Elon Musk and the future of spaceflight
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Elon Musk and the future of spaceflight
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Re: Elon Musk and the future of spaceflight
#2"Our engine has the highest thrust to weight ratio of any engine in the world, our airframe has the best mass fraction of any rocket in the world - and our electronics are the lightest and have have the most computing power over that of any other rocket."
"The escape system's motors will allow the capsule to land anywhere in the solar system, whether it has an atmosphere or not - and that's pretty cool. These motors can even fire supersonically which is important for Mars: in the higher altitudes of Mars the atmosphere is so thin that parachutes are completely pointless. So retro thrusters have to be able to fire when you are supersonic so they have to be very high thrust."
I've always understood SpaceX's main goal is lowered cost, followed closely by safety. It's pretty awesome that they're also cutting edge in terms of performance.
Re: Elon Musk and the future of spaceflight
#3"Our engine has the highest thrust to weight ratio of any engine in the world, our airframe has the best mass fraction of any rocket in the world - and our electronics are the lightest and have have the most computing power over that of any other rocket." "The escape system's motors will allow the capsule to land anywhere in the solar system, whether it has an atmosphere or not - and that's pretty cool. These motors…
I was born on the edges of the 80s and 90s. I missed the entirety of the space race. I never even knew the enthusiasm towards space flight.
Suddenly SpaceX appears and in only 10 years looks in place to eclipse NASA. They're poised to achieve far greater things than merely following NASA's footsteps. I knew they were looking forward but I didn't expect them to be considering things so far in advance.
I'm genuinely excited by space flight now. I have the new space race (fought between SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, Armadillo Aerospace and all these other companies) to thank for it :)
Re: Elon Musk and the future of spaceflight
#4"Our engine has the highest thrust to weight ratio of any engine in the world, our airframe has the best mass fraction of any rocket in the world - and our electronics are the lightest and have have the most computing power over that of any other rocket." "The escape system's motors will allow the capsule to land anywhere in the solar system, whether it has an atmosphere or not - and that's pretty cool. These motors…
I was born on the edges of the 80s and 90s. I missed the entirety of the space race. I never even knew the enthusiasm towards space flight. Suddenly SpaceX appears and in only 10 years looks in place to eclipse NASA. They're poised to achieve far greater things than merely following NASA's footsteps. I knew they were looking forward but I didn't expect them to be considering things so far in advance. I'm genuinely ex…
I trust you've heard of Planetary Resources and their asteroid mining plans? (Just surprised they didn't make your list.)
Re: Elon Musk and the future of spaceflight
#5Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was born on the edges of the 80s and 90s. I missed the entirety of the space race. I never even knew the enthusiasm towards space flight. Suddenly SpaceX appears and in only 10 years looks in place to eclipse NASA. They're poised to achieve far greater things than merely following NASA's footsteps. I knew they were looking forward but I didn't expect them to be considering things so far in advance. I'm genuinely ex…
I trust you've heard of Planetary Resources and their asteroid mining plans? (Just surprised they didn't make your list.)
I imagine that Planetary Resources may just be using someone else's launch tech, though the asteroid mining tech might be developed in-house (vs. out-sourced).
Re: Elon Musk and the future of spaceflight
#6After Elon Musk explained that it would be too dangerous to outsource the production to China because "rocket technology is [...] considered an advanced weapons technology," I'm surprised the interviewer didn't ask about potential dangers in the privatization of advanced weapons.
Re: Elon Musk and the future of spaceflight
#7Musk says Merlin-1C has the highest thrust-to-weight ratio of any (liquid fuel) rocket today. Well:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin_(rocket_engine)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NK-33
Merlin 1C is 96:1, while NK-33 is 133:1
Obviously Musk knows what he's talking about, so where's the discrepancy?
Re: Elon Musk and the future of spaceflight
#8After Elon Musk explained that it would be too dangerous to outsource the production to China because "rocket technology is [...] considered an advanced weapons technology," I'm surprised the interviewer didn't ask about potential dangers in the privatization of advanced weapons.
I'm pretty sure they are all privatized already, and have "Made in USA" stickers on them, which might answer your question. Chinese hackers gaining access to poorly secured systems has been more of an issue; although this could be a ruse [1]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberian_pipeline_sabotage
Re: Elon Musk and the future of spaceflight
#9Musk says Merlin-1C has the highest thrust-to-weight ratio of any (liquid fuel) rocket today. Well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin_(rocket_engine) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NK-33 Merlin 1C is 96:1, while NK-33 is 133:1 Obviously Musk knows what he's talking about, so where's the discrepancy?
Is the latter still in production? Maybe he meant among currently produced engines.
[Edit]
"About 150 engines survived, and in the mid-1990s, Russia sold 36 engines to Aerojet General for $1.1 million each. This company also acquired a license for the production of new engines. Aerojet has modified and renamed the updated NK-33 and NK-43 the AJ26-58 and AJ26-59, respectively."
But that doesn't mean they are in production. I'd check but the Aerojet website doesn't seem to be working.
"The oxygen-rich technology lives on in the RD-170/-171 engines, and their RD-180 and recently developed RD-191 derivatives."
The engines produced after the NK-33/43, using a similar design, all have a power to weight ratio of under 90.
Re: Elon Musk and the future of spaceflight
#10After Elon Musk explained that it would be too dangerous to outsource the production to China because "rocket technology is [...] considered an advanced weapons technology," I'm surprised the interviewer didn't ask about potential dangers in the privatization of advanced weapons.
I do not agree with your interpretation. What he said was:
>>>"There's no Foxconn in the rocket business. And rocket technology is also considered an advanced weapons technology so you can't really have such a situation - so in our case manufacturing is necessary"To me his use of the word "considered" is meant to divorce his opinion from the stated fact. It does not reveal whether he agrees with it or not. To me it looks like he is giving one reason why a Foxconn of Rockets is very unlikely. Not espousing any opinions on what is or is not dangerous.