Quote from: CJ on 01/14/2015 10:09 pmI don't see why all the naysayers are naysaying regarding the second stage disposal in the sun issue. Sure, sure, delta/v and all that, but if the FAA wants it, it must be done! NASA faced a very similar issue (delta/v and time) regarding a manned visit to a NEO, but they solved it with the ARM mission plan; bring the asteroid to lunar orbit and do the mission there. Therefore, the delta/v issue of getting the F9 stage to the sun is a false one, for it overlooks the obvious solution; use the ARM mission plan as a guideline, and instead of sending the 2nd stage to it, bring it to the second stage at L2.There, problem solved! Y'all are just too conventional in your thinking.... Hmm... that might be good for the SolarCity stocks. We could be onto something.
I don't see why all the naysayers are naysaying regarding the second stage disposal in the sun issue. Sure, sure, delta/v and all that, but if the FAA wants it, it must be done! NASA faced a very similar issue (delta/v and time) regarding a manned visit to a NEO, but they solved it with the ARM mission plan; bring the asteroid to lunar orbit and do the mission there. Therefore, the delta/v issue of getting the F9 stage to the sun is a false one, for it overlooks the obvious solution; use the ARM mission plan as a guideline, and instead of sending the 2nd stage to it, bring it to the second stage at L2.There, problem solved! Y'all are just too conventional in your thinking....
I think I prefer the sun to stay just where it is, thank you very much. Besides, if it didn't work for Mohammed, I doubt something way bigger than a mountain is going to go to the second stage anyways.
It seems some of the parties at the party may be overlooking one slight detail of the second stage being fired into the sun. It *is* being disposed of into the sun; it's just going to take a while. Specifically, it's being disposed of into the sun at its red giant stage... in about 7.6 billion years.
Yep, SES-8 - my photos attached (I know they are not very good).
Quote from: MarekCyzio on 01/14/2015 08:20 pmYep, SES-8 - my photos attached (I know they are not very good).Not very good? I'd say really cool, especially the first. Thanks!
Quote from: ClayJar on 01/15/2015 07:06 pmIt seems some of the parties at the party may be overlooking one slight detail of the second stage being fired into the sun. It *is* being disposed of into the sun; it's just going to take a while. Specifically, it's being disposed of into the sun at its red giant stage... in about 7.6 billion years. You forget a virtually certain encounter with earth in the future. After all, it crosses earth orbit. So it will encounter earth many times and eventually it will hit earth or the moon within the next 4 billion years. At that time, we might fish it out of the heavens and make a monument out of it
Well, ULA wished them luck:https://twitter.com/torybruno/status/556107191887732738QuoteTory Bruno@elonmusk @TrampolinRocket Almost. Good luck next time. I still have people from DCX. Let me know if we can help
Tory Bruno@elonmusk @TrampolinRocket Almost. Good luck next time. I still have people from DCX. Let me know if we can help
After Elon tweeted out pics of the hard landing from CRS-5:Quote from: kevin-rf on 01/16/2015 03:07 pmWell, ULA wished them luck:https://twitter.com/torybruno/status/556107191887732738QuoteTory Bruno@elonmusk @TrampolinRocket Almost. Good luck next time. I still have people from DCX. Let me know if we can help I can just see the headlines now.BBC: ULA to let SpaceX crash experimental craft. Yahoo: ULA to attack SpaceX ship with DCXHuffpost: ULA chief claims to keep engineers locked up in secret Washington facility (DCX). Wiling to loan them out to Musk.
I can just see the headlines now.
Quote from: Chris Bergin on 01/13/2015 09:06 pmSo we're going to go for it with this one and see how much we can handle.
So we're going to go for it with this one and see how much we can handle.
"DSCOVR and Recover: SpaceX chase the cigar with next Falcon 9 mission"I want to say this is one of the best headlines to date on NSF...
Over in the ASDS thread, quite a few people are making suggestions on how to change the guidance software, hardware, etc, to enable the F9 to land better, or abort if it can't land, etc. Those aren't really to do with ASDS specifically, but more F9/Discovr related, so I'll make my suggestions here; If we take a close look at the landing scenario, it becomes obvious that a great deal of the difficulty lies in the F9 having to navigate through such demanding flight regimes )going from supersonic to transsonic to subsonic, dealing with thickening atmosphere during decent, etc.). So, it seems to me that it'd be easier, as well as safer, if the ASDS met the F9 at a different point in the landing process, instead of at the end. For example, one could omit the boostback and some of the braking burns if ASDS was waiting at the reentry interface. This would also lessen the fire risk. (It's entirely possible that the ASDS's existing thrustmasters wouldn't provide quite enough thrust to achieve this, so they may need to mount some Merlins on ASDS.)