Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's no freemium model when you're building rocket ships.
Think dumping, not freemium.
Dumping requires lots of money. Dumping on the backyard of large defense contractors is suicidal.
SpaceX headed to the ISS tomorrow
61–70 of 82 posts
Re: SpaceX headed to the ISS tomorrow
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cost per kilo to Low Earth Orbit (LEO): Space Shuttle: $19, 824 per kg [1] Soyuz-2: $5,333 per kg [2] Falcon 9: $5,167 per kg [3] At the moment, the Falcon 9 is not that much cheaper than the Soyuz. Elon Musk's talk of $1,100 per kg lies in the future. SpaceX is hoping that making all the parts reusable and its new Falcon Heavy (Which will carry five times as much as the Falcon 9) will cause launch costs to plummet l…
Not cost per kilo, price . These numbers aren't comparable as-is, you have to look at the cost structure.
This is cost in terms of "how much will it cost me to hire SpaceX or the Soyuz to take my tourist self / science experiment / mining robot to LEO." If you want to call that price, go for it.
Obviously this is pure theorycraft for the Space Shuttle. But if anyone has a better number please share!
$/kg is the crucial number that has to fall to bring about a new era in space exploration.
Except for SpaceX, space launch companies don't publish their prices straight up on the website. But about $5,000 per kg ballpark figure for Soyuz seems widely to be accepted by credible sources on the internet and books. See:
http://books.google.com/books?id=kN9Szy-fJVIC&pg=PA69...
If someone has harder numbers for the Soyuz, please share!
Re: SpaceX headed to the ISS tomorrow
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you give some numbers for some of the "vast" cost difference we're talking about (even if they're ballpark figures)?
First, let's take the Shuttle off the table, which is no longer in service and was by far the most expensive launch vehicle in extensive service in history. Right now, the price of a Falcon 9 launch is around $50mil, this translates to $4.8/g to LEO or $16.7/g to GTO (which is where most satellites go). This compares very favorably to the price of other western launchers (Atlas V: $18/g, Ariane 5: $21/g, Delta IV: $1…
> as competitive pressure to lower their profit margin increases
Assuming current incumbents are capable of doing that. That's a big if. If their competition can't effectively compete, their profit margins will remain steady allowing them to develop more interesting vehicles/capabilities.
Re: SpaceX headed to the ISS tomorrow
#64I can't wait! SpaceX is the most amazing company right now. They're work is the exact opposite of the trivial-to-start social networking apps, the tedium of online advertising. They want to send people to Mars . And they're launching to the ISS tomorrow, the most expensive object ever built by humanity. They have the world's trust. They have the world's best engineers. And they have some intense ambition and lots of…
I would love to work there but they only recruit U.S. citizens and although I was contacted by them last year, it ended up going nowhere when I mentioned this "small" detail. Can you elaborate on your phone interview?
I was almost clicking the "Apply" button when I read that line in the bottom of the job description...
Re: SpaceX headed to the ISS tomorrow
#65This is so exciting! I hope it succeeds. How cool would it be to put a man on mars in a few decades? Captain's log, star date 1312.4
Or woman.
Hmm. Actually, and woman. Gender neutrality powers, activate!
Re: SpaceX headed to the ISS tomorrow
#66My only complain about this is that it will not have the Pan-Am logo on its side when it docks with the ISS.
It would be sooooo cool.
Re: SpaceX headed to the ISS tomorrow
#67What is an instantaneous launch window?
It means the launch has to happen at that exact moment, otherwise the path of the spacecraft in orbit will be too far away from the space station for a rendezvous to be possible.
From what I heard, they have multiple such launch windows, each about an hour and a half apart (each corresponding to an orbit of the earth by the ISS)
Re: SpaceX headed to the ISS tomorrow
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Please tell me their spaceship doesn't run on windows.
Nah, the ships themselves run linux. They use Windows for the ERP stuff, like parts tracking, analytics, reporting, etc.
Their own public documentation says VxWorks is used in the spacecraft. I have not seen Linux cited, but would not be surprised.
Re: SpaceX headed to the ISS tomorrow
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nah, the ships themselves run linux. They use Windows for the ERP stuff, like parts tracking, analytics, reporting, etc.
Their own public documentation says VxWorks is used in the spacecraft. I have not seen Linux cited, but would not be surprised.
Elon Musk said they use C++ on Linux a few days ago on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/elonmusk/status/198579161382649857
Re: SpaceX headed to the ISS tomorrow
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not cost per kilo, price . These numbers aren't comparable as-is, you have to look at the cost structure.
This is cost in terms of "how much will it cost me to hire SpaceX or the Soyuz to take my tourist self / science experiment / mining robot to LEO." If you want to call that price, go for it. Obviously this is pure theorycraft for the Space Shuttle. But if anyone has a better number please share! $/kg is the crucial number that has to fall to bring about a new era in space exploration. Except for SpaceX, space launch…
"Obviously this is pure theorycraft for the Space Shuttle. But if anyone has a better number please share!"
A moot point now, since the Shuttle isn't operational. However, when it was running the incremental cost to NASA was around $500 mil per launch, so roughly $20,500 per kg to LEO. Tallying the full cost per Shuttle launch (i.e. the cost to the tax payers over the full history of the program) runs to about $1.5 billion per launch, so adjust those numbers above up by a factor of 3.