Any simple ways of recycling carbon fiber?
Quote from: lamontagne on 06/14/2016 10:32 pmAny simple ways of recycling carbon fiber?Instead of recycling the carbon fiber, the boxes can be made out of carbon fiber panels and supports that can be disassembled and reassembled into other shapes. The panels can be used to build tables, chairs, interior walls, etc.
I agree with darkenfast. Standardized containers will not be part of the first generation of colonies.I was thinking of a thin pallet with a net on the top but with the reduced gravity only the net is needed.
You have to unload 100t of cargo (possibly multiple 100t's of cargo, if many cargo MCT have arrived prior to your arrival). If not containerized, are you going to do this with a pallet jack / manual labor? That is a waste of time and human energy, and time and human energy will be at a premium.
Quote from: biosehnsucht on 06/15/2016 05:16 pmYou have to unload 100t of cargo (possibly multiple 100t's of cargo, if many cargo MCT have arrived prior to your arrival). If not containerized, are you going to do this with a pallet jack / manual labor? That is a waste of time and human energy, and time and human energy will be at a premium.I expect the whole cargo hold to be taken off and the propulsion unit returning to earth without it.
The engine nozzles have to cant around a 15m heatshield, there is no way they will survive interplanetary re-entry velocity if they are sitting in the plasma flow. Why not cant around the cargo hold too?
Quote from: guckyfan on 06/15/2016 05:58 pmI expect the whole cargo hold to be taken off and the propulsion unit returning to earth without it.I've been trying to work this out, and it would be very useful, but...How?
I expect the whole cargo hold to be taken off and the propulsion unit returning to earth without it.
You have to unload 100t of cargo (possibly multiple 100t's of cargo, if many cargo MCT have arrived prior to your arrival). If not containerized, are you going to do this with a pallet jack / manual labor? That is a waste of time and human energy, and time and human energy will be at a premium.Standardized containers for MCT are about being able to unload and deploy things in a timely manner. They allow for various tools such as an onboard crane / hoist with spreader bar or similar method to move the container outside of the vehicle onto the ground, and some other asset (itself also deployed in a similar fashion) to then move the container from there.Not everything will be literally in a container necessarily (i.e. if all it would contain is a large rover or construction vehicle, it may just have a frame around it with the attachment points on the frame, no sides), but containers allow for tighter packing and better use of space as well vs open pallets (because contents can be attached to walls/ceiling as well as floor allowing greater use of space).
I'm not so sure the engines can't be protruding through a heatshield (more or less like a Falcon 9 first stage), assuming they have sufficient propellent to run at least some of the engines with enough power to use the supersonic retropropulsion effect to push the shock wave far enough out to reduce aero heating. For Mars decent that is probably easier since the atmosphere is thinner in the first place (less need for a heat shield), for Earth this may be more difficult.Even if you cant the engines around the heatshield (more like Crew Dragon than Falcon 9 first stage), if you drop off the cargo as one giant module, you still have a problem, since you just dropped your (Mars) heat shield you need a second, more massive (at least you could save mass on the Martian one) Earth heat shield, which is above your engine nacelles. Alternatively you might put your engines far up the side of the vehicle to be above the Earth return heat shield, but now you need to shield the sides of the cargo from the engine exhaust and so on.
Quote from: biosehnsucht on 06/15/2016 09:11 pmI'm not so sure the engines can't be protruding through a heatshield (more or less like a Falcon 9 first stage), assuming they have sufficient propellent to run at least some of the engines with enough power to use the supersonic retropropulsion effect to push the shock wave far enough out to reduce aero heating. For Mars decent that is probably easier since the atmosphere is thinner in the first place (less need for a heat shield), for Earth this may be more difficult.Even if you cant the engines around the heatshield (more like Crew Dragon than Falcon 9 first stage), if you drop off the cargo as one giant module, you still have a problem, since you just dropped your (Mars) heat shield you need a second, more massive (at least you could save mass on the Martian one) Earth heat shield, which is above your engine nacelles. Alternatively you might put your engines far up the side of the vehicle to be above the Earth return heat shield, but now you need to shield the sides of the cargo from the engine exhaust and so on.Further discussion of this is certainly merited, but it belongs in the MCT speculation thread: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=37808.2320