This seems like a hell of an engineering project.
[Update a while later]
As I said, it seems like a hell of an engineering project. I didn’t link it to vouch for the climate “science.”
Category Archives: Technology and Society
High-Speed Rail
Unlike Jerry Brown’s crazy train, this private Texas project might actually make sense.
SpaceX and OrbComm
Launch delays are no problem.
The Kindle Edition Of The Book
The prophecies were true! It is out
Bill Nelson
He’s pushing back against Shelby’s attempt to sabotage commercial crew.
I don’t think this is right, though:
NASA insists that waiving certain parts of the Federal Acquisition Regulations, which the agency may legally do in certain situations, is vital to getting a commercially designed system safely up and running.
NASA isn’t “waiving certain parts of the FAR.” It is following the FAR, which doesn’t require cost-plus-like accounting for fixed-price contracts. In fact it is Shelby who is trying to change the FAR by demanding that it be used anyway.
XCOR
A brief history and current status, from Alex Knapp.
Escaping To Mars From AI
Elon says (among many other things) that it’s not a solution: “The AIs will chase us there pretty quickly.”
A New Rocket Engine
An expensive solution to a problem we don’t have. It’s a good history of how we got into this mess over the decades:
SpaceX is advancing in all directions —a human-rated spacecraft, reusability and a million-pound-thrust LOX-methane motor—and despite normal setbacks, it has failed to fall on its face as many people believed it would.
Hence GenCorp’s concern. But its solution runs counter to the total-launch-service model used by most of the industry, where the prime contractor selects or builds its motors. As SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said last week: “It would be very unusual for us to buy a critical piece of our strategy and our technology from somebody else.” I think that she meant to say “are you out of your tiny mind?” but was trying to put it diplomatically.
Since Seymour expects a government-funded development program after a paper-and-components competition, too, the next question is: “What new technology is the government funding here?” High-chamber-pressure LOX-kerosene rockets may be new to U.S. industry, but not to the world.
If big U.S. government money is going to be spent on space launch, and if SpaceX can provide an “assured access” backup, why not spend it on reusability—the only strategy that promises dramatically lower costs. The X-33 did not fail, and the shuttle did not miss its economic goals by a parsec or two, because reusability is a bad idea: Lousy requirements did it for them both. A modern, intelligently sized two-stage reusable system is like G.K. Chesterton’s view of Christianity: It “has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.” It’s time to change that.
Yes. But expect policy makers to continue down the same failed well-worn groove.
Ariane 6
It’s been a dead rocket walking for many months, but with the new merger in Europe, it’s almost certainly in for a design change.
But they’re still betting that SpaceX won’t get reusability, which I think is a bad bet.
[Update a few minutes later]
Here’s more from ExtremeTech:
Curiously, despite Airbus and Safran announcing a partnership to develop a new line of launch vehicles, there’s no explicit mention that these launchers will be reusable. It’s also worth noting that Airbus/Arianespace is already fairly far down the path towards developing its next-gen Ariane 6 launcher, which will be smaller than Ariane 5 (and thus cheaper), but still eschewing any reusable elements. SpaceX has a sizable lead in the field of cheap, reusable space launch vehicles, and in the next few years we will hopefully see it drive that advantage home.
Yup. Looks to me like it’s still too much of a jobs program to be competitive.
SpaceX
A good article at CNBC about how it’s disrupting the entire space industry:
“It’s not just the launch vehicles themselves that are disruptive,” Jurvetson said. “It’s the known, low price of launch and the fact that it could go lower still. It’s motivating entrepreneurs on the satellite side. You have everything from start-ups to nonprofit organizations that are thinking and executing on plans for space. That was unthinkable just a few years ago.”
Yup. Gonna start a revolution.