Wow with so many craters of various sizes its really hard to get a sense on altitude in that video until you see dust flying around.
I was just about to post this.
It's like zooming in on a fractal.
life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
Seeing a lot of plausible reasons why they want a leaner company at this time. I could see some or all of them being true:
People hired that specialize in carbon fiber aren't so necessary now with their new stainless steel designs
Launch demand is going to be somewhat soft for the next few years. If low launch costs are going to spur new business that'll take a few more years to manifest due to long lead times in satellite contracting and construction. Similar to what happened with the Falcon 1 and smallsats.
Combined with the above, at the rate they're re-using boosters they'll potentially be cutting back significantly on new booster and engine production, so less personnel needed for that.
Development for the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, the Merlin engine and Crew Dragon are either done or wrapping up, with Raptor and BFR's development having been started in parallel a few years ago. So those who were working on those projects may now be unnecessary.
Starlink and Starship/Super Heavy development and deployment are going to be very expensive, so expensive. So better to "trim the fat" now and give themselves more financial wiggle room so they can better absorb any mishaps or setbacks.
Seal on
+3
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
Seeing a lot of plausible reasons why they want a leaner company at this time. I could see some or all of them being true:
People hired that specialize in carbon fiber aren't so necessary now with their new stainless steel designs
Launch demand is going to be somewhat soft for the next few years. If low launch costs are going to spur new business that'll take a few more years to manifest due to long lead times in satellite contracting and construction. Similar to what happened with the Falcon 1 and smallsats.
Combined with the above, at the rate they're re-using boosters they'll potentially be cutting back significantly on new booster and engine production, so less personnel needed for that.
Development for the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, the Merlin engine and Crew Dragon are either done or wrapping up, with Raptor and BFR's development having been started in parallel a few years ago. So those who were working on those projects may now be unnecessary.
Starlink and Starship/Super Heavy development and deployment are going to be very expensive, so expensive. So better to "trim the fat" now and give themselves more financial wiggle room so they can better absorb any mishaps or setbacks.
I think this is what's driving it. BFR/Starlink are going to be huge expenditures, and they likely don't feel the need to work on Falcon 9 design anymore. Especially since one of the federal branches demands that you have a "locked" design.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
Following the death of Paul Allen Statolaunch will be discontinuing development of their own engine and launch vehicle, but they'll continue to develop their rather enormous plane so it can someday carry up to 3 of Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus XL launch vehicle. A Pegasus launch costs ~$40 million to put 443 kg into orbit. In comparison it's 80% the cost of a Falcon 9 for 1/50 the payload to LEO. Or an Electron which is somewhere around $6 million, but it only has half the payload capacity. I don't think the economics of Stratolaunch are looking great, particularly with the sudden glut of private companies getting into space launch. But maybe they'll find in a niche deploying specialty satellites into LEO.
Interestingly back in 2011 SpaceX was contracted to build a launch vehicle for the Statolaunch aircraft. The "Falcon 9 air" or "Falcon 5" would be developed by SpaceX, attachment hardware and integration would be done by a company called Dynetics and Stratolaunch would fly it to altitude where it would launch. The original plan was for SpaceX to use as much common hardware as possible in the design. But as things developed, Dynetics wanted certain changes to be made to the vehicle such as adding chines. So in late 2012 the companies parted ways amicably as SpaceX felt it wasn't in their best interest to spend a lot of resources making modifications to a launch vehicle that wouldn't directly apply to their own plans.
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
Does a secondary launch vehicle like that offer significant safety improvements?
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
I don't think so, all you're doing is taking a two stage launch vehicle and instead of a static launch pad you deploy it from a plane. The main draw is you get above the bulk of the Earths atmosphere so you lose a lot loss energy travelling through the troposphere. And compared to rockets operating a plane for a flight is very cheap, assuming you can recoup the initial purchase of a very large plane which usually runs well over $200 million.
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
Yeah, I guess I was thinking maybe you wouldn't have to worry about Max-Q, which seems to be the highest stress point?
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
Yeah, I guess I was thinking maybe you wouldn't have to worry about Max-Q, which seems to be the highest stress point?
No, you'll still reach a point of max q launching in atmosphere. The dynamic pressure at max q would just be lower than it is for a ground launch because the air density at altitude is lower to begin with. Lower stress on the vehicle means you could make it lighter/cheaper.
SiliconStew on
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
We're finally getting pictures of a completed or near completed full size Raptor engine, though the resolution could be better. They seem to confirm that it will be using a stepped bell design so it can fire at all altitudes without exploding due to instability in the exhaust. It's quite large and the plumbing looks ridiculously complex, in contrast to their less advanced Merlin 1D. Note the lack of a pre-burning exhaust, as Raptor is a full flow design and pipes the exhaust from its two gas generators (one fuel rich, one oxygen rich)back into the main combustion chamber for higher efficiency.
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MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
After fifteen years, 61 times the originally planned 90 days, Opportunity's mission is about to officially end. The little rover that could and could and could has gone silent and has not responded since a dust storm blocked the sunlight from it. A salute to good engineering and a lot of persistence.
We're finally getting pictures of a completed or near completed full size Raptor engine, though the resolution could be better. They seem to confirm that it will be using a stepped bell design so it can fire at all altitudes without exploding due to instability in the exhaust. It's quite large and the plumbing looks ridiculously complex, in contrast to their less advanced Merlin 1D. Note the lack of a pre-burning exhaust, as Raptor is a full flow design and pipes the exhaust from its two gas generators (one fuel rich, one oxygen rich)back into the main combustion chamber for higher efficiency.
Arianespace. Frances, and by extension the EU's (as well as commercial customers globally) ride to space with their Ariane 5 and smaller Vega rockets have been in a news a bit lately. They cut prices their Ariane 5 to match prices for their upcoming Ariane 6 launch vehicle. This comes in the wake of their announced plans to shed 2,300 employees over the course of the next 3 years. These actions are in response to the rise of Space X and their low launch costs, as well as weaker overall demand for lucrative GEO contracts in the market overall.
Now in more recent news the French state auditor Cour des comptes has put out a report that does not speak well to the future competiveness of the Ariane 6. While the report does make caveats, it does acknowledge that the economics of the service they provide have changed and makes recommendations going forwards. Such as more innovation and less money spent on maintaining their existing contractors.
I think this is a positive, if small step for Arianespace. Assuming they take the report to heart. The first step in fixing a problem is acknowledging you have one, even grudgingly. Arianespace isn't going anywhere, France and the rest of Europe won't allow themselves to be dependant on foreign launch services. So in the future I'm hopeful they'll make some major strides in reusability rather than focusing on being more efficient at throwing 100% of a rocket away every launch.
Juno continues to deliver spectacular views. At closest approach Juno is still over 4,000 km above Jupiter to give you an idea of the perspective.
Earthside almost all the visual work from the probe is done by amateurs, too. NASA has no budget for image processing with Juno, so they just unleash the raw images and the Internet does its thing. The bulk of the really cool Juno imagery, including most of the interpolated videos like this, is from just two guys.
One of the two has a Flickr, where he alternates between Juno stuff and Mars stuff depending on what's come in lately.
(Doran and Eichstadt don't get shouted out nearly enough for the buzz their work makes.)
After a mission that ended up lasting fifteen years, and a silence of eight months, NASA have officially declared Mars Rover Opportunity dead. From the Associated Press:
The official NASA twitter account for Spirit and Opportunity notes that even while dying, Opportunity kept discovering. The dust storm that finally claimed the rover was the most intense ever recorded on Mars.
New pics, new info! New Horizons scientists at @JHUAPL confirm the two sections (or “lobes”) of #UltimaThule are not spherical. The larger lobe more closely resembles a giant pancake and the smaller lobe is shaped like a dented walnut!
Posts
I was just about to post this.
It's like zooming in on a fractal.
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-spacex-layoffs-20190111-story.html?outputType=amp
I think this is what's driving it. BFR/Starlink are going to be huge expenditures, and they likely don't feel the need to work on Falcon 9 design anymore. Especially since one of the federal branches demands that you have a "locked" design.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
It's amazing how worthless your sense of scale and distance is without atmospheric scattering and/or distinguishable terrain features.
Following the death of Paul Allen Statolaunch will be discontinuing development of their own engine and launch vehicle, but they'll continue to develop their rather enormous plane so it can someday carry up to 3 of Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus XL launch vehicle. A Pegasus launch costs ~$40 million to put 443 kg into orbit. In comparison it's 80% the cost of a Falcon 9 for 1/50 the payload to LEO. Or an Electron which is somewhere around $6 million, but it only has half the payload capacity. I don't think the economics of Stratolaunch are looking great, particularly with the sudden glut of private companies getting into space launch. But maybe they'll find in a niche deploying specialty satellites into LEO.
Interestingly back in 2011 SpaceX was contracted to build a launch vehicle for the Statolaunch aircraft. The "Falcon 9 air" or "Falcon 5" would be developed by SpaceX, attachment hardware and integration would be done by a company called Dynetics and Stratolaunch would fly it to altitude where it would launch. The original plan was for SpaceX to use as much common hardware as possible in the design. But as things developed, Dynetics wanted certain changes to be made to the vehicle such as adding chines. So in late 2012 the companies parted ways amicably as SpaceX felt it wasn't in their best interest to spend a lot of resources making modifications to a launch vehicle that wouldn't directly apply to their own plans.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
No, you'll still reach a point of max q launching in atmosphere. The dynamic pressure at max q would just be lower than it is for a ground launch because the air density at altitude is lower to begin with. Lower stress on the vehicle means you could make it lighter/cheaper.
Looks like it took a few hits.
There’s a sad mouth and two eyes on the smaller lobe, it looks bundled up and sad. 😪
Mark Kelly is an Astronaut whom has been to space
Not sure if those are hits or just lumpiness of various smaller masses over time congeling into what it currently is.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
We're finally getting pictures of a completed or near completed full size Raptor engine, though the resolution could be better. They seem to confirm that it will be using a stepped bell design so it can fire at all altitudes without exploding due to instability in the exhaust. It's quite large and the plumbing looks ridiculously complex, in contrast to their less advanced Merlin 1D. Note the lack of a pre-burning exhaust, as Raptor is a full flow design and pipes the exhaust from its two gas generators (one fuel rich, one oxygen rich)back into the main combustion chamber for higher efficiency.
...Either that or Opportunity has just gone rogue.
This will be here until I receive an apology or Weedlordvegeta get any consequences for being a bully
That would be such a fucking cool job.
"What do you do for a living Mary?"
"Oh I just build rocket engines all day, no big".
Hell yea.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Juno continues to deliver spectacular views. At closest approach Juno is still over 4,000 km above Jupiter to give you an idea of the perspective.
Now in more recent news the French state auditor Cour des comptes has put out a report that does not speak well to the future competiveness of the Ariane 6. While the report does make caveats, it does acknowledge that the economics of the service they provide have changed and makes recommendations going forwards. Such as more innovation and less money spent on maintaining their existing contractors.
I think this is a positive, if small step for Arianespace. Assuming they take the report to heart. The first step in fixing a problem is acknowledging you have one, even grudgingly. Arianespace isn't going anywhere, France and the rest of Europe won't allow themselves to be dependant on foreign launch services. So in the future I'm hopeful they'll make some major strides in reusability rather than focusing on being more efficient at throwing 100% of a rocket away every launch.
Also here's a neat Vega C video:
Earthside almost all the visual work from the probe is done by amateurs, too. NASA has no budget for image processing with Juno, so they just unleash the raw images and the Internet does its thing. The bulk of the really cool Juno imagery, including most of the interpolated videos like this, is from just two guys.
One of the two has a Flickr, where he alternates between Juno stuff and Mars stuff depending on what's come in lately.
(Doran and Eichstadt don't get shouted out nearly enough for the buzz their work makes.)
Ladies and gentlemen, let’s pour one out for the brave little rover.
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
This is why I think the idea of robogenocide is absurd.
We're already thinking about how we're going to bring him back!
this is affecting me emotionally in ways i wasn't prepared for
stupid robot making me feel things
"You inspired a father and two sons to look up at the sky with hope for the future.
We'll come visit you one day"
And there I go, crying for a robot. Thanks NASA.
In other space news, Ultima Thule is flat instead of round
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
https://xkcd.com/695/
arm yourself with gatorade
fffffffffffffffff