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SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

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Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#451

Post by elsewhen »

_lbaq wrote: post #379
ironchief wrote: post #290

It is very likely Steve Jurveston. 1. In a comment about the announcement alluded to it as a "recurring dream"[1] 2. 5 years ago, described a moon orbit as "when I plan to fly in space. I have two specific missions in mind"[2] 3. SpaceX Board Member and investor 4. Has the money 5. Knows Elon "Mr Musk declined to reveal their identities, only saying that they knew each other"[3] 6. Is "nobody from Hollywood" 7. Liked…

5) According to another source, he did not say that he knew any of them, but rather that the two passengers knew each other. Source: http://spaceflightnow.com/2017/02/27/spacex-to-send-two-priv...

can you provide the exact quote from the article that indicates that musk does not know the two passengers? i read through the article twice and cannot seem to find it. perhaps the publication removed a sentence?

Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#452

Post by Symmetry »

rplnt wrote: post #74
achamayou wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, they haven't got a lander for one thing. The Apollo LM had its design finalised in '63, and only flew in '65. SpaceX would surely do it quicker now, with the benefit of experience, but from scratch to operations in a year for such a unique vehicle is quite unrealistic.

Dragon is only capable of crash-landing using its engines? I.e. there is not enough propellant, legs, etc... to do a soft landing? (not even considering take-off right now)

Not on the Moon. On Earth or Mars it can aerobrake away most of its orbital velocity but you can't do that on Mars. The Dragon 2 only carries 400 m/s of delta-v and you'd need 1.7 km/s to get from low lunar orbit to the surface even ignoring the need to brake into an orbit.

Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#453

Post by iamatworknow »

olex wrote: post #67
dwringer wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We choose to not go to the moon, but do the other things, not because they are hard, but because they are relatively easy, and we can make a quick buck.

"Relatively" being very much a keyword here. Nothing about sending two people around the moon is easy, there's a reason it hasn't been done in several decades.

>there's a reason it hasn't been done in several decades

Because it lost its novelty. Clearly the technology's already been there and had the potential to get better with continued funding.

Apollo 11 was a huge moment for the US and the world. We beat the Soviet Union to the moon, and that was the primary goal. By the time Apollo 17 rolled around there were other things going on that grabbed our attention (like Vietnam). We had already spent too much money on the Apollo program and the public didn't really care anymore, so it ended.

Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#454

Post by jackmott »

dwringer wrote: post #28
suprgeek wrote: post #15

While this feat depends on hitting a lot of intermediate milestones - Falcon Heavy Test, Crew Dragon Unmanned to ISS, Crew Dragon manned to ISS, etc, there is no "show-stopper" that is apparent right now. I like how they have avoided committing to the much harder "landing on the Moon and then return" scenario.

We choose to not go to the moon, but do the other things, not because they are hard, but because they are relatively easy, and we can make a quick buck.

they went around the moon before landing on it, too.

Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#455

Post by remx »

gigatexal wrote: post #106

Finally the tin-foil hats can be satiated when these tourists see the 50-ish year old flag on the moon.

There's even the reverse - People who claim they can pinpoint the U.S moon flag with a telescope, trying their hardest to convince others the landings were real.

https://www.quora.com/Can-you-see-the-American-flag-on-the-m...

Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#456

Post by mindcrime »

sandworm101 wrote: post #245
ChuckMcM wrote: post #161

Wow. This sends so many thoughts cascading through my head that I'm dizzy. Some things to consider, China has been working up to getting a space capability to send people to the Moon with the full backing of the government funding, by 2035[1]. They started in 2003. SpaceX was founded in 2002 and they are saying they will fly someone around the moon next year? Dragon has the deltaV to land on the moon (not sure if it…

>> For so long it was only countries that could do something like that, now it is nearly within reach of individuals. And that is something we all need to think long and hard about. Sure, spaceflight is cheaper these days, but we also live in an age of extraordinarily concentrated wealth. The necessary implication of individuals with power enough to rival governments is that, well, they can rival governments . Anyone…

The necessary implication of individuals with power enough to rival governments is that, well, they can rival governments.

Do you think this is a bad thing? Personally I quite like the idea of having enough wealth / power to rival a nation-state, since I trust the average nation-state exactly as far as I can throw it.

Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#457

Post by robryk »

imglorp wrote: post #429
mulmen wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do the fuels have to remain in a cryogenic state in space? Can much larger containers with warmer fuel be used once the fuel is in orbit? I have no idea if this makes any sense.

That's a good question. A big bag of fuel hanging outside is a fine place to store it if you don't care about temperature or pressure. You would need some kind of mechanical means to squish the bag to get the fuel out though, so maybe an accordion with a motorized retractor?

I think you are underestimating expansion ratios (ratio of volume of liquid and gas at reasonable pressure). The ratio for water vapour at sea level is ~1000x. The "large bag" might end up being so large that it's weight is a significant fraction of the weight of the fuel it contains.

Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#458

Post by MichaelMoser123 »

mikulas_florek wrote: post #440
MichaelMoser123 wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How will Elon get us to the moon if Tesla is burning up all of his money? [1] Also a private entity can't assert jurisdiction over anything, you have to be a state to do just that. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-27/tesla-slu... Downvotes? Ah, i forgot that around here one is not supposed to question anything that Elon does.

An analyst downgrades Tesla, and shares lost ~5% of their value == Tesla burning up money? A delay in production? That's your argument? All of these articles are complete, and proven bulls t.

'Burning cash' 'unproven business model' 'problems with execution' also they switched several senior managers recently.

Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#459

Post by kbenson »

So, what happens when you take a moon hoaxer, and I mean a really ardent believer, and fly them around the moon? Presumably they've already seen much of the evidence we've been there multiple times before and discounted it in lieu of some more more fanciful (in our eyes) explanation. Does that shatter when you're looking at the moon through a porthole, or do you explain it away somehow?

I find it interesting, because usually conspiracy theorists can't really be presented with enough hard evidence to replicate the scenario in question.

Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#460

Post by sandworm101 »

mindcrime wrote: post #456
sandworm101 wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> For so long it was only countries that could do something like that, now it is nearly within reach of individuals. And that is something we all need to think long and hard about. Sure, spaceflight is cheaper these days, but we also live in an age of extraordinarily concentrated wealth. The necessary implication of individuals with power enough to rival governments is that, well, they can rival governments . Anyone…

The necessary implication of individuals with power enough to rival governments is that, well, they can rival governments. Do you think this is a bad thing? Personally I quite like the idea of having enough wealth / power to rival a nation-state, since I trust the average nation-state exactly as far as I can throw it.

An elected government, at least i theory, is tasked with doing good by its people. That isnt always true, but at least there are elections. An individual person suffers no such limitation. That can act purely in thier own interest without even a tueoretical check. If they want to ride a rocket to the moon, while children on earth starve, there is absoluely nothing we poor can do about it.
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