Author Topic: SpaceX Falcon 9 : TESS : April 18, 2018 : Discussion  (Read 192341 times)

Offline Prober

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10348
  • Save the spin....I'm keeping you honest!
  • Nevada
  • Liked: 721
  • Likes Given: 729
Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : TESS : NET April 16, 2018 : Discussion
« Reply #20 on: 03/21/2015 01:31 am »
So Atlas might not have been even considered. I wonder what that says about the other options like Antares and Athena and their cost?
Athena 2c is supposedly priced at $65 million, less than the $87 million now allocated for this Falcon 9 launch, but NASA would also have had to fund a Star 37 kick motor for an Athena 2c launch, not to mention restarting the long-dormant SLC 47 launch site.  Falcon 9 probably also provides a lot more wiggle room on weight growth.

I wonder where the second stage will be disposed.

 - Ed kyle

Didn't ULA have one more Delta II to bid with?   
2017 - Everything Old is New Again.
"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant..." --Isoroku Yamamoto

Offline kevin-rf

  • Elite Veteran
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8823
  • Overlooking the path Mary's little Lamb took..
  • Liked: 1318
  • Likes Given: 306
Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : TESS : NET April 16, 2018 : Discussion
« Reply #21 on: 03/21/2015 01:40 am »
In some of Tory Bruno's interviews he has mulled it not being worth the effort to sell the last white tail.
If you're happy and you know it,
It's your med's!

Offline gongora

  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10205
  • US
  • Liked: 13885
  • Likes Given: 5933
Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : TESS : NET April 16, 2018 : Discussion
« Reply #22 on: 03/21/2015 01:47 am »
I don't think Delta II would be competitive with Falcon 9 now.  The article I found on last Delta II purchases said NASA paid $400M for 3 flights (including processing and everything else).  SpaceX has been offering that for less than $90M/flight.

Offline oldAtlas_Eguy

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5304
  • Florida
  • Liked: 5005
  • Likes Given: 1444
Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : TESS : NET April 16, 2018 : Discussion
« Reply #23 on: 03/21/2015 12:48 pm »
I don't think Delta II would be competitive with Falcon 9 now.  The article I found on last Delta II purchases said NASA paid $400M for 3 flights (including processing and everything else).  SpaceX has been offering that for less than $90M/flight.

That makes the last Delta II cost more than a Atlas V: D II $133M to Atlas V 401 $120M. So yes it is not worth the effort.

Offline Robotbeat

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 39270
  • Minnesota
  • Liked: 25240
  • Likes Given: 12115
Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : TESS : NET April 16, 2018 : Discussion
« Reply #24 on: 03/21/2015 12:53 pm »
NASA pays more than $120m for an Atlas V.
Chris  Whoever loves correction loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.

To the maximum extent practicable, the Federal Government shall plan missions to accommodate the space transportation services capabilities of United States commercial providers. US law http://goo.gl/YZYNt0

Offline baldusi

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8356
  • Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Liked: 2539
  • Likes Given: 8273
Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : TESS : NET April 16, 2018 : Discussion
« Reply #25 on: 03/21/2015 01:48 pm »
NASA pays more than $120m for an Atlas V.
Yes, I believe that they pay something like 180 for a 401 and 320 for a 551.

Offline Zed_Noir

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5490
  • Canada
  • Liked: 1809
  • Likes Given: 1302
Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : TESS : NET April 16, 2018 : Discussion
« Reply #26 on: 03/21/2015 03:55 pm »
Quote

Didn't ULA have one more Delta II to bid with?

Can only be launch from SLC-2W at VAFB. Which ULA might want to close down after the 2017 ICESat-2 mission to further reduce the upkeep cost for their pads.

Offline Jim

  • Night Gator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 37440
  • Cape Canaveral Spaceport
  • Liked: 21450
  • Likes Given: 428
Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : TESS : NET April 16, 2018 : Discussion
« Reply #27 on: 03/21/2015 04:05 pm »
SLC-2 is owned by NASA

Offline Zed_Noir

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5490
  • Canada
  • Liked: 1809
  • Likes Given: 1302
Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : TESS : NET April 16, 2018 : Discussion
« Reply #28 on: 03/21/2015 04:18 pm »
SLC-2 is owned by NASA
Was thinking of the staffing & GSE cost for the pad.

Offline arachnitect

  • Member
  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1553
  • Liked: 501
  • Likes Given: 759
Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : TESS : NET April 16, 2018 : Discussion
« Reply #29 on: 03/21/2015 06:26 pm »
I don't think Delta II would be competitive with Falcon 9 now.  The article I found on last Delta II purchases said NASA paid $400M for 3 flights (including processing and everything else).  SpaceX has been offering that for less than $90M/flight.

That makes the last Delta II cost more than a Atlas V: D II $133M to Atlas V 401 $120M. So yes it is not worth the effort.

The latest (and probably final) Delta II launch for IceSat-2 was about $97M. But they might not have been able to offer that price for TESS.

Offline gongora

  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10205
  • US
  • Liked: 13885
  • Likes Given: 5933
Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : TESS : NET April 16, 2018 : Discussion
« Reply #30 on: 05/27/2016 01:53 pm »
Tweet from Sara Seager
Quote
Looks like we’ll be spending Xmas 2017 at Cape Canaveral. New TESS launch date “no earlier than 20 December, 2017”

Offline Star One

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 13997
  • UK
  • Liked: 3974
  • Likes Given: 220
Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : TESS : NET April 16, 2018 : Discussion
« Reply #31 on: 10/07/2016 08:23 am »
NASA’s TESS Mission Will Provide Exciting Exoplanet Targets for Years to Come

NASA's search for planets outside of our solar system has mostly involved very distant, faint stars. NASA’s upcoming Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), by contrast, will look at the brightest stars in our solar neighborhood.

After TESS launches, it will quickly start discovering new exoplanets that ground-based observatories, the Hubble Space Telescope and, later, the James Webb Space Telescope, will target for follow-up studies. TESS is scheduled to launch no later than June 2018. Astronomers are eagerly anticipating the possibility that, in the near future, all three space missions could be studying the sky at the same time.

“The problem is that we’ve had very few exoplanet targets that are good for follow-up,” said TESS Project Scientist Stephen Rinehart at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “TESS will change that.”

Planets around closer, brighter stars are ideal for follow-up study because they'll produce stronger signals than planets around more distant stars. These planets have a higher signal-to-noise ratio, which measures the ratio of useful information — the signal — to non-useful information — the noise — that a telescope receives. These signals might also include a chemical sampling of an exoplanet's atmosphere, which is an exciting prospect for scientists hoping to search for signs of life on distant worlds.

TESS will do the initial roundup of exoplanets, with the potential to identify thousands during its projected two-year mission. One of TESS’ main science goals is to identify 50 rocky worlds, like Earth or Venus, whose masses can be measured.

“The search for exoplanets is a bit like a funnel where you pour in lots of stars,” said TESS Deputy Science Director Sara Seager at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge. “At the end of the day, you have loads of planets, and from there you need to find the rocky ones.”

The TESS Science Center will help identify and prioritize the TESS Objects of Interest (TOI) for follow-up. TOI are objects that scientists believe could be exoplanets based on TESS data. Ground-based telescopes will confirm which TOI are exoplanets, and from there will help determine which are rocky. The center is a partnership between MIT's Physics Department and Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research — where TESS Principle Investigator George Ricker resides — the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.

The main thing space- and ground-based telescopes hope to find out about the TESS targets with follow-up observations is what these exoplanet atmospheres are like. Exoplanet atmosphere exploration is one of the Webb telescope's four main science goals.

NASA's Webb telescope and ground-based telescopes will determine the atmospheres of exoplanets using spectroscopy. In this process, telescopes look at the chemical signatures of the light passing through exoplanet atmospheres. This signature can tells scientists what chemicals are in the planetary atmosphere, and how much of each there are. It can also help scientists determine whether a planet could be habitable.

“There are a couple of things we like to see as a potential for habitability – one of them is water, which is probably the single most important, because as far as we know, all life that we’re familiar with depends on water in some way,” Rinehart said. “The other is methane, which on our Earth is produced almost entirely biologically. When you start seeing certain combinations of all of these things appearing together – water, methane, ozone, oxygen – it gives you a hint that the chemistry is out of equilibrium. Naturally, planets tend to be chemically stable. The presence of life throws off this balance.”

Exoplanets aren’t the only science that will come out of the TESS all-sky survey, however. While scientists expect to spot a transit signal that could reveal exoplanets around only about one out of 100 stars, virtually every star in the sky will be monitored carefully and continuously for at least 27 days, resulting in a wide variety of variability to be explored.

The TESS Guest Investigator (GI) Program will allow for deeper investigations of astronomically interesting objects, either through TESS data alone, or by identifying interesting variables for further study with the Webb telescope, Hubble and other ground- and space-based telescopes. The GI Program will look at variable objects, such as flare stars, active galaxies and supernovae, and may even discover optical counterparts to distant transient events, such as gamma-ray bursts. Only the number and type of exciting proposed ideas the program receives limit what TESS will find through the GI Program.

Between the mission’s exoplanet survey and the GI Program, TESS will provide the best follow-up targets for many missions to come.

“TESS not only will provide targets for the Webb telescope, but for every telescope we plan to build on the ground and in space over the next two decades,” said Mark Clampin, director of the Astrophysics Science Division at Goddard. With such an exciting future, scientists from around the world are watching the progress of the TESS mission, and anxiously awaiting its launch.

Related Links

NASA's TESS website
TESS project website
By Elaine Hunt
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Last Updated: Oct. 5, 2016
Editor: Rob Garner

Online Hobbes-22

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 941
  • Acme Engineering
    • Acme Engineering
  • Liked: 587
  • Likes Given: 485
Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : TESS : NET April 16, 2018 : Discussion
« Reply #32 on: 10/07/2016 09:48 am »
The thread title still says v1.1, but I assume TESS will be launched on a F9 v1.2 instead?

The thread title still says v1.1, but I assume TESS will be launched on a F9 v1.2 instead?
Or 1.3 as suggested by recent news  ;) maybe it's better to remove the v number altogether
Failure is not only an option, it's the only way to learn.
"Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the custody of fire" - Gustav Mahler

Offline Lar

  • Fan boy at large
  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 13463
  • Saw Gemini live on TV
  • A large LEGO storage facility ... in Michigan
  • Liked: 11864
  • Likes Given: 11086
Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : TESS : NET April 16, 2018 : Discussion
« Reply #34 on: 10/07/2016 07:28 pm »
Let's not go down the "is Falcon the US Proton" road, ok?

I actually had a warning queued up earlier but figured you all weren't going to go down that road...
"I think it would be great to be born on Earth and to die on Mars. Just hopefully not at the point of impact." -Elon Musk
"We're a little bit like the dog who caught the bus" - Musk after CRS-8 S1 successfully landed on ASDS OCISLY

Offline Mader Levap

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 976
  • Liked: 447
  • Likes Given: 561
Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : TESS : NET April 16, 2018 : Discussion
« Reply #35 on: 10/07/2016 08:07 pm »
It is a good thing then that this is not launched on something that "de facto" is the American version of Proton.
Well, since Lar warned against discussing F9 vs Proton, I will say just that: two failures in 14 months is unacceptable. Period. No wild handwaves nor endless excuses will change that.

I do not want for F9 to launch anything important (read: costing billions) any time soon. It must prove itself all over again from scratch.
Be successful.  Then tell the haters to (BLEEP) off. - deruch
...and if you have failure, tell it anyway.

Offline Lar

  • Fan boy at large
  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 13463
  • Saw Gemini live on TV
  • A large LEGO storage facility ... in Michigan
  • Liked: 11864
  • Likes Given: 11086
Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : TESS : NET April 16, 2018 : Discussion
« Reply #36 on: 10/07/2016 08:10 pm »
It is a good thing then that this is not launched on something that "de facto" is the American version of Proton.
Well, since Lar warned against discussing F9 vs Proton, I will say just that: two failures in 14 months is unacceptable. Period. No wild handwaves nor endless excuses will change that.

I do not want for F9 to launch anything important (read: costing billions) any time soon. It must prove itself all over again from scratch.
Take it to another thread. Second warning.
"I think it would be great to be born on Earth and to die on Mars. Just hopefully not at the point of impact." -Elon Musk
"We're a little bit like the dog who caught the bus" - Musk after CRS-8 S1 successfully landed on ASDS OCISLY

Offline Archibald

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2611
  • Liked: 500
  • Likes Given: 1096
Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : TESS : NET April 16, 2018 : Discussion
« Reply #37 on: 10/09/2016 10:34 am »
I didn't realized that a) TESS was going to fly next year and b) it was booked to a Falcon 9. Considering Kepler (including the K2 mission) outstanding results, I just can't imagine what TESS results will be.
Han shot first and Gwynne Shotwell !

Offline Steven Pietrobon

  • Member
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 39215
  • Adelaide, Australia
    • Steven Pietrobon's Space Archive
  • Liked: 32735
  • Likes Given: 8178
Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : TESS : NET April 16, 2018 : Discussion
« Reply #38 on: 10/11/2016 06:36 am »
I didn't realized that a) TESS was going to fly next year and b) it was booked to a Falcon 9. Considering Kepler (including the K2 mission) outstanding results, I just can't imagine what TESS results will be.

The article above says "TESS is scheduled to launch no later than June 2018." Considering how spacecraft and launches are so often delayed, I would expect a launch to be in 2018.
Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design #1:  Engineering is done with numbers.  Analysis without numbers is only an opinion.

Offline Sam Ho

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 817
  • Liked: 580
  • Likes Given: 71
Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : TESS : NET April 16, 2018 : Discussion
« Reply #39 on: 10/11/2016 04:49 pm »
The thread title still says v1.1, but I assume TESS will be launched on a F9 v1.2 instead?
Or 1.3 as suggested by recent news  ;) maybe it's better to remove the v number altogether
Tweet from Sara Seager
Quote
Looks like we’ll be spending Xmas 2017 at Cape Canaveral. New TESS launch date “no earlier than 20 December, 2017”
I didn't realized that a) TESS was going to fly next year and b) it was booked to a Falcon 9. Considering Kepler (including the K2 mission) outstanding results, I just can't imagine what TESS results will be.

The article above says "TESS is scheduled to launch no later than June 2018." Considering how spacecraft and launches are so often delayed, I would expect a launch to be in 2018.

According to their website, all of the above are true.  It still says launch is on F9 v1.1 (despite that launcher no longer existing) and gives both December 2017 as the working launch date and June 2018 as the NLT date.

Quote
SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 Launch Vehicle
Quote
The TESS launch date is NLT June 2018 (the current working launch date is December 2017).

https://tess.gsfc.nasa.gov/launch.html

Tags:
 

Advertisement NovaTech
Advertisement Northrop Grumman
Advertisement
Advertisement Margaritaville Beach Resort South Padre Island
Advertisement Brady Kenniston
Advertisement NextSpaceflight
Advertisement Nathan Barker Photography
1