’t a uniquely Russian oddity, by the way; the European Ariane IV and US Titan IV were still in use into the last decade.

UDMH is not hydrazine, and is said to be worse as it doesn't biodegrade as readily as hydrazine.

UDMH, hydrazine, and MMH are all very different beasts.

Re: Rocket Launch in New Zealand Brings Quick, Cheap Space Access

#44

Post by sandworm101 »

rsynnott wrote: post #40
calcifer wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Russian rockets use some nasty stuff Do you have a source for that? What sort of "stuff"?

They probably mean hydrazine. The Russian Proton rocket uses it, though it’s being discontinued. This isn’t a uniquely Russian oddity, by the way; the European Ariane IV and US Titan IV were still in use into the last decade.

UDMH. This is why Musk can stand beside a crashed falcon rocket while a crashed russian rocket must be approached in suits.

Re: Rocket Launch in New Zealand Brings Quick, Cheap Space Access

#45

Post by jandrese »

village-idiot wrote: post #22

The most impressive thing about their rockets are the motors they use. All modern liquid rocket motors use turbo pumps to pressurize liquid fuel and drive it into the combustion chamber. All other rockets use some fuel to run a turbine that powers the pumps, with the variations being how that entire system is piped together. The Rocket Lab motor, Rutherford, uses a lithium ion battery and electric motor to power the…

3D printing them in 24 hours is impressive. I've had some toys barely bigger than my arm that take longer than that to print.

Obviously these rocket engines are using a totally different technology, but it's still really impressive that they are able to build them so quickly.

Re: Rocket Launch in New Zealand Brings Quick, Cheap Space Access

#46

Post by aphextron »

calcifer wrote: post #33
sandworm101 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It gets worse than that. The russian site also has to not fly over chinese territory, further increasing their minimum inclination. Chinese dont want thier stinking rockets falling on china. (Literally. Russian rockets use some nasty stuff that groups like SpaceX have stayed far away from.)

> Russian rockets use some nasty stuff Do you have a source for that? What sort of "stuff"?

>Do you have a source for that? What sort of "stuff"?

Russians are still using hypergolic fuels rather than the methane/oxygen that most new generation launch vehicles are using.

Re: Rocket Launch in New Zealand Brings Quick, Cheap Space Access

#47

Post by louthy »

walrus01 wrote: post #7
quadcore wrote: post #4

I wish I could put software in one of those shoebox satellites.

in the not very far future it probably will be possible to buy hosting services on a platform that is a xen or kvm hypervisor in low earth orbit.

A true cloud provider

Re: Rocket Launch in New Zealand Brings Quick, Cheap Space Access

#48

Post by tim333 »

calcifer wrote: post #33
sandworm101 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It gets worse than that. The russian site also has to not fly over chinese territory, further increasing their minimum inclination. Chinese dont want thier stinking rockets falling on china. (Literally. Russian rockets use some nasty stuff that groups like SpaceX have stayed far away from.)

> Russian rockets use some nasty stuff Do you have a source for that? What sort of "stuff"?

Probably UDMH and nitrogen tetroxide or nitric acid referred to as Devil's Venom in Russia apparently https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil%27s_venom

The same mix was what blew up in Damascus Titan missile explosion as told in the book Command and Control. Luckily the 9-megaton warhead didn't go off.

I recommend the book Ignition if you are interested in these things (free pdf http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/ignition.pdf)

Re: Rocket Launch in New Zealand Brings Quick, Cheap Space Access

#49

Post by dtkav »

auslander wrote: post #37

Look up JAXAs SS-520-5. 10m height, 0.5m diam, got a cubesat to orbit year ago. Smallest orbital rocket by far.

It made it to orbit, but it was highly eliptical. They put it into an 180 km × 1500 km orbit with 31° inclination. It had a lifetime of about 6 months before re-entering.

Re: Rocket Launch in New Zealand Brings Quick, Cheap Space Access

#50

Post by yellowapple »

ovi256 wrote: post #25
Waterluvian wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just had a daydream of Satellites as a Service. "give us a docker image extending our base image, no larger than x MB delta, and we will run it on a chosen satellite for a certain time slice for $y" I can see that future. Even if purely as a learning tool for students.

Students can design, build, validate and launch their own cubesats through special programmmes. Even cooler if one of them launches a flying data center. Limited bandwidth would be an issue.

Bandwidth is usually less of a problem than latency.
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