Author Topic: Launch, Land, and Relaunch Party Thread  (Read 2030891 times)

Offline deruch

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Re: Launch, Land, and Relaunch Party Thread
« Reply #460 on: 05/11/2017 06:47 pm »
I can almost imagine the 2-second pit stops for landed boosters...  :o ;)
Seriously, do not give Elon any ideas. 
Shouldn't reality posts be in "Advanced concepts"?  --Nomadd

Online CorvusCorax

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Re: Launch, Land, and Relaunch Party Thread
« Reply #461 on: 05/11/2017 09:14 pm »
I can almost imagine the 2-second pit stops for landed boosters...  :o ;)
Seriously, do not give Elon any ideas.

Seriously, don't give Bernie Ecclestone funny ideas. He might be in search of a new racing format now that they kicked him out of F1.

What's the lap-time record in the Earth Orbit racetrack?

Edit: I calculated 01:27:05.12 at 130km. but you can probably get it under 01:26:30 if you dip a bit into the atmosphere. With constant propulsion to keep the speed up of course. Maybe even less if you use propulsion for centripetal force at even higher speeds.

« Last Edit: 05/11/2017 09:21 pm by CorvusCorax »

Offline CharlieWildman

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Re: Launch, Land, and Relaunch Party Thread
« Reply #462 on: 05/11/2017 09:33 pm »
I can almost imagine the 2-second pit stops for landed boosters...  :o ;)
Seriously, do not give Elon any ideas.

Seriously, don't give Bernie Ecclestone funny ideas. He might be in search of a new racing format now that they kicked him out of F1.

What's the lap-time record in the Earth Orbit racetrack?



Edit: I calculated 01:27:05.12 at 130km. but you can probably get it under 01:26:30 if you dip a bit into the atmosphere. With constant propulsion to keep the speed up of course. Maybe even less if you use propulsion for centripetal force at even higher speeds.

Rocket racing!  The general public could really get behind this! Lets forget all that boring scientific and commercial stuff and just see how FAST we can go.  F1 may be in trouble.

Online CorvusCorax

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Re: Launch, Land, and Relaunch Party Thread
« Reply #463 on: 05/11/2017 10:42 pm »
I can almost imagine the 2-second pit stops for landed boosters...  :o ;)
Seriously, do not give Elon any ideas.

Seriously, don't give Bernie Ecclestone funny ideas. He might be in search of a new racing format now that they kicked him out of F1.

What's the lap-time record in the Earth Orbit racetrack?



Edit: I calculated 01:27:05.12 at 130km. but you can probably get it under 01:26:30 if you dip a bit into the atmosphere. With constant propulsion to keep the speed up of course. Maybe even less if you use propulsion for centripetal force at even higher speeds.

Rocket racing!  The general public could really get behind this! Lets forget all that boring scientific and commercial stuff and just see how FAST we can go.  F1 may be in trouble.

For the price of a F1 race you could certainly have a rocket race, especially with reuseability. The Annual budget of any F1 racing team is estimated between 50 million and a quarter billion dollar. The hosting fees of a racecourse also can border on a billion dollar over 10 years. Revenue from advertising is a assumed to be much more.

With that kinda budget you could definitely host rocket races at SpaceX launch current costs.

The tricky part would be how to make the rules entertaining. Launch and landing definitely have to be part of it. I would suggest a 2 stage race-rocket design, with the booster stage returning back to landing site and the racing stage entering low earth orbit and also landing back at the launch site.

The race would have to go over enough orbits that it possibly makes sense to land, refuel and restart at least once (in order to manage the fuel intensive extremely-low-orbits) But landing and restarting costs valuable time (even assuming the booster has already been refueled and only the upper stage needs a 2s pitstop-refuel, cause the landing and launch take time compared to to vehicle remaining in a higher, less fuel consuming orbit) But one also has to take into account that the earth rotates under the orbital track, so relaunching is only possible when the launch site passes under the orbital track. Which - assuming high inclination orbits - is around twice per day (but not evenly spaced). Finishing the race early then also possibly implies a larger plane change to line up. (Or setting up the initial orbit just right)

One could also make one refueling pitstop mandatory, or limit the maximum orbital height so low that its effectively necessary (also a good idea to prevent space-debris creation)

Edit: Another idea could also be an orbital checkpoint. Like the "gates" they have in air races, they could orbit a "stationary" gate-ring (possibly an inflatable) in let's say a 250 km circular orbit. Camera equipped , and maybe with a few nearby floating cube sats for nice visuals and camera tracking.

A race rocket that would rendezvous with this from a 130x250 elyptical orbit (and possibly even a slightly different orbital plane) would be fast enough to be REALLY spectacular, but still slow enough that the cameras have something to show and it can "thread the needle" with good enough trajectory planning and keeping. It would also be difficult enough for occasional misses. And make a nice point for potential close encounters between the different race participants.

Way more spectacular than these slow and careful rendezvous approaches to the iSS :)

The goal could also to thread the same ring twice in the shortest time possible while still making it below 150km in between to prevent participants from just matching orbits and manouvering tightly around the ring, although that, too might look awesome. Assume a rocket coming in on a 130x250 elyptical orbit, circularizing orbit while threading the ring, making a quick loop around it on manouvering thrusters, then firing for the deorbit burn on the 2nd ring pass - all captured on several cubesats high def cameras, and there already comes the next rocket for the tight corner!

« Last Edit: 05/11/2017 11:01 pm by CorvusCorax »

Offline Kansan52

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Re: Launch, Land, and Relaunch Party Thread
« Reply #464 on: 05/11/2017 10:55 pm »
Rocket League failed and it was set up for people to watch!

Online CorvusCorax

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Re: Launch, Land, and Relaunch Party Thread
« Reply #465 on: 05/11/2017 11:16 pm »
Rocket League failed and it was set up for people to watch!

Come on, those cars barely left the ground. That's like comparing Falcon9 to New Shepherd.

Now wonder that game had "suborbital" reviews.

Offline CharlieWildman

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Re: Launch, Land, and Relaunch Party Thread
« Reply #466 on: 05/11/2017 11:24 pm »
Rocket League failed and it was set up for people to watch!

We're talking huge, powerful, expensive, cutting edge fire belching monsters here.  And in space to boot. ;D  What could be better than that!
 
I tried to keep up on the rocket league but there was not enough smoke, fire and thunder for my taste.

Offline darkenfast

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Re: Launch, Land, and Relaunch Party Thread
« Reply #467 on: 05/12/2017 06:19 am »
Nah, you guys are thinking too small.  First around the Moon and back.  Thread the needle by looping around REALLY close to the surface (complete with remote cameras on the Far Side beaming live shots back via lunar comsat). 
Writer of Book and Lyrics for musicals "SCAR", "Cinderella!", and "Aladdin!". Retired Naval Security Group. "I think SCAR is a winner. Great score, [and] the writing is up there with the very best!"
-- Phil Henderson, Composer of the West End musical "The Far Pavilions".

Online FutureSpaceTourist

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Re: Launch, Land, and Relaunch Party Thread
« Reply #468 on: 05/12/2017 06:59 am »
Hmm and people complain that cricket test matches (which last up to 5 days) are too long for spectators :D

Offline ClayJar

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Re: Launch, Land, and Relaunch Party Thread
« Reply #469 on: 05/12/2017 12:47 pm »
Hmm and people complain that cricket test matches (which last up to 5 days) are too long for spectators :D

I imagine the people who watch races (well, race highlights) for the crashes would really like a well-funded very high stakes rocket race (assuming it was low enough for debris constraints to be no issue).  Push the limits far enough, and you'll be in Ivanova territory...


Offline Ben the Space Brit

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Re: Launch, Land, and Relaunch Party Thread
« Reply #470 on: 05/12/2017 12:58 pm »
Soon...

"No, seriously, I've got to be crazy with these prices! In fact, I'm so crazy that, if you tell the guy in the lot 'Elon sent me', we'll throw in a Hyperloop car for free! Like I said: Certifiable!"
"Oops! I left the silly thing in reverse!" - Duck Dodgers

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DON'T PROPAGANDISE, FLY!!!

Offline oiorionsbelt

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Re: Launch, Land, and Relaunch Party Thread
« Reply #471 on: 05/12/2017 04:05 pm »
SpaceX rocket mouse lemur launch and landing.

Offline launchwatcher

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Re: Launch, Land, and Relaunch Party Thread
« Reply #472 on: 05/14/2017 03:25 pm »
A candidate for the Boring Company theme song?


Offline John Alan

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Re: Launch, Land, and Relaunch Party Thread
« Reply #473 on: 05/14/2017 07:59 pm »
I posted this elsewhere...

My sense is he used numbers from his latest Merlin D test engines to go across their test stand and then rounded (either up or down) for the audience he was speaking to (the people who set up the video call)...

Any engineer I know can rattle off where they stand on meeting a target and the numbers to back his standing.

That said... those numbers made me  :o and they MAY hint at what percent power they have run M1D max on the test stand...

As I understand it... to "crank up" the M1D... you just add more "power" at the pump power turbine... spin the pumps a bit faster... and run it till it blows...  :D
Beef up what let go and and repeat till you hit the laws of physics...  :P
Then you call that "11" and turn it back down to "10"... 
Doing so, that 10500 kN figure makes sense with the quoted 215 Klb thrust M1vac number, my opinion...  ;)

Which made want to go find this...


Which Wikipedia covered here... meaning and source from the 40's...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_to_eleven

And I put all that here... over in the silly section...  ;D


Offline CharlieWildman

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Re: Launch, Land, and Relaunch Party Thread
« Reply #474 on: 05/15/2017 03:44 am »
From Chris Gebhardt's tweet today it looks like Inmarsat 5 F4 in going to launch on a Proton 9 tomorrow.  Never heard of a Proton 9 before.  Maybe SpaceX has gone Russian or nuclear...  Or something.  :P



Offline kch

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Re: Launch, Land, and Relaunch Party Thread
« Reply #475 on: 05/15/2017 04:23 am »
From Chris Gebhardt's tweet today it looks like Inmarsat 5 F4 in going to launch on a Proton 9 tomorrow.  Never heard of a Proton 9 before.  Maybe SpaceX has gone Russian or nuclear...  Or something.  :P

Maybe they decided to reverse the neutrality of the Proton flow?  ;)

Offline atsf90east

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Re: Launch, Land, and Relaunch Party Thread
« Reply #476 on: 05/15/2017 04:35 am »
From Chris Gebhardt's tweet today it looks like Inmarsat 5 F4 in going to launch on a Proton 9 tomorrow.  Never heard of a Proton 9 before.  Maybe SpaceX has gone Russian or nuclear...  Or something.  :P

Maybe they decided to reverse the neutrality of the Proton flow?  ;)

Don't cross the streams.
Attended Launches: Space Shuttle: STS-85, STS-95, STS-96, STS-103. Falcon 9: Thaicom-8

Offline EgorBotts

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Re: Launch, Land, and Relaunch Party Thread
« Reply #477 on: 05/15/2017 07:30 am »
From Chris Gebhardt's tweet today it looks like Inmarsat 5 F4 in going to launch on a Proton 9 tomorrow.  Never heard of a Proton 9 before.  Maybe SpaceX has gone Russian or nuclear...  Or something.  :P

Well, we all saw in 2013 the last attempt to bring the Proton first stage for a landing, I simply wish this time things would go smoother.
Can't wait to see how it compete with the Ariane 9 and the Atlas 9.

Offline darkenfast

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Re: Launch, Land, and Relaunch Party Thread
« Reply #478 on: 05/15/2017 08:29 am »
From Chris Gebhardt's tweet today it looks like Inmarsat 5 F4 in going to launch on a Proton 9 tomorrow.  Never heard of a Proton 9 before.  Maybe SpaceX has gone Russian or nuclear...  Or something.  :P

Maybe they decided to reverse the neutrality of the Proton flow?  ;)

Who did?
Writer of Book and Lyrics for musicals "SCAR", "Cinderella!", and "Aladdin!". Retired Naval Security Group. "I think SCAR is a winner. Great score, [and] the writing is up there with the very best!"
-- Phil Henderson, Composer of the West End musical "The Far Pavilions".

Offline CraigLieb

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Re: Launch, Land, and Relaunch Party Thread
« Reply #479 on: 05/15/2017 01:52 pm »
Egon...  Elon... so close. 
Do you ever wonder?  ::)

(Insert your favorite ghostbusters image here)
On the ground floor of the National Space Foundation... Colonize Mars!

Tags: SpaceX partythread 
 

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