Space - The Final Frontier

[ERD50]

...

It never occurred to me that commercial satellite launch was an industry that was overdue for a shake up.. Especially by a start up.

I would have thought so too, but I heard a podcast/interview with Musk a few years back. He talked about how the shuttle still used those big desk-sized Ampex tape drives for memory. NASA had to machine the repair parts, as they were out of production for years. He said a RAID configuration of a few thumb drives would out-perform those tape drives at a tiny, tiny fraction of the cost and weight. But it takes too much time/effort to qualify replacements through the NASA bureaucracy, so they still used the tape drives.

So now I can see where there is room for a start-up. It's hard to fathom ll the work and coordination to pull this off. Now where's that Hyperloop!

-ERD50

 

[MRG]

I would have thought so too, but I heard a podcast/interview with Musk a few years back. He talked about how the shuttle still used those big desk-sized Ampex tape drives for memory. NASA had to machine the repair parts, as they were out of production for years. He said a RAID configuration of a few thumb drives would out-perform those tape drives at a tiny, tiny fraction of the cost and weight. But it takes too much time/effort to qualify replacements through the NASA bureaucracy, so they still used the tape drives.

So now I can see where there is room for a start-up. It's hard to fathom ll the work and coordination to pull this off. Now where's that Hyperloop!

-ERD50

How true. A buddy worked on shuttle software for 2 years. He managed to get zero changes implemented during that time. His first change was changing 1 instruction. He was too high strung for that many 'code reviews', and QC testing.

MRG

 

[Chuckanut]

I heard an interview with an ISS astronaut. He seemed to be quit impressed with the fit and finish of the Space X Dragon craft.

IIRC, Musk made a comment about Hyperloop development to the affect that he did not want to waste time with bureaucratic nonsense.

 

[Koogie]

Okay so saying this probably won't make me any friends here but I've been disappointed by the lack of coverage in the American media of the landing of the Chinese moon rover.
It strikes me a little as sour grapes. If this had of been a NASA rover landing on the moon after an absence of human activity of 40 years there would be in-depth, non stop streaming coverage.
Think what you will of the Chinese government and how they operate, it is still a staggering achievement. They're only the third country to make an extra-planetary landing and they've built a space program up from nothing in a short period of time.
It probably won't be long before Taikonauts are on the moon as well.
(Granted, the scope of operation for the rover is fairly limited and it did apparently land off of target).

 

[REWahoo]

Okay so saying this probably won't make me any friends here but I've been disappointed by the lack of coverage in the American media of the landing of the Chinese moon rover.
It strikes me a little as sour grapes. If this had of been a NASA rover landing on the moon after an absence of human activity of 40 years there would be in-depth, non stop streaming coverage.
Think what you will of the Chinese government and how they operate, it is still a staggering achievement. They're only the third country to make an extra-planetary landing and they've built a space program up from nothing in a short period of time.
It probably won't be long before Taikonauts are on the moon as well.
(Granted, the scope of operation for the rover is fairly limited and it did apparently land off of target).

You're disappointed in the lack of coverage in the US about their unmanned landing on the moon almost half a century after we landed men on the moon - and brought them back safely, multiple times?

Old news is always old news...

 

[clifp]

Okay so saying this probably won't make me any friends here but I've been disappointed by the lack of coverage in the American media of the landing of the Chinese moon rover.
It strikes me a little as sour grapes. If this had of been a NASA rover landing on the moon after an absence of human activity of 40 years there would be in-depth, non stop streaming coverage.
Think what you will of the Chinese government and how they operate, it is still a staggering achievement. They're only the third country to make an extra-planetary landing and they've built a space program up from nothing in a short period of time.
It probably won't be long before Taikonauts are on the moon as well.
(Granted, the scope of operation for the rover is fairly limited and it did apparently land off of target).

I agree with you and I am disappointed. I watch the PBS Newshour every night and they have had zero coverage of the landing beyond announcing it. But they have manage to find time to talk about the on going controversy if the airspace over the island in the South China Sea several times.

 

[Chuckanut]

Nobody got killed. Had the Chinese lander killed Gidney and Cloyd, it would have been all over the news!

Hokey Smoke! Rocky & Bullwinkle

 

[Chuckanut]

FWIW, the space walk to fix the ISS, is live on NASA TV.

NASA Television | NASA

 

[Chuckanut]

Here is an interesting interview with Gwynne Shotwell the President and Chief Operating Officer of SpaceX.

 

[clifp]

I know this sounds sexist but was anyone else surprised that President of SpaceX was woman? Doing a bit of googling on her. I wasn't surprised that she was High School cheerleader, and still describes herself that way. "Cheerleaders make great sales people" Of course she is also a real engineer and obviously very sharp.

Here is her Ted Talk on STEM and beer. Engineering America: Gwynne Shotwell at TEDxChapmanU - YouTube

 

[Chuckanut]

You mean this talk?

http://www.tedxchapmanu.com/2013-talks/#Shotwell

Click on Shotwell.

 

[clifp]

Yup I fixed my link, sorry about that.

 

[Chuckanut]

When Galaxies Collide! you saw it here first!

Star-Crossed Galaxies

 

[TOOLMAN]

When Galaxies Collide! you saw it here first!

Star-Crossed Galaxies

I have read of this before, but the video was great. Thanks for the link. It's amazing what science has discovered.
I like to learn new things, especially the unknown unknown's.

The strangest idea that I have now come to consider as somewhat possible is we may just be a simulation... The "Real" Final Frontier. ;-)


www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHRqAmdR4qo
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiT-GZ0wg28
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSEKZp7mlUQ

 

[Chuckanut]

Interesting note from NASA to Russia. What will this mean for companies like SpaceX, Sierra Nevada Corp, and NASA's own Orion spacecraft? The note itself is obviously politcial, IMHO, but I think it is interesting to see if the current problems with Russia will spur this country to speed up the manned space program. It's already taken us longer to get back into space than it did to launch the first Mercury astronauts back in the early 60's.

Given Russia's ongoing violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, NASA is suspending the majority of its ongoing engagements with the Russian Federation. NASA and Roscosmos will, however, continue to work together to maintain safe and continuous operation of the International Space Station. NASA is laser focused on a plan to return human spaceflight launches to American soil, and end our reliance on Russia to get into space.

 

[Chuckanut]

It seems that an important Air Force tracking station caught fire a few days ago, so nothing is being launched from the Cape until it is fixed.

 

[clifp]

It's already taken us longer to get back into space than it did to launch the first Mercury astronauts back in the early 60's.

Wow that is a telling factoid.
It in case people missed it 60 Minutes had a piece on Elon last week, very little new about either Tesla or SpaceX

 

[Chuckanut]

It's already taken us longer to get back into space than it did to launch the first Mercury astronauts back in the early 60's.

I was wrong. The first American satellite was launched in January of 1958. Shepard's flight was in May of 1961 about 3 1/2 years difference.

The last space shuttle flight was July of 2011. NASA anticipates launching a manned American craft in 2017. So assuming all goes well there will be about a six year gap. Granted the SpaceX or other manned craft will be a lot more sophisticated and capable than the first Mercury capsules, but consider that it took just over 8 years to go from Alan Shepard's sub-orbital flight to landing on the moon. We are really operating in slow motion these days. IMHO.

 

[braumeister]

The first American satellite was launched in January of 1958.

Vivid memories of those days.
When the first satellite was launched in 1957 (the Soviet "Sputnik"), it absolutely stunned the world.
My father drove the shuttle bus that just went round and round JFK Airport in New York (it was still called Idlewild in those days), so his bus route immediately became known as the Sputnik, as in "When you land at the TWA terminal, jump on the Sputnik and get over to the American terminal."
That name stuck for decades, but I doubt if it's still called that today.

 

[Nodak]

I remember going out at night and looking for Sputnik to come over. We did finally find it.

 

[Texas Proud]

I was wrong. The first American satellite was launched in January of 1958. Shepard's flight was in May of 1961 about 3 1/2 years difference.

The last space shuttle flight was July of 2011. NASA anticipates launching a manned American craft in 2017. So assuming all goes well there will be about a six year gap. Granted the SpaceX or other manned craft will be a lot more sophisticated and capable than the first Mercury capsules, but consider that it took just over 8 years to go from Alan Shepard's sub-orbital flight to landing on the moon. We are really operating in slow motion these days. IMHO.

I would bet the difference is desire and budget....

Back then it was part of the cold war and we spent big time to show we were better.... now we do not care and budgets are tight....

 

[Free To Canoe]

....
The last space shuttle flight was July of 2011. NASA anticipates launching a manned American craft in 2017 IMHO.....

The lifting ability of the SLS will allow the rocket to deliver payloads to a position called L2 (a stable orbit beyond the moon), perform an asteroid mission, or even fly an unmanned sample return from the moons of Mars.

NASA's Biggest Rocket Yet Aims for 2017 Test Flight | Space Launch System (SLS) | Space.com

Stable orbit beyond the moon. I guess we are getting the high ground (again). Recent events have seemed to move this up to the front burner I think.

 

[clifp]

The lifting ability of the SLS will allow the rocket to deliver payloads to a position called L2 (a stable orbit beyond the moon), perform an asteroid mission, or even fly an unmanned sample return from the moons of Mars.

NASA's Biggest Rocket Yet Aims for 2017 Test Flight | Space Launch System (SLS) | Space.com

Stable orbit beyond the moon. I guess we are getting the high ground (again). Recent events have seemed to move this up to the front burner I think.

I'll admit to have thoroughly drunk the Elon Musk, Koolaid. Still with the Falcon Heavy having nearly the capabilities of the SLS system and scheduled to be launched at the end of this year or early 2015. Why spend money on developing a more expensive rocket that won't be available until 2017?

 

[Chuckanut]

The latest launch of the Dragon space craft to the ISS went off without a hitch.

What's of more interest to me is the recovery effort of the first stage booster. They were going to attempt to restart the first stage rockets to slow it down, deploy the landing legs, and then watch it slowly descend into the Atlantic. Elon Musk estimates about a 40% chance of success on this first try, though they have successfully restarted the first stage engines at hypersonic speeds in a previous launch.

 

[Chuckanut]

Apparently they succeeded in 'soft' landing the first stage on the water. It transmitted data for 8 seconds after contact until it went horizontal. Salt water is hard on electronics.