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Live: SpaceX to launch four civilians to orbit in mission known as Inspiration4

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Re: Live: SpaceX to launch four civilians to orbit in mission known as Inspiration4

#71

Post by lokimedes »

cma wrote: post #31
marcodiego wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First successful powered heavier-than-air experiments happened in early 1900s, by the 1960s flying many common people inside a jet was affordable. First human in space was in 1961. We are some decades behind this time.

>We are some decades behind this time. Well, launching these 4 people does take over a ~~million gallons of kerosene~~ (edit: million lbs of CO2 emissions), so for the environment it is probably good that it isn't as common as jet travel yet. It will probably take fusion energy or mass solar, plus hydrogen rockets (emit only water).

Water is a very potent greenhouse gas in the upper atmosphere.

Re: Live: SpaceX to launch four civilians to orbit in mission known as Inspiration4

#74

Post by SergeAx »

sen wrote: post #16

Considering the Bezos/Branson debacle, I think it's easy for people to get lost in the "This is just another billionaire paying to go to space" thing... and it is, but that's a small part of it. The passengers themselves are basically unimportant compared to the bigger picture. Who cares if the passengers are some random billionaire and a group of people carefully chosen purely as a publicity stunt, let him have his…

We didn't have to wait a year to know that SpaceX is onto somethng really special. Comparing Crew Dragon with Soyuz, another vehicle used to give space tourists their ride, we can see that SpaceX is two or even three generations ahead. Selling tickets to Earth orbit with Dragon was just a matter of time.

What is really interesting is that if Dragon may fly beyond the Moon. That would be a completely outstandig feat for SpaceX.

Re: Live: SpaceX to launch four civilians to orbit in mission known as Inspiration4

#75

Post by gpm »

elil17 wrote: post #50
randallsquared wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There probably aren't going to be even 300 kerosene-burning Falcon 9 flights ever (this was number 127 or 128), because Starship is likely to start lifting commercial payloads by 2023 or 2024, and it burns methane, which could more easily than kerosene be part of a solar-power-to-rocket-fuel pipeline, recycling environmental CO2.

>could Yeah but will it be? As it stands no rocket fuel is made in a clean way. As someone who very much intends to stay on Earth for the rest of my life, I feel well within my rights to be concerned that unneeded space travel is making stuff worse for us down here. Going into orbit is environmentally expensive, and society should use this technology judiciously.

> Yeah but will it be

Per Elon, yes, eventually [1].

It makes sense for them to do this too. They need the technology to be ready for mars. Positive PR is worth a lot in an industry heavily constrained by government regulations. The cost isn't likely to be that high compared to the rest of the costs involved in launching a rocket. If they're really lucky it will even help with the environmental regulators.

[1] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1223018233638207488

Re: Live: SpaceX to launch four civilians to orbit in mission known as Inspiration4

#76

Post by cma »

lokimedes wrote: post #71
cma wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We are some decades behind this time. Well, launching these 4 people does take over a ~~million gallons of kerosene~~ (edit: million lbs of CO2 emissions), so for the environment it is probably good that it isn't as common as jet travel yet. It will probably take fusion energy or mass solar, plus hydrogen rockets (emit only water).

Water is a very potent greenhouse gas in the upper atmosphere.

It doesn't accumulate long term in the same way as CO2 though, and kerosene burning makes water too.

Re: Live: SpaceX to launch four civilians to orbit in mission known as Inspiration4

#77

Post by gpm »

dweekly wrote: post #59
zlsa wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't know the public price of Inspiration4, but the $62m list price of Falcon 9 does not include Crew Dragon, which is a substantially more expensive vehicle to operate.

Is this the right way to think about flight pricing given that the vehicles are not expendable?

SpaceX doesn't sell the vehicles, they sell the launch services. From an external perspective it's still a cost per launch. From an internal perspective they launch enough that it amortizes nicely as a cost per launch.

Re: Live: SpaceX to launch four civilians to orbit in mission known as Inspiration4

#78

Post by mkl »

cma wrote: post #43
avhon1 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where did you get the "over a million gallons of kerosene" figure? The figure I found [1] is 260,760 lbs in the first stage, which works out to almost exactly 25,000 US gallons in the first stage, which uses the large majority of the propellant. The Wikipedia article [2] says 38,570 US gallons of RP-1 in the first stage and 4,500 US gallons in the second. [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20170201135344/http://www.nmfs…

I thought I heard that in their stream. Must have been a million lbs of fuel+oxygen and not a million gallons of fuel. Sounds like close to ~125,000lbs of CO2 emissions per passenger then. With Starship being methane based (higher H to C ratio) and at bigger scale hopefully it gets that number down a lot. This lists it at 1.1 million lbs fuel+oxygen and shows it being used with Dragon (did they use this or similar?):…

From the stream: "Prior to liftoff, the Falcon 9 first stage is loaded up with nearly one million pounds of fuel and liquid oxygen." - https://youtu.be/3pv01sSq44w?t=1920

Re: Live: SpaceX to launch four civilians to orbit in mission known as Inspiration4

#79

Post by mint2 »

sen wrote: post #16

Considering the Bezos/Branson debacle, I think it's easy for people to get lost in the "This is just another billionaire paying to go to space" thing... and it is, but that's a small part of it. The passengers themselves are basically unimportant compared to the bigger picture. Who cares if the passengers are some random billionaire and a group of people carefully chosen purely as a publicity stunt, let him have his…

What bezos and Branson have created so far are just expensive “space” suborbital rollercoasters for rich tourists.

Musk created multi-day orbital space journeys going further out than any human has gone in many decades.

Re: Live: SpaceX to launch four civilians to orbit in mission known as Inspiration4

#80

Post by rektide »

naanbread wrote: post #9
LeoPanthera wrote: post #5

Maybe I'm jaded but I find no "inspiration" in one billionaire sending another one into space. I know they took along "guests" but I can't imagine there's any significant science in this.

And the 100 million he donated to St Jude Childrens Hospital? Or the 220 million target for donations during the flight? I do not understand how some people can be such a wet blanket. This is history. Civilians, further out from Earth than anyone has been in 20 years...and they were able to buy a ride. This is the beginning of commercial space flight. It's the equivalent of driving a gold spike in the Transcontinenta…

> This is the beginning of commercial space flight.

Space felt like a great reaching out of humanity, a huge vast problem all mankind was venturing towards. Even amid the colossal commercialization of satellite imagery & commsats, it still felt like humanity was expanding some kind of net overall potential.

This feels so lacking in the bonhomie. It further accenuates our class differences, rather than making me excited for humanity. And it feels frivolous, like we have touched greatness, begun a great journey, but have no idea what to do now, no vision remaining.

The end of the "one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind" era.

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