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I hope for the best for a sequel to 'Clipper, at least if it's discoveries prove exciting indeed.

...in the meantime, the first trajectory maneuver happens tomorrow? (November 2nd)
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Other US Launchers / Re: US Launch Schedule
« Last post by zubenelgenubi on Today at 07:15 pm »
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SpaceX Starship Program / Re: Catching Starship's upper stage
« Last post by adrianwyard on Today at 07:12 pm »
There's no indication so far that SpaceX will add booster-style catch pins to the ship, and its current lift sockets seem needlessly difficult to target during a landing. How might they evolve that to increase the tolerances? One way is to elongate the socket vertically so you can get the arm's catch pin into position as the ship is falling the last few meters (rather than stab the socket hole as it passes by as would be necessary with the current design.) It may be reasonable to widen it too. I've depicted that in the picture below. This larger socket area will be subject to heating, so perhaps Ti. I added a small windward ramp.

If something like this is the plan for the Ship I imagine they'll use it for the booster too. The booster pins will turn out to have been just an interim design while the rest of the system was matured.
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Quote
Huh?? Did anyone ever think it was just paint?? That seems...  unnecessarily disingenuous.  ???

Believe it or not: some of us are not in the aerospace industry, but simply enjoy reading this forum, because the final frontier is fascinating.   ;)

The lunar surface thermal environment alone makes it obvious that "just paint" isn't going to cut it. Unless you thought SpaceX can't do basic (first year undergraduate) thermal calculations,

You are talking about the company that believed a flame trench wouldn't be necessary for the most powerful rocket of all time...  ;D

SpaceX officially: 1. claimed a bare stainless steel is more than enough to spend some time on the moon 2. showed multiple official renders without anything, not even paint 3. Two mockups were already only painted white

Anyway, the bare steel going to Mars was even more often discussed as an advantage of switching to steel, hence my curiosity: will they also use additional MMOD protection for other deep space missions, like Mars transporter?
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Which first stage will be used for this launch? (semi-rhetorical question)

Falcon 9 first stages are now cleared for use up to forty times for non-crewed launches, although that number is apparently more restricted for Cargo Dragon or Cygnus than these other payloads.

1072.2 and 1086.2 are being converted to "single-sticks" after their recovery as the Falcon Heavy side boosters from the GOES-U launch.  We have not yet seen them in their new role.

Available first stages, with UTC date of most recent recovery:
1072.2    Jun 25   (maybe)
1086.2    Jun 25   (maybe)
1077.16  Sep 5
1083.5    Sep 10   SpX-31
1067.23  Sep 17
1085.3    Sep 28
1080.12  Oct 15
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Assuming 550,000 lbf, 40% of that would be 220,000 lbs or just under 100 metric tons.

That's quite heavy. The much bigger Saturn V S-IC first stage dry mass (not including the interstage) was only 130 t! For Apollo 14, the exact mass was 130,321 kg. Of course, the fins and legs add a bit of mass for New Glenn.

That would not be a GS-1 dry mass since there would be some propellant left to make the final landing burn that also has to be accounted for. It could easily be 25-30 tons lighter.
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Let's say that "juicy" thing is a long-lived stable plume. Then a new multi-flyby spacecraft with life detection instruments might be the next thing as has been proposed for Enceladus' long-lived stable plumes.

Well, I don't want to get into picking apart hypothetical scenarios, but if it was "long-lived" then we probably would have seen it by now. One could argue that it's not long-lived, and therefore there is no guarantee it will be there when another spacecraft arrives 15 years later.

My overall point still stands, that no mission like this is going to happen "fast." At the very least it takes 5-7 years to build it and another 5 years to get to Jupiter, and that's not counting building the scientific and political consensus necessary to get it approved.
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Historical Spaceflight / Re: Defense Support Program (DSP)
« Last post by Blackstar on Today at 06:10 pm »
I will amend my earlier comment. I think that a truck like this could pass as a commercial vehicle. Paint a logo on the side of it and people would be less suspicious, although somebody from the same trucking company might consider it unusual.
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Could this project have used something from the "unknown" customer satellite order in 2015 listed here?
Examples: spacecraft bus, propulsion system, thrusters.
https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sat/osc_star-2.htm
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SpaceX Starship Program / Re: Catching Starship's upper stage
« Last post by Kenp51d on Today at 06:06 pm »
How does one solve the flaming butt of a rocket interacting with an air bag. Can they be made of something that can take that abuse?
Not disparaging the ideal, just curious
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