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Blue Moon

blueorigin.com

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Re: Blue Moon

#101

Post by heretoo »

justinator wrote: post #96
justinator wrote: post #87

This whole mini-site looks like an extremely audacious undergrad aerospace engineering group project. Except when I was an undergrad, it was all about going to Mars .

Also the city I live in doesn't have a, "how to get to the Moon" problem, it has a "homeless" problem. The planet I live on also doesn't have a, "how to get to the Moon" problem, it has a climate change problem, a pollution problem, a corrupt political system problem. We've got lots of Hard Problems to solve before we need to go back to the Moon.

Pretty sure the same was said about sailing out into the ocean, many centuries ago.

Or leaving the safety of the cave.

Re: Blue Moon

#102

Post by [deleted] »

heretoo wrote: post #101
justinator wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also the city I live in doesn't have a, "how to get to the Moon" problem, it has a "homeless" problem. The planet I live on also doesn't have a, "how to get to the Moon" problem, it has a climate change problem, a pollution problem, a corrupt political system problem. We've got lots of Hard Problems to solve before we need to go back to the Moon.

Pretty sure the same was said about sailing out into the ocean, many centuries ago. Or leaving the safety of the cave.

[deleted]

Re: Blue Moon

#103

Post by zlsa »

hodder wrote: post #50
ChuckMcM wrote: post #2

I was waiting for this announcement. It is unclear to me how "real" this is; Bezo's claims they can meet the timeline of people on the moon in 2024. Since they aren't flying a heavy booster like the Delta IV heavy or the Falcon Heavy yet, and those platforms took about 10 years to go from concept to first flight. Bezos is suggesting he can do that in 5 years. Perhaps he's considering using the Delta for FHeavy as the…

Unlike Elon Musk, Bezos has a tendency to set more accurate timelines. This is not to say that Space X’s achievements are not incredible. They are. It is just that Elon Musk projection timelines are pretty much always bunk, while Jeff Bezos seems to be better at projecting achievement timelines. Again, what Space X and Blue Origin have achieved are incredible, and yes Space X has an entirely different set of technolo…

In 2011, SpaceX said they'd fly Falcon Heavy in 2013. It actually first flew in 2018.

On the other hand, Blue Origin hasn't yet reached orbit (something SpaceX did in 2008.) I do believe Blue Origin will be able to execute on Blue Moon, but they also need to demonstrate a _lot_ of hardware before boots on the moon.

Re: Blue Moon

#104

Post by brandonjm »

themodelplumber wrote: post #89
justinator wrote: post #87

This whole mini-site looks like an extremely audacious undergrad aerospace engineering group project. Except when I was an undergrad, it was all about going to Mars .

Joking aside...man, the antialiasing on those leg shadows...pay for a rendering team, guys!

The renders aren't that bad, but that is a terrible choice for the cutout image given the lighting angle with thin shadows.

Re: Blue Moon

#105

Post by zlsa »

hammock wrote: post #83
elihu wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A big part of astronaut training is knowing how to fly the craft and knowing what to do if something breaks. If the machine is automatically controlled and reliable, you don't need as much training. (Maybe they'll send a trained person or two along with the tourists?)

Not sure I follow that logic. More automation might mean you won't have to use your training as much, but how does it mean less training? In the event all the automation fails you still have to know everything an astronaut would need to know were there no automation.

For Starship, there's absolutely no way a human could fly it anyway. Even if it weren't fly-by-wire, a human could not control the drag fins and the engines precisely enough to land safely. Even on Crew Dragon, which will (hopefully) fly in the near future with crew onboard, there isn't a hardware joystick. If the vehicle fails to the point where the computers aren't working, your only option is to deorbit. These spacecraft weren't intended to be flown manually.

Re: Blue Moon

#106

Post by whatshisface »

username223 wrote: post #82
T-A wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wish Bezos, Allen, Musk, etc. weren't burning their piles of cash Allen did many things with his pile of cash (though none that I know of directly involved moon trips), but no longer: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/paul-allen-microsoft-spacesh...

RIP. Allen doesn't seem to have been going for the moon (yet), but I wish the billionaires would not spend their hoards on private rocket companies. It's a bit gross that the article you linked calls them "philanthropists" for doing it. Andrew Carnegie was a real bastard, but he funded many wonderful small-town libraries, which remain valuable community centers over 100 years later. Bill Gates took his shot at world…

What I find really galling is how farmers bury corn in the ground every spring when there are clearly millions of people going hungry up here on the surface.

Re: Blue Moon

#107

Post by ChuckMcM »

Robotbeat wrote: post #67
ChuckMcM wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its a fair point, just a matter of money and a limited number of manufacturers for the bits that make rockets fly. NASA had the advantage that as a single target they weren't overseeing three different SaturnVs, three different launch vehicles, etc. The horses here are Bezos, Boeing, and SpaceX.

There was Red Stone, Atlas, titan, Saturn I, Ib, and V. Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo. multiple contractors at each phase.

I understand, I wasn't arguing that there weren't multiple contractors, only pointing out that NASA had all of its resources making one system at a time. If we combined the space launch R&D budgets of SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Boeing into one pool and focused on one system, it might go faster.

Re: Blue Moon

#108

Post by thomasmarriott »

justinator wrote: post #96
justinator wrote: post #87

This whole mini-site looks like an extremely audacious undergrad aerospace engineering group project. Except when I was an undergrad, it was all about going to Mars .

Also the city I live in doesn't have a, "how to get to the Moon" problem, it has a "homeless" problem. The planet I live on also doesn't have a, "how to get to the Moon" problem, it has a climate change problem, a pollution problem, a corrupt political system problem. We've got lots of Hard Problems to solve before we need to go back to the Moon.

Exactly — THE WAY OUT IS UP:

https://marriottexpeditions.org/finalmarket

Re: Blue Moon

#109

Post by thomasmarriott »

thomasmarriott wrote: post #108
justinator wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also the city I live in doesn't have a, "how to get to the Moon" problem, it has a "homeless" problem. The planet I live on also doesn't have a, "how to get to the Moon" problem, it has a climate change problem, a pollution problem, a corrupt political system problem. We've got lots of Hard Problems to solve before we need to go back to the Moon.

Exactly — THE WAY OUT IS UP: https://marriottexpeditions.org/finalmarket

"At its peak, the Apollo program employed 400,000 people and required the support of over 20,000 industrial firms and universities."

Re: Blue Moon

#110

Post by fiblye »

justinator wrote: post #96
justinator wrote: post #87

This whole mini-site looks like an extremely audacious undergrad aerospace engineering group project. Except when I was an undergrad, it was all about going to Mars .

Also the city I live in doesn't have a, "how to get to the Moon" problem, it has a "homeless" problem. The planet I live on also doesn't have a, "how to get to the Moon" problem, it has a climate change problem, a pollution problem, a corrupt political system problem. We've got lots of Hard Problems to solve before we need to go back to the Moon.

Research into space technology employs countless people directly and also feeds into service industries and other sectors, reducing homelessness. Space technology also results in breakthroughs in understanding about our own planet and fuel efficiency, helping climate change understanding.

It’s shortsighted and harmful to focus only on bandaid solutions today. We have enough people in this world to solve many different problems.

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