/sci/ - Science & Math

>>11993520
Reminder that Starship prototypes have flown more times with more success than Boings Starliner

>>11993520
Don’t want to shit up this thread but I posted this in the previous one. Okay so I’m writing an alternate history story collection about a timeline where NASA chooses the MOL program over the shuttle due to budget cuts.

Would there be a way for a Gemini capsule to carry three people? I think you can fit a third person in there by using the Soyuz method of squeezing the shit out of everyone. However all plans for a Gemini that can dock and transfer crew with a station involve a docking port located on the bottom of the craft, which actually acted as a hatch on the heat shield.

My idea is that NASA uses the MOL style spacecraft into the 70s, and then they make a Gemini Mark II which has a crew hatch at the front to allow egress into “Skylab from this timeline”. The capsule’s interior is also refit which squishes a third seat between the two pre-existing ones, and puts those ones closer to the wall. The service module is also changed to include solar panels, which allow it to stay docked for hundreds of days. Lastly, NASA builds an expendable cargo vehicle based on “Gemini Mark II”. I did some math and I found that this thing would probably mass 6-7 tons. Honestly think of it as an American Soyuz/Progress.

>>11993541
>Would there be a way for a Gemini capsule to carry three people?
BIG G

>>11993538

>>11991849
What game version are you running?

>>11993538
Fortunately, NASA isn't homogeneous. So the part that actually wants to explore space can leave the part that doesn't want to explore space behind.

Also, I thought the naming of space stuff is handled by the IAU and not NASA?

>>11993532

When starship becomes operational, Could /sfg/ scrounch up enough money to send something into orbit?

When will we see fission initiated fusion drives? Instead of using complicated laser or magnet systems to start a fusion reaction we could use a small fission explosion instead.

>>11993555
There have been discussions of deploying a smallsat with a frog species native to the Great Lakes as payload that splashes down in them. If Starship hits its $/kg target it should be doable before NASA human rates Crew Starship, so 4ASS would be the first organization to put living payloads on Elon's grain silo.

>>11993555
Depends on the cost of Starship. Worst case scenario of the per-mass-of-payload cost of Starship is equivalent to the Falcon 9, a launch for 4ASS would be in the tens of thousands (roughly $50,000 for a 12U satellite) unless the payload is small. Assuming SpaceX's anticipated costs, the cost would be a mere couple thousand (roughly $2,000 for a 12U satellite). Both are doable, but sending something up to space would be better if SpaceX can get the per-launch cost of Starship down to $2M.

>>11993563
The lasers aren't about starting the fusion, they're about containing it so it doesn't insta slag your ship.

>>11993572
I think you got something mixed up. In inertial confinement fusion, a laser (or electricity) compresses the fuel target to achieve fusion, whereas in magnetic confinement, a magnetic field does it. The biggest issue in usable fusion seems to be actually starting the reaction, to where enough atoms fuse so the plasma becomes self-heating. The only time this has been done artifically is in thermonuclear weapons, so why not try to scale this down to where it can be controlled through magnetic confinement?

>>11993587
Because fission bombs don't scale down past supercritical mass.

Civilization is going to collapse very soon

>>11993629
(Super-)Critical mass is influenced by a number of factors such as the shape, the tamper, neutron reflection and most notably compression. In nuclear weapons this compression has to be performed by precisely timed explosives which, compared to something like the pinch of the Sandia Z-machine is both slow and weak. Using a z pinch could initiate supercriticality in a much smaller mass of fission fuel than you would find in a nuclear bomb.

>>11993689
Proof?

>>11993689
Stay in the dirt, terran. Your doomerism won't bring you to the stars.

>>11993708
energy cliff

>>11993708
Read Spengler

>>11993710
Space colonies will be islands of stability, but they need to be resource-independent as soon as possible. Western civilization is on its last legs.

>>11993690
https://www.nasa.gov/puff

>>11993710
Optimism never saved anybody. We need to prepare for the fall if we want to preserve the knowledge need to eventually leave the planet.

>>11993726
>Space colonies will be islands of stability, but they need to be resource-independent as soon as possible.
And space flight is progressing to it.

>Western civilization is on its last legs.
No, it's not.

>>11993729
>Optimism never saved anybody.
Pessimism never lead to progress.

>>11993689
>>11993720
>>11993729

>>11993744
>No, it's not.

Watch the news or study basically any metric of societal health like fertility rates, inequality, political violence, etc.

>>11993781
Strawman. I support private space colonization as a buffer against the destruction of civilization due to earthside collapse

>>11993729
>Optimism never saved anybody

Yes it has. Optimism drives innovation. So does war. Pessimism drives people to look to the dirt and ground instead of the future and sky.

>>11993720
>Read what some scholar has to say
Read up on him and while he has some good ideas, people have been saying that shit forever.

>>11993726
>Western civilization is on its last legs

While I don’t like how our society is progressing, to say that we’re on the brink of collapse is untrue. We are on the brink of stagnation, yes, but civilization is actually at its greatest point in recorded history at the moment.

That being said, stagnation gives no backup to a decline, and we are at the cusp of a stagnation phase. If we don’t go to Mars soon, we will die as soon as a decline starts, which may or may not happen.

>Space colonies will be islands of stability, but they need to be resource-independent as soon as possible

Colonies being resource-independent however is definitely correct. The good news is that you don’t need “That” many people go act as a backup in case of extinction. Anywhere from 50 to 500 individuals is all that is required, not counting frozen embryos packed away in a colony. The hard part would be sustaining the eventual thousands of people, but we know that it’s not impossible.

>>11993781
do people genuinely believe that funding for space agencies should be diverted to gibs?

>>11993791
(((Some))) do.

>>11993790
>people have been saying that shit forever

Because it’s true. Civilizations do eventually peak and then enter declines from which they do not recover. It’s even worse now because heavy urbanization has turned life for many into a rat utopia.

>>11993791
Yes. A lot of people subscribe to the “Hey we have problems on Earth we should solve first” mindset. Back in high school everyone thought I was a racist for stating that NASA’s budget shouldn’t be decreased to fund social welfare programs. I’m fucking Mexican and even the science teacher called me “insensitive”.

>>11993791
They believe that since the 60s.

>>11993797
but it makes no sense from an efficiency standpoint, history proves that technological innovation and the opening of new markets is the quickest and most surefire method to decreasing poverty

>>11993797
>Muh useless welfare parasites deserve more free money

Healthy societies purge the weak.

>>11993796
Humanity might never peak, or we'll peak in millions of years

>>11993813
>>11993809
Tell them that. These people have literal lizard brains that don’t think past “HEY WHAT CAN I GET TODAY ????”

>>11993791
Yes. It's mostly due to a combination of a perception that space flight is many times more expensive than it really is, and another perception where space flight has no "tangible" benefits. It's a sad thing to have, but hopefully commercialization of space will help remove those perceptions.

>>11993816
Humanity will peak in 2.3 Billion years when our descendants wage a closed-timelike-curve was with the Dark Matter entities that are currently driving our universe to expansion. Don’t ask me how I know this.

>>11993689
Only a little.

>>11993552
NASA has been full of Asians and Indians and Latinos for years. Black people can't get over that there are few black people working there for reasons entirely within an the community's ability to chabge

>>11993816
Individual civilizations have peaked before, may be peaking now, and will peak in the future. It makes little sense to discuss humanity as a whole

>>11993822
>commercialization of space
hell no, I'd want space to be the root of new and clean markets, not having old markets and oligarchs here on Earth infect it with their own brands of faggotry

>>11993790
>that pic
You got a source for that? Reverse image search lead me to a forum that requires an account to see their images.

>>11993835
I have no idea why black people have this constant chip on their shoulder. Asians and Latinos just suck it up and deal with what they’ve got but Black people are super goddamn vocal. Maybe it’s because whites are enabling them like parents letting a screaming kid keep going at a restaurant.

>>11993843
*Jews are enabling them

>>11993542
BIg Gemini is far and way the most chad american spacecraft ever proposed

>>11993843
That, and also, they are probably the only race that is markedly less intelligent and in-control of themselves (civilized) than any other. It's the same reason that they get hyper upset if you call them monkeys. It's because on some level, they know.

>>11993839
There isn't exactly any other way to get Earth humans to space without bringing some kind of Terran baggage. Purely government space has tons of issues in politics and has shown to progress slowly. Purely amateur space don't have the industry nor capability to lift even a significant payload to LEO. At least with commercial space, a particular group of space zealots can pay to have their colony be set on a far away planet/asteroid/moon with no questions asked.

>>11993849
>Ywn fly into space with 17 of your bro’s at a time

>>11993855
>they are probably the only race that is markedly less intelligent and in-control of themselves (civilized) than any other.
I think Abos would like a word with you

Reusable S-IVB

>>11993859
I have an anthropology degree and I don't count them as homo sapiens. If we found their skulls in the fossil record they would absolutely be considered a branch ancestor. They have been genetically isolated for a very, very long time, and plus, they admixed with *further* isolated hominins. They are not anatomically modern humans. They just aren't. Should they have human rights? Of course. But should they be held to human standard? No, it's simply not fair.

>>11993861

>>11993791

you have more than a few posters here trying to agitate bigotry sentiments.

>>11993861
>>11993866
Pair this with the “Reusable S-IC” and the United States could’ve had a fully reusable Saturn INT-20 without all the cost of developing the shuttle. We also would’ve been able to fly “Big Gemini”

>>11993869
Bigotry is justified.

>>11993856
>Purely government space has tons of issues in politics and has shown to progress slowly
that's due to lack of funding if anything. As space industries grow and expand they can be privatized eventually into new corporations and co-operatives free from toxic terran influence. With commercial space, the risk is always there of their ventures being subverted by technocratic oligarchs like what we see with Bezos

What is it about launch escape systems that can make a rocket look so aesthetic?

>>11993861
It disappoints me that recoverable rockets were never explored other than the Shuttle. Sure, during Apollo expediency was important, so it is understandable that such things were put aside for the time being. However, afterwards there should've been a drive for recovery to reduce costs.

>>11993878
It looks like cum shooting out of a big pp

>>11993878
Makes the top of the rocket look like one of those thrusting swords with a basket hilt. Stabbing into space.

>>11993878
How hard would it have been to have a delta rocket carry astronauts instead of having to rely on the Russians for 9 years?

>>11993893
That was the original plan but then NASA "accidentally" designed Orion to be too heavy so they had no choice but to build a shuttle derived launcher

>>11993893
Hard. We didn’t have a replacement anywhere near ready back in 2011, and the Delta IV Heavy required something like 200+ changes to man-rate it.

>>11993896
They literally too dumb to just make a small capsule?

>>11993901
Orion had to be ((((5 Meters)))) across for some stupid reason. Keep in mind that Apollo was 3.9 meters across but it had room for five crew if you utilized the behind-seat areas. It would’ve weighed half as much as Orion’s Command Moduel too.

>>11993901
They could have easily done so. They just didn't want too

>>11993903
yeah we know that but fuckin why

>>11993893
Very hard. NASA didn't feel safe with the Delta IV catching itself on fire at every launch, and the weight of the Orion capsule would require three self immolating cores. The Deltas couldn't be modified either because the number of changes required to stop that would drive up the costs of an already expensive vehicle.

An Atlas V would've been better, but it has those Russian engines and there was that report that claimed that the Atlas was just as unsafe as the Delta.

>>11993902
Don't forget that even at 5 meters across, the capsule grew to be so heavy supporting 3 astronauts that NASA considered deleting the toilets to save on mass. Imagine having to wear a diaper on a multi-day or week long trip.

>>11993914
I'd kick the shit out of the flight director for even suggesting it.

>>11993897
>>11993907

Let's translate that into numbers. All that work you would call "hard": under 2 billion dollars.

>>11993907
Vulcan is the future of ''''cheap''''' gov't manned spaceflight. Apparently it's gonna get crew rated for dreamchaser, and the strap on SRBs make it pretty powerful. Then there's the superheavy version that tory teased. Plus SMART. Glad they won NSSL, I wanna see Vulcan fly.

I want to see elon test an inflatable heat shield on a falcon 2nd stage.

>>11993907

What rocket launches the Boeing Starliner?

>>11993932
Atlas V

>>11993932
Atlas V, but that was after the idea that it wasn't safe for human flight was debunked and its Russian engines mattered less since there was a "pure American" alternative if the Russians ever decided to restrict engine access.

>>11993930
Vulcan costs $99 Million as a baseline and will reach up to $129 Million at its heaviest. It’s a great vehicle and ULA is a nice company. Back in high school they gave me a gift box because my homecoming poster for my then-gf had. A bunch of taped on pics of Atlas, Vulcan, Delta IV

>>11993907

>>11993930
>I wanna see Vulcan fly.
Same. Hopefully they can get SMART working sooner rather than later. Having them abandon or push pack reusability would be fairly saddening.

>>11993914
Apollo dealt with it so we will!

>>11993907

Remember, at the same time NASA was going to use the RS-68 as the engine in its Ares 5 vehicle.

>>11993976
>No you can’t launch crew on the RS-68 it’s a dangerous engine!
>Ares V okay hehe :)

>>11993790
Personally, my biggest concern with colonies at this level of technology is that they will secede the exact second they achieve resource independence and there will be nothing we can do about it.
Its what I would do if I were on a colony.

>>11993994
why wouldn't they
Earth is gonna be a disaster 100 years from now, really they'd be doing themselves a favour

>>11993948
Wonder if they'll give me stickers for buying lockheed stock.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snI-DVk_fVc

This is nice.

>>11993994
To be fair resource independence is hard. Mining ice is easy and you can make air and water from it. Growing all of your food is hard as every human needs about 1000 cubic meters of soil to support plant growth to feed them, but maybe genetic engineering can cut that in half or maybe even by 1/10th. Plus you can fertilize your own soil from organic waste easily.

The hard part is machinery. They break down over time and microchips are hard. I can’t see true self sufficiency happening until offworld colonies have the ability to refine regolith into complex materials like computer parts and nuclear reactors, etc.

>>11993994
Why is that a bad thing? People with different views and natures should simply live far away from eachother in space colonies and not interact.

>>11994011
Nuclear reactors were made in 40s.

>>11994016
>inb4 progressives on the Lunar/Mars colonies will demand their governments let in Earthling refugees after they end up making a mess of their entire planet

>>11994023
Airlock them.

>>11994016
Because then the Interstellar Human Empire would never come to be. Humanity would forever be fractured.

>>11994037
>Humanity would forever be fractured.
always has been

>>11994037
yeah but then we'd have to willingly unite with chinks

>>11994037
>not analyzing the collective sum of human experience as one mega-organism

>>11994011
1000 m3 per person is way off. You can find estimates of about 400 m2 per person of home garden to feed it. If you use hydroponics and optimise you can probably use way less.

>>11994037
>>11994037
I get the urge to go full SPQR, but modern geopolitics makes calls for a unified humanity seem childish. China is our enemy and will be for many years to come, barring an internal collapse.

>>11994058
Good. I was hoping I was wrong. Current estimates say that you need 50 to 500 people to “backup” the human population, so assuming agriculture advances enough to cut the amount of soil needed per person down to 200 cubic meters, you could conceivable feed 500 people with 312X312 square of agriculture.

I still want to know how possible it would be to refine ores and make advanced tech like rocket engines and whatnot using offworld ISRU.

How hard is it to build a rocket? Theoretically, if I formed a rocketry club at my college, how difficult would it be for us to build something like the SS-520?

>>11994037
It will never be true anyway. There will always be splinter groups that are hostile to each other. Altruistic Star Trek humanity will never exist.

Does anyone have a definitive explanation for why Salyut 7 and other soviet-era spacecraft had such weird paintjobs?

>>11994071
SS-520 is a small orbital rocket but a huge suborbital one. It has a mass of 4900 kilograms. By comparison, the first amateur rocket to “reach space” had a mass of 272 kilograms.

So it would be very hard.

>>11994071
>How hard is it to build a rocket?
>like the SS-520
A rocket of that size would be a challenge, but doable. Funding would be an issue though.

>>11994080
Space Orcs.

>>11994037
Thats just not possible because humans are very tribal, at least not on the long term

>>11993825
Tell me how you know that. (I'm not asking)

>Space Force: "THE SPIRIT OF ORBITAL FLIGHT"

>https://www.spaceforce.mil/Portals/1/Space%20Capstone%20Publication_10%20Aug%202020.pdf

Virgin and Blue BTFO

>>11993520
Is Raptor engine actually optimized for maximizing thrust per surface area? Is this the patrician's rocket engine metric (inb4 muh isp)?

-from NSF

How human does an alien have to be in order for you to fuck it?
>Human
>Human with small alien/animal features (ex. Vulcan,Klingon, anime catgirl)
>Painted human with animal features (ex. Na'vi)
>Furry animal (ex. zootopia, robin hood animals)
>Actual animals
>Weird shit like a mass of tentacles or sentient crystal

>>11994016
>People with different views and natures should simply live far away from eachother in space colonies and not interact.

Quoted for truth. Good fences make good neighbours. 100 million kilometers of hard vacuum is quite a good fence.

>>11994141
>>Painted human with animal features (ex. Na'vi)
my limit
I'm sure some enterprising anons will go all the way to rock bottom

>>11994141
dunno, havent met one yet.

>>11994141
As long as it can consent.

>>11994037
that'll never happen because no ftl

>>11994133
"Space is the domain of orbital flight. Humanity’s ability to
achieve and exploit orbital flight — sustained motion beyond
the Earth’s atmosphere based on gravitational trajectories — ushered
in the Space Age. Once orbital flight became a reality, humanity was
able to exploit the domain’s unique attributes. Orbital flight derives
value from the unique characteristics of the space domain’s physical
environment. Thus, an understanding of spacepower must start with
an appreciation of the space domain itself. "

d

>>11994209
You dare to upset the Shelby? Are you a madman?

>>11994071
pretty hard. Money is the main factor. The next is time.

>>11994141
Does it have a wet hole that does not melt my dick, if so then it's go time
t. super libido pervert

>>11994141
i'd rather just genocide the aliens

>>11994141
As long as it's as smart or smarter than the average human, it's ok.

>>11994141
Does it have a hole to fuck? If yes, why not?

>>11994179
We’ll figure out FTL eventually

>>11994179
The vast majority of realistic proposals for interstellar flight are non-ftl

>>11994303
no, you're not gonna hold together an interstellar civilization without ftl, at least not an empire. maybe a federation or confederacy over smaller interstellar distances

>>11994280
FTL is not possible, period. Laws of physics are the limitation, not technology. The best you can hope for is transhumanist entities traveling at the speed of light as a signal of information. And you better have a receiver at your destination.

>>11994340
I would argue never say never. We don't see birds going FTL unlike our ancestors when they thought humans could not possibly fly, but it should be our expertise to eventually do the impossible, at least so far.

>>11994340
Depends on if negative energy can be produced and manipulated or not.

>>11994379
Negative energy would also allow for time travel. So if FTL and time travel will be invented at any point in time, they would be invented at all points in time. But so far nobody has come show off their TARDIS to us.

>>11993880
It's the same old cycle... we have so few launches that it costs more to be expendable... but it still costs so much that it's still expensive... but it's so expensive that nobody launches except government and comm sats, so there aren't many launches...
>>11993905
lol maybe it was some USAF requirement, that's what happened to Shuttle
>>11993930
I still think it was funny that they had an online poll for the name and everybody thought "le Spock planet", when it was really an awesome name for a rocket because muh God of Fire.
>>11994011
don't forget the absolute need for phosphorus in Terran biology
>>11994058
that's also assuming sunlight as received on Earth... Mars has more distance *and* global dust storms

>>11994141
I refuse to fuck anything alien that has a human-like appearance, out of disdain for vanilla normalfags who refuse to give us some truly alien aliens to romance in any popular media.

>>11994141
If it has a recognizable head, it's not going on my bed.

>>11994340
Physical laws are merely observed consistencies, which may yet be contradicted.

>>11994411
Pls be on Triton

>>11994411
Can’t argue with those digits

>>11994403
>>11994411
unequivocally based

>>11993967
they pooped and peed into bags. Which never quite sealed up. So bits of waste floated around.

>>11994454
“There’s a turd floating around in here!” is a real mission quote

Thank god I have an SSD

>>11994454
>>11994456
Imagine the smell.

>>11994141
>Human
This
>Human with small alien/animal features (ex. Vulcan,Klingon, anime catgirl)
This
>Painted human with animal features (ex. Na'vi)
Probably this
>Furry animal (ex. zootopia, robin hood animals)
ESPECIALLY this

>>11994461
KSP2 better have some kind of asset streaming

>>11994141
What about female kerbals?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLPWqCMb7DE

/sfg/ why aren't we on this? Should be trivial for anyone with a workshop.

>>11994479
Female grays and grey-peripheral aliens like kerbal are below tentacle monsters and sentient crystalline rock formations on the alien fuckabilty scale

>>11994479
t.

>>11994141
Is xenomorph animal or furry animal?

>>11994481
I have some of the stuff for it that already. I might give it a shot if I can find some adapter between AN to NPT, and a vender for N2O.

>>11994528

>>11994536
Keep us posted if you do. Can't you just use compressed O2?

If you were offered a job that paid double what you have now, but you have to move to the middle of bumfuck nowhere would you do it? Because that's what colonizing Mars will be like. It is the equivalent of a mining town, only you're 55 million miles away from anything resembling Earth. At least a lunar colony would be close

>>11994563
>Mars
Your expectation and reality images are both improbable.

*blocks your path*

>>11994555
>Keep us posted if you do.
Will do. I have another small aerospace project I want to finish first.

>Can't you just use compressed O2?
That can work, but I already have a nos bottle and some of the plumbing for it. It would be cheaper for me to use that instead.

>>11994563
I already live in Wyoming. Its bumfuck nowhere adjacent.

>>11994578
I prefer this.

>Revitalize NASA. Lacking a clear goal the team that placed an American on the Moon, NASA, has become just another federal bureaucracy beset by competing agendas and unable to establish discipline within its structure. Although NASA has an amazing array of technology and the most talented workforce in history, it lacks top-level vision. It began its retreat from the inherent risks of space exploration after the Challenger accident. During the last decade its retreat has turned into a rout. The NASA Administrator is appointed by the President and to a great degree represents the current President's views on space. If space is put on the national agenda for the coming national election [2000], a newly elected President will have the opportunity to select new top-level NASA leadership that is committed and willing to take the steps to rebuild the space agency and get America's space program moving again.
>[2000]

>>11994563
That's nothing like Mars. If you move somewhere rural you can still go outside without a spacesuit. You can also leave and go home, whereas most Mars colonists will probably be making a one way trip for the first stage.

>>11994563
I would give up everything and clean the shit out of toilets if it meant I live on Mars

>>11994600
To be fair, Bush did those things. Constellation just slowly turned into a nightmare.

>>11994141
Preferably at least somewhat resembling a human female and not to disturbing to look at, although the latter might vary between different specimen.

>>11994629
Constellation was a cool idea but they fucked up by making two separate crew and cargo launchers, thus doubling development costs and times. Unironically an SLS-lite would’ve been fine and even if it took 12 years to fly, it would’ve flown in 2017.

However I don’t think anyone predicted the rise of SpaceX, and most of all not Starship.

>>11994578
This doesn't look to bad. Although, as a slav, I'm used to naked concrete, pipes, and wires.

>>11994638
>Constellation was a cool idea but they fucked up by making two separate crew and cargo launchers, thus doubling development costs and times.
I think the core issues were how the project was managed rather than technical. Two separate launchers would be fine. SpaceX is predicted to do something similar with Falcon and Starship until Starship can be fully human rated. However, Constellation had serious management issues that continue to SLS such as lack of oversight on progress of parts and the acceptance of delays. I bet if you gave the Constellation management Apollo at its height, then they would've driven it into the ground just like what they did with Constellation.

>>11994634
Bottom left is actually kind of hot in an alien vagina way.

>>11994578
That might be the look of areas with small populations or infrastructure management, but public areas would be much larger.

>>11994666
Just ignite some nukes deep underground to create chambers.

>>11994675

>>11994659
Constellation also had technical and design problems too. Ares I was designed for crew-only, which is fine, but they ran into serious weight problems with Orion. Worse, they found that the Ares I was super dangerous too and had the same Black Zones that the shuttle had with regards to its SRM.

As a result they kept piling mass onto the Ares V, which was huge and kept getting bigger. Ares V was not a bad rocket, but it’s size made it damn near impossible to see ever being built. It also ran into technical issues with its engines, which meant that they had to be totally redesigned pretty much from scratch. I think the report which killed constellation noted that the engine redesign would take until “the mid 2020s”.

If I could be in charge of constellation, I would’ve done one simple change: Making Orion the same diameter as the Apollo capsule. Apollo carried three crew, but could’ve seated five using space under its seats. An Apollo capsule also massed five tons, compared to Orion’s 11.

Orion has 1.3 km/s of Delta-V and masses 26 tons. I did some math and found that a 5 ton Apollo-derived capsule+service module would mass only 17 tons for the same Delta-V.

With a 17 ton capsule that means you can either launch Orion on an EELV like Atlas V 552, or you could make an Ares I which doesn’t require a “five segment booster”, thus increasing safety and reliability. The 17 ton capsule would also save weight on the LSAM too, taking it’s mass from 46 tons down to 43 tons.

A 60 ton stack to TLI is small enough for a shuttle-diameter launcher to boost to the moon. This means you don’t need the god awful Ares V first stage, or it’s 5.5 segment boosters, and all you need are “just” the 5 segment ones. If you use four SSME’s, you also don’t need to worry about the RS-68’s.

Something like the “Esas CALV” on the right of this pic.

me on the right

>>11994703
why does haise look like a cartoon character in every photo

>>11994699
Shit I meant left I’m retarded.

Anyhow yeah I did a bunch of math on this scenario and I uh tested it in KSP RSS.

Another alternative that saves even more development money is using a balloon tank on the second stage of this Ares V. The balloon stage means that you don’t even need to stretch the first stage, and you can thus make a DIRECT-like vehicle

>>11994705
look at this nigga lmao

>>11994712
He looks like a Flintstones character.

>>11994475
>>11994141

based furchad

>>11994141
ngl I'd fuck M'ress no question.

>>11993858
big soyuz when?

>>11994532
Bipedal=furry

>>11994634
And i thought I was weird

>>11994141

>During 1989
>Zarya "Super Soyuz" cancelled on financial grounds. [5]

>>11994699
Something like that or a Jupiter could work and makes sense. Anything "small" in LEO can be easily handled by launchers already flying at the time (Delta IV, Atlas V, or even Soyuz if you're desperate). I can't really fault your plan other than political forces would mess things up.

>An Apollo capsule also massed five tons, compared to Orion’s 11.
Anyone have any idea why Orion ended up so chunky even though it's supposed to be a modern Apollo?

>>11994754
Never Russia will subcontract for the Chinese.

>>11994138
yes
this is the entire point of having such a high chamber pressure (which also makes all the other numbers go up

>>11994779
Orion was chunky because it was designed to be bigger and better and overall more improved. It was designed to have way more systems and way more space and hold twice as many people (6) as Apollo (3).

conformal boosters when?
>b-but tubes are easier to manufacture
>b-b-but aerodynamics don't matter since it's only gonna be in the atmosphere for 30 seconds
shut the FUCK up nerds, think about how fucking cool they would look

>>11994779
Cause I think they planned mars missions with it.

>>11994563
>but you have to move to the middle of bumfuck nowhere would you do it? Because that's what colonizing Mars will be like.

Yeah but this bumfuck nowhere is really cool and has novel geological formations.

>>11994749
How is it possible for one man to be so based?

>>11994798
Energia had some Kino goddamn boosters. Anyone know what those things on the side were?

>>11994752
>you will never be stationed in a seat directly in front of and below M'Ress so she can rest her paws on your shoulders and you can smell them all day and "accidentally" brush her toes with your lips when you turn your head

>>11994798
Yes they would look cool.
Anon, it's T-14, time for your delta-V flattening!

>>11994806
Imagine a world where the soviets managed to stabilize their economy in the mid 80's by finding natural resources, and successfully launched and used a Polyus derived sattelite to disable an American satellite
followed by a Buran moon mission

>>11994832
>Used a Polyus derived sattelite to disable an American satellite

Yeah no there would’ve been war.

>Imagine a battle between a Buran and an STS in orbit.

>>11994832
>Imagine a world without communism.
God dammit Anon, I do it every day.

>>11994578
Meh, just add some high def screens that show weather simulation.

>>11994845
>tfw starwars never lost funding, and GHW Bush approved funding for an American SSTO replacement for the space shuttle after winning his second term to combat Buran

>"Jeff! What a pleasant suprise to see you in my office!"
>"H-Hello Elon...."
>"So how's that whole Blue Origin thing going?"
>"W-we should reach orbit in a month or two"
>"Good! Space is hard you know"
>"Y-yeah, haha. H-hey um, can I borrow a couple hundred million for the whole orbit thing?"
>"But you borrowed a couple hundred million last month!"
>"Yeah but we'll really make it this time"
>"Alright, but this is the last time, Jeff. I can't keep lending out money for you to just fiddle with that BE-4 all the time. You've had it for 20 years now."
>"Y-yes mr. Musk"

>>11994699
Lol the original Ares V was basically SLS with one extra engine and a more powerful upper stage.

>>11994832
I have always wondered if they didn't rush Polyus, perhaps Energia would have had more chances of survival. Then again, the Soviet collapse would've killed it anyways. What could've been..

>>11994856
Yes. For some reason they finished the upper stage engine for the Ares V but decided not to use it on SLS because NASA is retarded.

>>11994749
Only if it's based jap or korean fur

>>11994806
>>11994798
guys
what if instead of using boosters to launch spaceplanes
we use spaceplanes as boosters

>>11994869
>Tiddies
NOT ON MY BLUEBOARD

>>11994943
Not you're thinking like a Max Faget.

>>11994943
Kek someone beat you to the punch.

Liquid flyback spaceplane boosters are actually an old concept.

>>11994952
>Now you're thinking like a Max Faget.
Fixed.

which mission had the most kino medallion and why was it apollo-soyuz
honorable mentions: apollo 13 and 17

>>11994869
At least post a good Krystal pic

>>11994958
>make SSTO spaceplane
>wrap 4 of them around the payload
>get payload and 4 spaceplanes launched to space at the same time too
wheres my contracts?

>>11994969
imagine the smell lol haha

>mysterious ocean world
>fucking ceres

>>11994993
I thought Ceres had no internal ocean

>>11994806
>Anyone know what those things on the side were?
They were planning to recover the boosters

>>11995010
it's got a bunch of frozen mud and brines but thats about it

>>11995010
typical msm science reporting bullshit probably

>>11994599
>>11994853
Same energy as that Star Trek Enterprise arc lmao

who does countdown better?

NASA/ULA where the rocket lifts off at zero? or
spacex where ignition starts at zero?

>>11995043
spacex

>>11995043
Ignition at zero is arguably better. I think NASA's reasoning for igniting before the timer is due to the fact that they use hydromeme which requires all the excess shit to be burned off before the rocket is allowed to lift off

>>11995043
I’m used to them saying “T-5, main engine start, 4-“ so for once I’ve gotta side with NASA

>>11995043
I guess it makes more sense to say "liftoff" when the rocket is released from the pad

SpaceX approved

>>11995010
Everybody and their mother have an internal ocean

>>11995076
I like beer but whiskey is king

>>11995089
Based

>>11994011
>microchips are hard
Extremely light though really - a hundred tons of say FPGA augmented ARM boards properly shielded should be enough for decades, surely? It's not like they're going to need supercomputing power out there. Is it?

100MW MPD thrusters when?

>ywn captain a railgun with boosters attached in defense of humanity
Life is suffering.
Post your favorite sci-fi spaceship

>>11995155

>>11995155

>>11995099
Hydraulic despotism. It may not be immediate, but eventually the chips break and when you run out of replacements, you'll be sucking day Terran cock

>>11993532
that is next level bait

>>11994993
o shit, it's the protomolecule!

>>11995199
how so?

>>11993568
Shitpost Starship is operational though it is unproven to reach orbit. The first piloted Falcon Heavy is almost complete. This time Comrade Koomarov has convinced Peepee Gagarin to let him go in his stead, being his good friend. As CEO of 4ASS, I vow that any resemblance to actual historical events will stop there.

>>11995240
What's the capsule look like, still in development? Hope you've tested the chutes with a dedicated drop-test. I best a small drone could lift a capsule up high enough.

So apparently Boeing pitched a concept for a mega-heavy 4 million pounds to LEO launch system back in the day (1968).

Why am I just learning about this now? What the fuck?

>>11995155
>mothership
>mothership
>mothership

>>11995288
Back when Boeing still had some ambition.

>>11995288
Imagine the sound

>>11995301
>BRRAAAAAAAA-
>"Error in MCAS"

>>11995240
>>11995286
pack an extra reserve chute for ma boy pepe komarov

>>11995288

>>11995010
it has mud with water in it as anon said and it has a lot of salt deposits on the surface, its kinda interesting i guess

>>11995286
>>11995310
It's probably going to be a hollowed balsa nose cone and the fairing will hold the chute and a micro altimeter with a bulkhead in between.

help bros my autism is flaring up BAD
which tank design should I use for my lunar injection stage and what color should I paint it

>>11995357
Center, and cream white.

>>11995357
Black Lego head

>>11995357
veiny teste on left

>>11995357
Right, default steel texture with detail turned to zero so it doesn't look dirty.

>>11995357
Left looks best by far, external struts are A+

>>11994779
Same reason NASA doesn't discuss depots - if you can use a Delta or Atlas for crew transfer you don't need orangetankbad for anything except big dumb cargo shots.

>>11995357
Right, picture of Hank Hill.

Serious question don't laugh:

How would Brasil hop into the newly thriving spacelaunch industry? Memes aside, it has a thriving aerospace industry that even managed to impress Boeing enough to seek a merger with Embraer.

Arguably, Brasil is the best place in the southern hemisphere to build and launch rockets.

>>11995487
Well they’ve gotta build a rocket that doesn’t explode first off. After that maybe they can build a specialized smallsat launcher. Perhaps make it partially reusable like electron.

>>11995487
Space flight tax haven with a vast space port on the equator (near Soure maybe?). Equatorial launch sites are desirable for launch vehicles, and attract capable and growing space companies with economic incentives.

>>11995487
They're already leasing access to Alcantara. Their next job is to douse the favelas in hypergolics.

>>11995499
I should add that equatorial launch sites are desirable for launch vehicles that don't have alot of Delta V to throw around, such as early development rockets. Rockets are also expensive, so economic incentives like tax breaks and other services could make some talent move to Brazil.

>>11995487
they were starting to do stuff but then https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VLS-1_V03 happened and killed all the smart spacemacacos

>>11995487

>Arguably, Brasil is the best place in the southern hemisphere to build and launch rockets.

What about Australia?

>>11995510
You want proximity to the equator. Brazil has a launch site within 2 degrees latitude.

>>11994705
probably that squished nose

redpill me on the advantages of MMH vs UDMH

>>11995487
A very well-funded national space agency that builds its own rockets and has an extremely strict anti-corruption commission.
To ensure a longterm pool of skilled personnel, there should be national talent-search initiatives looking for the brightest kids starting in the very first year of school, with experts brought in to design the testing such that it identifies the ones with high flexible intelligence and not bookwork drones. Kids that make it past the first couple milestones in testing should be offered placement at state-run academies, with generous relocation packages offered to their families. Any given population contains people with the potential to be brilliant engineers, fabricators, and process managers, you just have to put the work into identifying them and educating them. It's the human version of the thing Elon keeps stressing where the importance is in "building the machine that builds the machine."

And as >>11995499 said, a huge spaceport with facilities to receive and launch international rockets would be good.

>>11994772
>Harkness
>doesn't mention gender

>>11994703
Reminder that Jack Swigert impregnated the entire fleet of the Continental Airlines stewardesses

How hard was it for 20th century NASA to make an interstellar probe to send to Alpha Centauri on an ellipitical orbit to return to 21st century NASA in forty years or so?

If they've sent one in 1980, we might be seeing it now, but as it is if they were to send one right now, it'd only come back by at least 2060.

I want to see something get out of the solar system and return before I die.

>>11995560
>lord up in of this time bitch

>>11995566
Impossible. It would have to reach 10% of the speed of light, slow down, reach 10% the speed of light again, and slow down again.

>>11995570
I only need a flyby dammit.

>>11995499
>tax haven
Isn't Brasil the country that taxes any tech not manufactured inside the country? As in video game consoles, for instance. They had a bunch of crazy bootlegs there, and Sega Genesis way after its time.

>>11995333
He needs a comfy little pad to sit on in there.

>>11994133
>https://www.spaceforce.mil/Portals/1/Space%20Capstone%20Publication_10%20Aug%202020.pdf
There's nothing about weapon systems or ships in here. It's just boring larping. How are you going to win a space war if you don't have the ability to do so?

Latest heat shield tiles

>>11995636
>X
What did they mean with this?

>>11995640
They need a contrasting color of tiles now.

>>11995640
spaceX gon' give it to ya

>>11995636
These look to all be attached the same same way. Looks like they settled on the best method to test again.

>>11993532
Reminder the starship has never been to space. And Elon is a jew

>>11995691
reminder the falcon heavy is both cheaper and smaller then the delta iv heavy yet brings nearly twice as much into space, and boeing is run by jews

>>11995636
:0

>>11995694
>space
You mean low orbital space?

>laughs in NASA

(you)

Roadster in Solar orbit beyond Mars

>>11995701
I don't get this reusable baits meme

>>11995636
Holy shit I wasn't expecting such a quantity so soon hnnngggg i think i'm gonna-i'm gonna HOOOOOOOP

>>11995723
He's using protomolecule fungus to synthesize them.

>>11995640
so that the ULA snipers knows where to shoot

I think the guy that keeps saying SpaceX has never been to space is that guy with the cringe YouTube vid comparing SLS to Starship, I can’t imagine anyone else aspergian enough to pit SpaceX and NASA like this as if they aren’t extremely close partners

>>11995734
he literally admitted hes trying to bait sfg

>>11995701

>>11995636
Interesting, so either they've determined from testing that the attachment nut is recessed enough that it won't melt because of weird plasma dynamics, or they're going to use some kind of putty to fill the holes

>>11995556
This, nothing that Brazil can or wants to afford right now

>>11995741
>>11995722

>>11995652
Nonstop pop pop of stainless steel

>>11995418
>>11995393
>>11995386
>>11995379
>>11995365
okay I ended up going with the left and spent way too much time setting up RCS and balancing center of mass, but the RCS rings and satellite bus and yeet stage should all be useful for other payloads now that I have them designed
everything is filled with delicious MMH/MON3 except for the lower stage, which I intended to power with the same 0.6kN engines as the probe but clustering that many engines makes ksp shit itself so I had to switch out for the aerozine 50/NTO astris engine

>>11995764

>>11995764
>invented spacetravel
>Wasn't even the first in orbit

>>11995510
Spiders can't into space.

>Trying to pit NASA vs SpaceX
It's a mutually beneficial partnership. NASA loves SpaceX's cost savings, and SpaceX loves NASA's money. They aren't competitors.

Where can I find some intermediate resources on propulsion systems and types? I've been eyeing grc.nasa.gov but the way its presented fucking hurts my eyes. Resources on plumbing and fuel mixtures/chemistry would also be good

>>11995774
Lookin NOICE.

>>11994141
Furry is as low as I can go comfortably. Maybe one lower if they have a great personality.

>>11995797
You mean something like this? http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/engineintro.php Also, if you can handle the dated web layout, then astronautix would be a good place for historical engines.

>>11995788
I'm surprised that in 20 years no spider has inadvertently hitched a ride up. I know there were some experiments done on purpose with spiders but I mean unintentional hitch hikers.

>>11995764

>>11995748
Martian mud will do the trick

Give it to me straight guys... Will I live long enough to see orbital combat between two super powers?

>>11995636
that big gap line in the middle though

>>11995885
No

>>11995636
is this liquorice

>>11995889
Might be for heat expansion

>>11994141
I'll only fuck the aliens if they look like an F-35

>>11995928
Extremely based taste.

>>11995928
dangerously based

>>11995928
Hoah momma!

>At around 6:30 p.m. CDT on Thursday, September 18, 1980, two airmen from a Propellant Transfer System (PTS) team were checking the pressure on the oxidizer tank of a USAF Titan II missile at Little Rock AFB's Launch Complex 374-7. Due to time constraints when going into the silo, a ratchet – 3 ft (0.9 m) long weighing 25 lb (11 kg) – was taken instead of the newly mandated torque wrench. The 8 lb (3.6 kg) socket for the oxidizer tank fell off the ratchet and dropped approximately 80 feet (24 m) before bouncing off a thrust mount and piercing the missile's skin over the first-stage fuel tank, causing it to leak a cloud of its aerozine 50 fuel.

>Eventually, the missile combat crew and the PTS team evacuated the launch control center, while military and civilian response teams arrived to tackle the hazardous situation. There was concern for the possible collapse of the now empty first-stage fuel tank, which could cause the rest of the 8-story missile to fall and rupture, allowing the oxidizer to contact the fuel already in the silo.

>Early in the morning of Friday, September 19, a two-man PTS investigation team consisting of Senior Airman David Lee Livingston and Sergeant Jeff K. Kennedy entered the silo. Because their vapor detectors indicated an explosive atmosphere, the two were ordered to evacuate. The team was then ordered to reenter the silo to turn on an exhaust fan. Senior airman David Livingston reentered the silo to carry out the order and shortly thereafter, at about 3:00 a.m., the hypergolic fuel exploded – likely due to arcing in the exhaust fan. The initial explosion catapulted the 740-ton silo door away from the silo and ejected the second stage and warhead. Once clear of the silo, the second stage exploded. The W53 warhead landed about 100 feet (30 m) from the launch complex's entry gate; its safety features prevented any loss of radioactive material or nuclear detonation.[5][6]

>>11994528
Asking that was a mistake. Is this shit actually a thing? I'm too pussy to look.

>>11995971
>he doesn't know

>>11994869
No.

>>11995971
Gazing into the warp is tempting, isn't it?

>>11995708
beautiful

is hyperloop an investment scam being used to pay for the R&D to develop maglev tech that works in space?

>>11995885
no, you will already have been exterminated by then

>>11995996
wut

>>11995708
god damn, what's the TWR like on the empty F9 boosters

>>11995966
Oh shit I totally forgot about this. Doesn’t take away from the fact that the Titan family was certified cool

>>11995988
>valentina kerman lands on earth

>>11995996
Get out of our general retardf00t

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Vlbh1Dtzz8
contemplate the odor

>>11996005
Aren't kerbals 2 feet and 6 inches?

>Careful with my heat shield tiles, anon they're delicate ~

>>11996022
Forgot the fucking pic, that would have been so funny together.

>>11996015
>imagine

>>11996015
>Can suck your dick while standing up

>>11995885
if you can live until 2040 or 2050 maybe yeah

>>11996027
I’ve always been curious about spacecraft in the “Cars” universe. We know that the Shuttle exists as a living being, so that means Apollo capsules were alive too right? Was the whole Saturn V living and the capsule merely the brain, or was the Capsule the only living part and the rest of the rocket was a mechsuit of sorts. What about the Apollo LEM. Is it alive in the Cars universe? If not, why wouldn’t it be? And if it is alive, does that mean they were all stranded in the Lunar surface, or crashed and murdered when their mission was done?

What about space probes? Are they alive in Cars? Are they born for a single purpose then left to die in space? What about space probes designed to be destroyed during their mission like DART or Deep Impact’s impactor? Are they suicidal zealots?

>>11996043
you're looking too hard into a children's show

>>11995776
lmao saved

>>11995357
Left. Gold foil for the tank itself and grey/silver for the external structure.

>>11995822
3/10 heres your (you) for the effort

>>11996083
thank yew

The ghost of Adolf Kerbler arises.

>>11995727
Twist: the tiles are bulletproof

>>11996015
I’d creampie Valentina all day and night holy shit cunt

>>11996170
wat

this is now a haise thread, brought to you by the flintstones

>>11996192

>>11996194

how much longer do we have until all the apollo astronauts are dead
are we ever gonna make it to mars before then

Why must all the cool space development happen in the US. First I'd have to immigrate there, then I'd have to become a citizen before I can work on ITAR stuff.
That will take over a decade

tugs when?

depots when?

lockheed actually building any of their proposals when?

>>11996215
>>11996220
Space tugs are retarded without reusable launchers.

>>11996217
When either SLS or Shelby dies.

>>11996215
4ASS is currently engaging with propulsion researchers to find non chemical ways of making a tug work.

Is there an absolute limit to the number of possible stages in a rocket beyond reliability and failure? What's stopping a sufficiently well-engineered 10 stage rocket from being launched?

>>11996245
Staging hardware and extra engines are a mass penalty. You want as few stages as you can get away with.

>>11996245
well there's an optimal size for each stage to the next, and a minimum reasonable size for a stage, so past about five or six stages you're solidly into Saturn V territory

>>11993520
What kind of screw head is most used in manned space vessels? I guess you really don't want them to strip bolts, so... how is screwing in space?
Do they torque everything?
Pic was basically the inspiration for my question.

>>11996277
>so... how is screwing in space?
STRICTLY FORBIDDEN until you put a (habitation) ring on it!

>>11996285
How do you do that, if you can't screw?

>>11996349
Space barns with dovetail joinery.

>>11995636
>~uwu stop peeking at my tiles anon

>>11996277
I don't know what's most common. But the toolbox on the iss does seem to have every type
https://www.flickr.com/photos/timpeake/sets/72157634315750824/with/9129763521/

>>11996453
Because the ISS is a massive international abortion, can't even agree on common fixing heads lmao. Aerospace in the future will be using chad torx heads, as anyone who has ever had to work on anything ever will tell you, these are the ultimate god tier head type. Although Robertson is honorary for carpentry work.

>>11996459
>t*rx
>future

>>11996459
We use torx screws for carpentry in my country. Thank god it's cathing on, if only hex keys could switch over too

>>11996463
Go on then dickhead, what is your preferred head type? Probably Ph*llips like the colossal faggot you are.

>brand new robotic heat shield placing technology for several hundred million dollars
>can't even place tiles properly
The absolute state.

>virgin martian terraformer
>chad venetian terraformer
Why forcus on Mars when Venus already has 90% of the gravity earth has? People born there should be able to move back to Earth if they want
Gravity is a way bigger problem for long term habitability

>>11996482
You can get mars terraformed to the point you'll need oxygen mask and warm clothing.
Can't salvage the venereal disease without type II, I'm afraid.

>>11996470
flathead chad

>>11996485
Venus will be for the elite anyway. Once the trillionaires leave earth they'll want to setup another paradise for only themselves and a select few.

>>11996459
These are the nastiest shittiest pieces of shit ever. I can't tell how many times I had to drill them out because just looking at them wrong makes the head strip. Even the cheapest "one wrong move and its gone" chink philips is better.

>>11996482
Best post in the thread, terraforming retards can spend centuries fucking around on Venus, meanwhile Mars constructs massive paraterraforming projects, gigantic hive cities and huge industrial spaces, overcoming gravity issues (citation needed) with g trains or genetic modifications.

>>11996482
>>11996485
>terraformer
>ever a chad
Im-fucking-plying. By the time such efforts bear fruit, we can probably modify humans to live in any atmosphere anyways. There's seriously no point to it.

>>11996488
Precisely one application; to look nice on exposed brass hinges.

>>11996490
Holy shit learn how to use a drill and drill bits retard. Torx takes the largest amount of torque to strip by a huge margin if you use the right size bit and hold it correctly.

>>11994675
No need to, geology already created those.

>>11996481
Robots need to be tuned. Since the mounting surface for the heat shield needs to expand and contract with the expansion coefficient of the stainless steel substrate, there needs to be enough gap to not damage the tiles when the tanks shrink. Some gap will be necessary.

>>11996500
I am sincerely curious how they’ll solve the heat shield problem, as stainless steel expands and contracts with heat. Will they just use big slabs of PICA-X? Who knows.

>>11996506
Gaps aren't necessarily a large problem at hypersonic flow regimes.

>>11996512
What about the superheated air and all that? I’d hate to see Starship go Columbia on us.

>>11996513
Stainless steel is better at resisting heat than aluminum (and titanium, for that matter). The highest heat of reentry is held at bay by a boundary layer against the spacecraft's surface, but they will be dealing with a good several hundred degrees centigrade for a few minutes. I suspect they'll place a flexible material inside the gaps not unlike the stuff they use to seal the door of a convection oven. NASA employed a similar technique with the shuttle's tiles.

>>11996513
It's steel rather than aluminium so there's no risk of getting columbia'd from a gap here or there.

>>11996513
The super hot stuff forms a bow wave in front of starship, also stainless has a way higher melting temp than shitty aluminium. The gaps will also become much much smaller as the tiles heat and expand.

>>11996520
Refractory ceramics don't tend to expand or contract with heat.

>>11996521
Interesting, I guess they will just have to work the smallest room temperature gap they can that won't explode the tiles from compression when the tank shrinks at cryo.

>>11996353
Biscuit joints, or at least anything but Kregg

>>11996481
God stuff like the hop and this is starting to make it all feel pretty real to me. The scale of activity at Boca Chica is quite something also. It seems like he really is serious about building a production line for these things. If I were a rival I think I'd have a creeping sense of dread

>>11995357
>>11995774
>>11995805
alright bros, we've had a bit of an SLS tier schedule over here but holy shit we finally got this thing built and launched into orbit after about 15 launch aborts and VAB rollbacks to fix issues

>>11996532
If I were a rival I would be immediately liquidating existing assets, conducting corporate espionage and running a parallel but almost identical program to starship.

>>11995636
the gap in the middle looks intended

>>11996539
Dont give the Chinese ideas

>>11996538
Upper stage still has plenty of juice in it since I decided to launch the two probes separately instead of throwing them both up on the same launch, so reignited the RD-58s for the injection burn and then the Astris after the kerolox ran out. The spent stage has some batteries and RCS fuel to deorbit itself on the next apoapsis, and since I did half the burn on the upper stage I should have enough aerozine to do the capture burn with the Astris too.

>>11996481

>>11996539
Either rivals adopt a similar rapid iteration approach or they expend 10x (Roscosmos?) or 20x (ESA gold plated Mercedes approach kek) the cost designing their own. And then there's the production cost, which SpaceX also seem intent on rapidly iterating down to minimum. But I'd say it's not even a case of rivals just copying SpaceX's methods. The stubborn intransigence and obvious contempt for a clearly superior approach demonstrates management failure, which bodes ill. I'd suggest the managements need to be removed and the entire organisations restructured to bring them into the 21st century in order for them to successfully compete on cost. But I think the chances of this are very low because there are countless snouts in the trough. So hopefully this means we get to watch the slow, humiliating decline of oldspace as the brutally superior economics of Starship inevitably bring themselves to bear in the years to come. Heh

>>11996555
Okay minor issue, we forgot to charge the upper stage batteries and so can't control it to deorbit it after all. Oh well, it's a problem for someone else to deal with now.
After three days in transit we finally reached the inner moon and proceeded with capture and plane change burn to enter a nice mapping orbit for the radar altimeter. The original mission plan was for the boost tank to be discarded either after the injection burn or during the capture burn and flung out into a heliocentric orbit, but since it launched on such a heavy rocket I ended up with it still not quite empty even after main burns finished, so I dumped it to impact with the surface of Iota. I've been a bit worried about using the Astris engine on the boost tank with how awful its reliability ratings are, but so far the only issue is a few failed ignitions which aren't much of a problem since it can just be restarted until it works.

t. blog blogger

>>11996625
using scansat?

>>11996629
yeah, had to do a bit of fucking around trying to find a good orbit, but should be good enough now to finish the contract eventually
now I just gotta launch the second probe and do the same thing at the other moon

>>11996494
>if you use the right size bit and hold it correctly
translation: if you're not a retard
>>11996481
>>11996574
That's basically dabbing it. I'll say it again, he needs a contrasting color of tiles. The salt from people who see that for the first time after it gets rolled out would be incredible.
>tfw no elon dabs in my pictures

>>11996635
Are you scanning the Moon here? I remember some mods from years ago before stock resource gathering where you had to scan for spots so you knew where to land for mining.

>>11996482
Venice doesn't need to be terraformed, Anon.

>>11996003
First stage dry mass is 22t and one Merlin is 850kN thrust, but I don't know how much fuel is left or how much they throttle it for the landing burn so...3?

>>11996655
500 years from now blacks claim Musk was black.

>>11996703
It'll be Black Jesus all over again.

>>11996663
I'm playing with real scale galileo system instead of RSS, but yeah just doing basic low res altimetry scans for some contracts. Astris exploded on the second mission, but I manage to get it into orbit at least although not an ideal one. I need to figure out how to do scanning orbits better too, it's easy enough to get a good orbit on kerbin/gael where it rotates fast but I'm not sure what the trick is yet for slower rotating bodies other than a lot of trial and error and spent fuel.