SpaceX’s Tom Mueller to Address 2017 Mars Society Convention The Mars Society is pleased to announce that Tom Mueller, Propulsion Chief Technology Officer for SpaceX, will speak about his company’s ongoing development and plans for travel to the Red Planet at the 20th Annual International Mars Society Convention, scheduled for September 7-10 at the University of California Irvine. A founding employee of SpaceX, Mr. Mueller focuses on new technology developments for propulsion, including Mars main propulsion and surface power. Prior to becoming SpaceX CTO in 2014, he served as the company’s Vice President of Propulsion Engineering for 12 years, helping with design and development of propulsion systems for the Falcon launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft. Mr. Mueller received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Idaho and later graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a Master of Science degree in the same field of engineering. He also holds several U.S. patents for propulsion technology. For additional information about the 2017 Mars Society Convention, including registration details for the four-day convention and evening banquet as well as a list of confirmed speakers, please visit our web site (www.marssociety.org). The full 2017 program itinerary will be posted online in the near future.
Mr. Mueller focuses on new technology developments for propulsion, including Mars main propulsion and surface power.
QuoteMr. Mueller focuses on new technology developments for propulsion, including Mars main propulsion and surface power. !!!
Quote from: AncientU on 06/10/2017 11:52 pmQuoteMr. Mueller focuses on new technology developments for propulsion, including Mars main propulsion and surface power. !!!I never understood people who thought SpaceX hadn't been thinking of surface power (even though Musk has publicly talked about them doing research on it).
Quote from: Robotbeat on 06/11/2017 01:04 amQuote from: AncientU on 06/10/2017 11:52 pmQuoteMr. Mueller focuses on new technology developments for propulsion, including Mars main propulsion and surface power. !!!I never understood people who thought SpaceX hadn't been thinking of surface power (even though Musk has publicly talked about them doing research on it).I think the !!! is for the chance to hear more details, not that AU didn't think they were working on it... I'm excited to hear more too. Did they do the Lockheed reactor thing? Or are they planning a big solar installation with lots of batteries?
Without surface power (and ISRU), there isn't even a complete transportation system.
September is a long way off... TM is a fluid dynamics guy -- turbo-pumps, injectors, reaction chamber mixing, nozzles, etc. -- why put him in charge of a white bread solar/battery installation that has no fluids and no dynamics? Maybe there are 'interesting' pieces of the surface power equation that we really don't know. ISRU equipment will include compressors which are fluid dynamics-based components... but where does this fit in surface power systems?
Quote from: AncientU on 06/11/2017 11:17 amSeptember is a long way off... TM is a fluid dynamics guy -- turbo-pumps, injectors, reaction chamber mixing, nozzles, etc. -- why put him in charge of a white bread solar/battery installation that has no fluids and no dynamics? Maybe there are 'interesting' pieces of the surface power equation that we really don't know. ISRU equipment will include compressors which are fluid dynamics-based components... but where does this fit in surface power systems?Hadn't thought about it that way. (Except for the "we have to wait till September?!” part)It's a hint.Maybe put more generically - Engine people want to "make power on their own terms", not "scavenge it". A bit vague, I know...I'm really interested in knowing SpaceX's estimate for how much power they need per person, excluding fuel generation for BFS.
Quote from: meekGee on 06/11/2017 02:33 pmQuote from: AncientU on 06/11/2017 11:17 amSeptember is a long way off... TM is a fluid dynamics guy -- turbo-pumps, injectors, reaction chamber mixing, nozzles, etc. -- why put him in charge of a white bread solar/battery installation that has no fluids and no dynamics? Maybe there are 'interesting' pieces of the surface power equation that we really don't know. ISRU equipment will include compressors which are fluid dynamics-based components... but where does this fit in surface power systems?Hadn't thought about it that way. (Except for the "we have to wait till September?!” part)It's a hint.Maybe put more generically - Engine people want to "make power on their own terms", not "scavenge it". A bit vague, I know...I'm really interested in knowing SpaceX's estimate for how much power they need per person, excluding fuel generation for BFS.I don't think we need to overthink it. Mueller is the CTO at SpaceX now, so he is responsible for all technology development. That doesn't imply some novel Mueller derived power system. The teams working on power (or anything else) report to him, which is exactly as we should expect.That said, he probably is thinking about talking about surface power, or else it likely wouldn't be in the announcement.
Hmm, Tom Mueller is not listed on the convention’s speakers page: http://www.marssociety.org/conventions-2017-speakers/Has he pulled out? Up staging Elon?
Quote from: FutureSpaceTourist on 07/08/2017 07:24 amHmm, Tom Mueller is not listed on the convention’s speakers page: http://www.marssociety.org/conventions-2017-speakers/Has he pulled out? Up staging Elon?I just looked at that page the other day (yesterday?) and Mueller was on that page. Good catch.
Quote from: RedLineTrain on 07/08/2017 07:59 pmQuote from: FutureSpaceTourist on 07/08/2017 07:24 amHmm, Tom Mueller is not listed on the convention’s speakers page: http://www.marssociety.org/conventions-2017-speakers/Has he pulled out? Up staging Elon?I just looked at that page the other day (yesterday?) and Mueller was on that page. Good catch.Probably Elon just getting ahead of himself timeline wise yet again. Despite his tweet months ago about a fiscal reality based real soon now update to last September's ITS reveal, it's likely the new plan was not ready to be revealed when expected. Elon would be the guy for the very first reveal, not Tom. Tesla events q.v. Model 3 launch and production issues are probably consuming much of Elon's time now and thru the summer.It would not help SpaceX's campaign to be the focal point for Mars efforts and possible government funding to have an annual event where the Mars plan changes substantively each year. One well thought out fiscal driven revision is fine. It just can't keep happening to be taken seriously.
Quote from: FutureSpaceTourist on 07/08/2017 07:24 amHmm, Tom Mueller is not listed on the convention’s speakers page: http://www.marssociety.org/conventions-2017-speakers/Has he pulled out? Up staging Elon?http://www.marssociety.org/spacexs-tom-mueller-to-address-2017-international-mars-society-convention/
Quote from: jpo234 on 07/11/2017 07:23 amQuote from: FutureSpaceTourist on 07/08/2017 07:24 amHmm, Tom Mueller is not listed on the convention’s speakers page: http://www.marssociety.org/conventions-2017-speakers/Has he pulled out? Up staging Elon?http://www.marssociety.org/spacexs-tom-mueller-to-address-2017-international-mars-society-convention/That's just the original announcement from June that I quoted in the first post on this thread. He was listed on the convention's speakers page until very recently, but not now.
But you quoted an external site (http://mailchi.mp) while this is a direct link to the site of the Mars Society.
A little birdie told us (you know who you are, thanks!) that Tom is indeed not booked for this after all. So most definitely don't run to buy tickets and plan for this.
One of the moderators over on r/SpaceX (FoxhoundBat) has confirmed that Mr. Mueller won't be speaking at the convention:Quote from: https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/6mjnti/spacexs_tom_mueller_to_address_2017_international/dk3hz5k/A little birdie told us (you know who you are, thanks!) that Tom is indeed not booked for this after all. So most definitely don't run to buy tickets and plan for this.Disappointing but understandable .