Falcon Heavy Demo Mission Payload Speculation

[douglas100]

No idea what they're going to launch, of course, but I would suggest the following are extremely unlikely:

1. Anything to Mars. The flight would have to be delayed to about May next year (the original Red Dragon window) for that to happen.

2. Ion driven cubesat leaving the Solar System. (All sorts of reasons why not.)

More likely: something to the Moon and of course, upper stage recovery attempt.

[CraigLieb]

I have realized the ultimate silly thing to send to space.. How about a 45 foot long sculpture of a large hollow horse with Wheels?

Inside, they can place the cowboy in a Dragon 2 space suit and some cheese, and/or a whole lot of very light toys that disperse when the "vehicle" reenters.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Horse 
  and  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi%C3%B1ata

So silly it was posted in the party thread.

[sanman]

No idea what they're going to launch, of course, but I would suggest the following are extremely unlikely:

1. Anything to Mars. The flight would have to be delayed to about May next year (the original Red Dragon window) for that to happen.

2. Ion driven cubesat leaving the Solar System. (All sorts of reasons why not.)

More likely: something to the Moon and of course, upper stage recovery attempt.

Ok, fair enough - Mars window isn't favorable - although if the timing had worked out better, it could have been.

Regarding ion drive - think Deep Space 1.

Actually, the one I wanted to mention but forgot, was a large Bigelow Aerospace habitat.

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=24758.0

Since FH can't fit the BA-2100 that was designed for SLS, then perhaps one designed to be carried on FH would have been best.

[Ben the Space Brit]

More likely: something to the Moon and of course, upper stage recovery attempt.

Agreed; something for Lunar X-Prize to the Moon's surface. The upper stage would likely be highly modified with a long-haul power supply (batteries and maybe small solar cells) with a TPS cap on top underneath an jettisonnable payload interface and, on the bottom of the U/S, parachutes on the cubesat launch racks.

So, flight profile:
* Launch to LEO parking orbit (~150mi);
* Second sustainer burn to lunar free-return trajectory;
* Payload sep
* U/S avionics go to hibernation for the next 7 days on a multiple-redundant timer;
* Payload carries out own mid-course correction (monoprop MPS) turning the orbit into a retrograde low-pass over the nearside of the moon;
* Payload deploys lithobraking airbags and releases a braking motor pack attached to the lander on a long tether;
* Payload terminal braking burn followed by auto-release of tether at braking motor burn-out;
* Payload hard-landing and (hopefully) surface ops;
* Upon return to near-Earth space, the U/S avionics 'wake up'. The payload interface is jettisoned, revealing the TPS and the U/S carries out terminal manoeuvres (maybe including burn-to-depletion of the Merlin-VAC, if sufficient LOX has survived the flight) before EDL.

This is one of those experiments where even failure is a success. So long as the upper stage continues reporting telemetry through the EDL, SpaceX would get lots of useful information about upper-stage recovery as well as PICA-X's performance from high-energy trajectories.

[Ictogan]

No idea what they're going to launch, of course, but I would suggest the following are extremely unlikely:

1. Anything to Mars. The flight would have to be delayed to about May next year (the original Red Dragon window) for that to happen.

2. Ion driven cubesat leaving the Solar System. (All sorts of reasons why not.)

More likely: something to the Moon and of course, upper stage recovery attempt.

Ok, fair enough - Mars window isn't favorable - although if the timing had worked out better, it could have been.

Regarding ion drive - think Deep Space 1.

Actually, the one I wanted to mention but forgot, was a large Bigelow Aerospace habitat.

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=24758.0

sonce FH can't fit the BA-2100 that was designed for SLS, so perhaps one designed to be carried on FH would be best.

A version of the BA-2100 wouldn't just be WAY too expensive for a demo launch, it would also require the launch to be expendable. It seems unlikely that SX would waste cores on a demo launch - and at the same time miss out on the chance to gather experience with landing&recovering multiple cores in a very short time.

And deep space 1 took almost $100m to develop. Way too costly for a demo payload. Not that it could be compared to a cubesat with an ion drive anyway, since it's 120 times the mass of a 3U cubesat.

[Nate_Trost]

A GTO comsat mass simulator built by interns. Because everybody on the spacecraft side is working like crazy on Dragon 2, or the satellite constellation.

[Mader Levap]

Musk's dakimakura featuring Bezos.

[Space Ghost 1962]

Musk's dakimakura featuring Bezos.

Rude. But amusing.

[matthewkantar]

Would SpaceX be allowed to put a dummy satallite in GEO orbit? The licenses for Sats are about spectrum and such, do they apply to lump of concrete? Seems like they would have to keep a mass simulator low so it would decay, or boost it out of earth orbit altogether.

Matthew

[JasonAW3]

Must said it would be something crazy. If not cheese related, it is likely Pythonesque.

"Fetchez le vache!"

The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch?

[deruch]

Would SpaceX be allowed to put a dummy satallite in GEO orbit? The licenses for Sats are about spectrum and such, do they apply to lump of concrete? Seems like they would have to keep a mass simulator low so it would decay, or boost it out of earth orbit altogether.

Matthew

They would be okay on FCC or ITU issues over spectrum because a lump of concrete doesn't emit, ergo no interference.  But, they still need to adhere to FAA commercial launch licensing requirements.  One of which requires <25 year decay of orbital debris.  So, maybe they could do it if SpaceX made allowances for its station keeping and then moving it to a graveyard orbit after a certain point.  But in order to do that they would have to prove to the FAA that it was going to work. 

TL;DR- No FAA wouldn't allow them to do that.

[JasonAW3]

Must said it would be something crazy. If not cheese related, it is likely Pythonesque.

"Nooobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"

28 Tons of Shrubbery.

I think by the time LC40 is ready and the mods done to LC39A that we will be at the end of this year or the start of next.  So I'm leaning toward CommX demo sats.

That and maybe a demo of a second stage recovery.

28 tons of Spam!

Because...

NOBODY expects the Spamish Repetition!

SPAM!  SPAM!  SPAM!  SPAM!  SPAM!  SPAM!  Wonderous SPAM!

[MP99]

OK, that would be very funny.

**** SPOILER re The Martian ****

But, remember what happened to the resupply mission in The Martian. Payload had no rigidity, and shifted, upsetting the CoG.

Cheers, Martin

[envy887]

Would SpaceX be allowed to put a dummy satallite in GEO orbit? The licenses for Sats are about spectrum and such, do they apply to lump of concrete? Seems like they would have to keep a mass simulator low so it would decay, or boost it out of earth orbit altogether.

Matthew

They would be okay on FCC or ITU issues over spectrum because a lump of concrete doesn't emit, ergo no interference.  But, they still need to adhere to FAA commercial launch licensing requirements.  One of which requires <25 year decay of orbital debris.  So, maybe they could do it if SpaceX made allowances for its station keeping and then moving it to a graveyard orbit after a certain point.  But in order to do that they would have to prove to the FAA that it was going to work. 

TL;DR- No FAA wouldn't allow them to do that.

Musk said they want to try getting the upper stage back, so no GEO insertion or escape trajectory burns. They could do a GTO or even lunar free return and get the stage back at perigee, depending how long it can last on orbit and whether it can do deep space nav and comms.

[Ben the Space Brit]

Musk said they want to try getting the upper stage back, so no GEO insertion or escape trajectory burns. They could do a GTO or even lunar free return and get the stage back at perigee, depending how long it can last on orbit and whether it can do deep space nav and comms.

The margins are tight but, if the TLI burn is tight enough to get a decent 'skip' re-entry perigee, they may not need deep space nav and comms. Just rig the stage for recovery after payload sep and leave it in hibernation until it is close enough to Earth again for a quick health check and attitude adjustment (if necessary) and verification.

[BobHk]

Barebones refurb Dragon with sensors and telemetry...

[Kansan52]

A 6 foot tall rabbit named Harvey.

[Herb Schaltegger]

A 6 foot tall rabbit named Harvey.

Yeah, but since he'd be invisible no one would believe them.

[groundbound]

A wheel of osmium cheese so they can test out the max payload within a standard fairing.

[whitelancer64]

A wheel of osmium cheese so they can test out the max payload within a standard fairing.

That would be a very expensive wheel of cheese....