We’ve seen Elon’s Midnight Cherry red Roadster heading off toward the asteroid belt with Starman at the wheel. What’s an appropriate payload for the debut Orbital flight of the BFR/BFS?
I think the killer objection is how to get past the integration and safety assurance barriers without costing SpaceX an arm and a leg.
'you put it in this crate', we open the crate in orbit, and it springs out with this spring here.
For the moon landing demo, I would have a BFS outfit as a fully functional future moon base ready for 100 people (or maybe a few less if you want to increase comfort for the crew of the base).
Apparently BFS will start with short hops and gradually expand the envelope through its test program. Do we think the BFR booster will have a similar hopping-first test program? If they both have retired a certain amount of risk through "Grasshopper-style" testing, ....
Quote from: Ludus on 02/10/2018 06:08 pmWe’ve seen Elon’s Midnight Cherry red Roadster heading off toward the asteroid belt with Starman at the wheel. What’s an appropriate payload for the debut Orbital flight of the BFR/BFS?A Tesla semi, of course
Quote from: Space OurSoul on 02/10/2018 07:14 pmQuote from: Ludus on 02/10/2018 06:08 pmWe’ve seen Elon’s Midnight Cherry red Roadster heading off toward the asteroid belt with Starman at the wheel. What’s an appropriate payload for the debut Orbital flight of the BFR/BFS?A Tesla semi, of courseTesla semi is supposed to have a mass of ~15,000kg which wouldn't be that challenging for BFR.Maybe you want a test mass that's a lot heavier than that.I dunno - how about a cargo of seeds, which could be taken up to LEO and then brought back down. They could then be distributed across the globe for planting. Maybe the space radiation could cause some interesting mutations or something.
As far as the up to 50 tons of downmass, that’s enough to give 1000 charities a chance to fly up to 100 lbs of stuff each.
The only payload needed the first time around, and this is what I predict it will be, is plenty of propellant for landing. margin
Cradles and necessary equipment to bring the probably-end-of-life Hubble Space Telescope back to Earth.
Please, not again. We just pass the FH madness about their payload. I vote for close this thread
Quote from: Ludus on 02/11/2018 01:54 amAs far as the up to 50 tons of downmass, that’s enough to give 1000 charities a chance to fly up to 100 lbs of stuff each. 50 tons of downmass is from Mars.It's 150 tons from LEO, nominal.
It might be capable of something like that with several Tanker flights, IDK. I don’t think SpaceX has presented it as capable of it without added propellant,
Btw, we modified the BFS design since IAC to add a third medium area ratio Raptor engine partly for that reason (lose only 1/3 thrust in engine out) and allow landings with higher payload mass for the Earth to Earth transport function.Elon
Quote from: Galactic Penguin SST on 02/11/2018 03:11 pmCradles and necessary equipment to bring the probably-end-of-life Hubble Space Telescope back to Earth. Setting the stage for BEO test being Kepler?