The Astronomy Thread

LachiusTZ

LachiusTZ

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I don't, walls are think enough or didn't matter.

Launching a rocket out of water is akin to blowing a dart out of a dart gun instead of your mouth.

Either way, if you guys would like I can consult someone that would know, but don't want to Vaclav up the thread.

And the point was this, 65+ years ago we had a very cheap reusable system ready to launch. And another system able to tech mars in weeks.

Half a century later, we are farther away now than then.
 
khorum

khorum

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No. In a few years we'll have bands of roving Mexican Muslims scavenging the cape Canaveral launchpads for metal reveling at what those strange letters on the rusted fences say and ask themselves why the extinct gringo cuckslaves would ever build such weird parking lots.

That's how people living in a fallen Roman world felt.
 
Mudcrush Durtfeet

Mudcrush Durtfeet

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LachiusTZ_sl said:
I don't, walls are think enough or didn't matter.

Launching a rocket out of water is akin to blowing a dart out of a dart gun instead of your mouth.

Either way, if you guys would like I can consult someone that would know, but don't want to Vaclav up the thread.

And the point was this, 65+ years ago we had a very cheap reusable system ready to launch. And another system able to tech mars in weeks.

Half a century later, we are farther away now than then.
Click to expand...
I didn't see any information saying that we had such a thing, if you could go find something definitive and link it, I'd appreciate it. Otherwise, I'm going to have to go with 'no we didn't'.
 
Cad

Cad

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I think the Saturn V was actually more expensive to launch than the Shuttle, wasn't it? But I think it also lifted significantly more weight so perhaps the cost per pound was less?

The Space Shuttle and the Costly Nature of Space Access | Roger Launiuss Blog

The mighty Saturn V Moon rocket, the most powerful launch system ever developed, had a thrust at launch of 7.5 million pounds of thrust. It could place into orbit a massive payload of 262,000 pounds, but to do so cost an enormous $113.1 million per launch ($465 million in 2015 dollars). And those are just basic launch costs to orbit; they do not include the cost of satellite development, indemnification, boost to optimum orbit, ground support and transportation, operations, and the like.
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Saturn V = $1774/lb at 2015 rates

In 2004, Elon Musk stated, "long term plans call for development of a heavy lift product and even a super-heavy, if there is customer demand. [...] Ultimately, I believe $500 per pound ($1100/kg) [of payload delivered to orbit] or less is very achievable."[102] At its 2013 launch price and at full LEO payload capacity, the Falcon 9 v1.1 cost $1,864 per pound ($4,109/kg).
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Interesting.
 
K

Kedwyn

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Would be pretty bad ass if we could build a 2 mile high electro magnet sling shot and just fling shit into orbit.
 
khorum

khorum

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Rubber band tech bro!!!


Not literally rubber bands either. You could design a CNT-cable based vertical trebuchet that uses weights and pulleys or some shit. Even if you could get an SRB to 300m/s with just the trebuchet before it fires you're already saving a third of the fuel weight.
 
khorum

khorum

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Wouldn't be too hard to hide a scale proof of concept for that... I wonder if the af is playing with it.
 
Tuco

Tuco

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500k is enough to pay a post doc and a grad student to make some matlab models + a visual + a research paper over a year.
 
khorum

khorum

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LOL yeah, it's a struggle, I admit. Won't you help a bro out then?

What part of "NASA Cancelled Sea Dragon in the mid-60s" before a single rivet was ever requisitioned to put any data behind those"estimates"did I misread, exactly?

At least JPL actually made a scale model of Project Orion using plastic explosives, and THAT would've been more efficient than spacex too.
 
Big Phoenix

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khorum_sl said:
LOL yeah, it's a struggle, I admit. Won't you help a bro out then?

What part of "NASA Cancelled Sea Dragon in the mid-60s" before a single rivet was ever requisitioned to put any data behind those"estimates"did I misread, exactly?

At least JPL actually made a scale model of Project Orion using plastic explosives, and THAT would've been more efficient than spacex too.
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Of course. We are ISP capd for chemical rockets bro.
 
LachiusTZ

LachiusTZ

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khorum_sl said:
Stuff
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Sea Bee

Proof of concept vehicle that, apparently, was reusable.

Retired almost 65 years ago, cost to relaunch was 7% of total cost.

The other test rocket did not have a reuse cost %, but it was made from spare parts... so...

Again, half a century ago we could do most of what space x is trying to do now. It wasn't as cool, but functional, safe, cheap, and over half a fucking century ago.
 
Palum

Palum

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Yea but it didn't land like this:

S4cXDU.gif
 
Mudcrush Durtfeet

Mudcrush Durtfeet

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LachiusTZ_sl said:
Sea Bee

Proof of concept vehicle that, apparently, was reusable.

Retired almost 65 years ago, cost to relaunch was 7% of total cost.

The other test rocket did not have a reuse cost %, but it was made from spare parts... so...

Again, half a century ago we could do most of what space x is trying to do now. It wasn't as cool, but functional, safe, cheap, and over half a fucking century ago.
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I did see that article earlier.
That article doesn't actually say they launched and landed the thing or anything like that, only 'tests' were done. What were those tests? From the article on the other model they used it seems like it might have only been ignition tests, not actually firing the thing into space or anything.

Let us know if you find any links with better information.
 
LachiusTZ

LachiusTZ

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It wouldn't land as much as get recovered. It reads like it was launched and recovered at least once (could have been multiple times).

Most of the details are likely gone or in a hard copy report somewhere.

For some reason, all the water launched rockets were designed, had functional proof of concepts built that functioned, had very promising estimates and wee expected to be reusable, then cancelled or were denied flight status.

Once launched 500kg into orbit, was priced well below what the cost was at the time, then immediately cancelled.
 
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