Live! Falcon Heavy, world's most powerful rocket, maiden flight

[nuffsaid]

Space is huge, even just within the Solar system. Don't forget there are thousands of known asteroids with more yet to be discovered, which are much bigger and already out there.

That's what we thought about low Earth orbit and now the ISS is at regular risk from junk hitting it. One day in about 500 years (assuming the zombie apocalypse doesn't take us out) they'll be people on the way to Mars delayed because of detours needed around all the junk we'll throw up there and someone will say, "Oh why did they send this junk all the time, it's so annoying, I've got an interview on Mars and I'm going to be late. Why can't we just take-off!!" It will be like flying with Easyjet now, delays, delays.

 

[nuffsaid]

It’s not actually being sent to Mars or going to be co-orbited with Mars or orbiting Mars. It will be in an inclined heliocentric orbit, precessing between (but above/below) the orbits of Earth and Mars, not quite reaching either.

I know, but it will be in the vicinity and so need to be factored in. Forever.

 

[ska invita]

Much larger payloads (or multiple payloads) to GTO (bigger comsats and military no doubt)

no doubt

larger science payloads to the Lagrange points

hopefully useful

payloads to the Moon and on to Mars

pointless IMO

Well....cool as fuck. And the first time I've seen a rocket without a flag on it, I'm sure.

The flag is Elon Musks business card

Let me try to give you an idea how big, just from Earth to Mars.

Trouble in orbit: the growing problem of space junk

 

[alsoknownas]

Dare i ask, whats the point in all this?

Cos - Elon Musk dude - jeez!

 

[nuffsaid]

Let me try to give you an idea how big, just from Earth to Mars.

One question, is there now a useless car floating about between us and Mars?......yes.

 

[bimble]

It’s ‘lost’ - the rocket or the car or both?

 

[NoXion]

That's what we thought about low Earth orbit and now the ISS is at regular risk from junk hitting it. One day in about 500 years (assuming no zombie apocalypse takes us out) they'll be people on the way to Mars delayed because of detours needed around all the junk we'll throw up there and someone will say, "Oh why did they send this junk all the time, it's so annoying, I've got an interview on Mars and I'm going to be late. Why can't we just take-off!!" It will be like flying with Easyjet now, delays, delays.

If we end up becoming a civilisation in which mass commercial travel between Earth and Mars is a thing, it would be easy enough to send a ship to intercept it and put it into a museum or something.

 

[2hats]

Trouble in orbit: the growing problem of space junk

A low Earth orbit problem (as the article also happens to mention).

 

[2hats]

It’s ‘lost’ - the rocket or the car or both?

The Falcon Heavy core (central rocket). Quite probably floating in the Atlantic not far from the landing barge.

 

[cybershot]

 

[Crispy]

One question, is there now a useless car floating about between us and Mars?......yes.

No. It's not in the way of any realistic future trip to Mars.

Even if there was, it wouldnt matter. Space is really really really really big.

Low earth orbit is thousands of km wide. The orbit of Mars is 500 million km wide. A 5m car in all that space may as well not exist. There are thousands of known asteroids that size and many many more unknown. We don't worry about them.

 

[nuffsaid]

If we end up becoming a civilisation in which mass commercial travel between Earth and Mars is a thing, it would be easy enough to send a ship to intercept it and put it into a museum or something.

Ah..exactly, and so why do it in the first place, they've just created a problem that will need to be dealt with. It's like receiving junk mail, people say "oh just put it in the bin", But by putting something through my letterbox you are making me have to deal with it. Don't put it through in the first place!!

 

[2hats]

Touchdown…s. Centre core lost.

…

Hearing that the centre core was lost. Awaiting confirmation.

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

So why didn't NASA get there years ago after all the experience of....landing men on the Moon!.? They fucking landed men on the Moon over 50 years ago and are just sending droids up thanks to Russian boosters!

NASA always relied on private industry for hardware. Now it looks like private companies will be able to handle access to LEO on their own (albeit piggybacking on the comms infrastructure that the space race established), and NASA can concentrate on what they are exceptionally good at: exploration and science.

 

[NoXion]

Trouble in orbit: the growing problem of space junk

Mars is 142.6 times the distance from Earth to the moon when it is closest, and the volume of space is greater by the cube.

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

Ah..exactly, and so why do it in the first place, they've just created a problem that will need to be dealt with. It's like receiving junk mail, people say "oh just put it in the bin", But by putting something through my letterbox you are making me have to deal with it. Don't put it through in the first place!!

It would otherwise have been a lump of concrete or something. It's just whimsy (and cheap marketing) that it was a Tesla Roadster, which incidentally is only the fourth electric car beyond the confines of Earth.

 

[NoXion]

Ah..exactly, and so why do it in the first place, they've just created a problem that will need to be dealt with. It's like receiving junk mail, people say "oh just put it in the bin", But by putting something through my letterbox you are making me have to deal with it. Don't put it through in the first place!!

The dummy payload is a critical part of the test. You can't really test a design under expected operating conditions if you don't include a payload.

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

 

[NoXion]

So they only lost the bottom middle bit, forgotten its name. Shame we didn't get to see that crash out.

 

[nuffsaid]

The dummy payload is a critical part of the test. You can't really test a design under expected operating conditions if you don't include a payload.

So make one that has some scientific value.....not a flipping car....a car in space...it's bonkers!

 

[Spymaster]

So they only lost the bottom middle bit, forgotten its name. Shame we didn't get to see that crash out.

Never mind. Watch this again:



It's like science fiction.

 

[nuffsaid]

NASA always relied on private industry for hardware. Now it looks like private companies will be able to handle access to LEO on their own (albeit piggybacking on the comms infrastructure that the space race established), and NASA can concentrate on what they are exceptionally good at: exploration and science.

I thought NASA built the Space Shuttle, wasn't that NASA, that was hardware, hardware that was very quickly too dangerous to use.

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

So make one that has some scientific value.....not a flipping car....a car in space...it's bonkers!

It was a first test flight. No-one's going to put anything valuable in as the payload.

 

[NoXion]

So make one that has some scientific value.....not a flipping car....a car in space...it's bonkers!

It will have scientific value if it is recovered in the future. Either by human descendants or maybe a technological species that comes after us, it will tell them something about our period of history.

 

[bimble]

He looks lonesome. I love it, it seems apt a dummy driving a secondhand red car round and round through space for all eternity.

 

[Spymaster]

So make one that has some scientific value.....not a flipping car....a car in space...it's bonkers!

It could very well have blown up! The scientific value was in putting the thing into space.

 

[gosub]

I thought NASA built the Space Shuttle, wasn't that NASA, that was hardware, hardware that was very quickly too dangerous to use.

Was more the pressure to absorb to military satellite program

 

[nuffsaid]

It will have scientific value if it is recovered in the future. Either by human descendants or maybe a technological species that comes after us, it will tell them something about our period of history.

That's no good to us, it's just a lump of metal and plastic! Hopefully the yanks will use it for space target practice.

 

[gosub]

Elon Musk's Space Tesla Isn't Going to Mars. It's Going Somewhere More Important.

 

[nuffsaid]

It could well have blown up! The scientific value was in putting the thing into space.

More value in putting something with some immediate scientific return.