SpaceX's Elon Musk Talks About a Reusable Falcon 9 Heavy, Intends to Reach $50 per Pound to Space
22 replies, posted
[RELEASE]
Elon Musk, CEO Spacex, gave a keynote to a roomful of aerospace engineers at the AIAA/AMSE/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference in San Diego on August, 2011
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[QUOTE]SpaceX’s first two priorities are to have a successful Dragon docking with the International Space Station (ISS) in December, followed by “convincing NRO and the Air Force we’re a good thing.”
Later this year or early next year, Musk expected to unveil a “super high efficiency” staged combustion engine.
The company’s Falcon Heavy rocket, to be flight demonstrated in late 2012 or early 2013, could deliver 10 to 15 metric tons to Mars, but Musk wants a vehicle capable of 50 metric tons and fully reusable. If Falcon Heavy could be made fully reusable, costs to LEO could be low as $50 to $100 a pound.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]"Ultimately, the thing that is super important in the grand scale of history is, are we on a path to becoming a multi-planet species or not?" Musk said during his keynote address, according to PC Magazine. "If we're not, that's not a very bright future. We'll just be hanging out on Earth until some eventual calamity claims us."
Spacex has had discussions with NASA to use Falcon Heavy for “big missions” to Mars and the outer solar system, with one notational mission going out 150 to 200 astronomical units (AU) “past Pluto and stuff.”
Two technology areas Musk didn’t like were lifting bodies/wings and nuclear rockets.
On the former, he said he was a “vertical takeoff, vertical landing” type guy and eschewed wings since they had to be tailored for each planet’s atmosphere and were useless on airless bodies such as the Moon.
Drawbacks to nuclear power included the need for shielding (heavy), water (heavy), and public objections against launching nuclear fuel on a rocket. “It’s a tricky thing getting a reactor up there with a ton of uranium,” Musk said and went on to say while nuclear power would be useful for Mars or lunar operations, he implied that some assembly (i.e., mining and processing fuel off planet) would be required.[/QUOTE]
[B]Spacex Efforts at Reusability[/B]
[QUOTE]SpaceX needs to develop and operate “fully reusable, rapidly reusable space transport,” Musk stated. “It wouldn’t be a good car if you had to change the tires on it every time you drove it or could only drive it once a week.”
Only 0.3 percent of the cost of a Falcon 9 launch is propellant. Being able to fully reuse all the parts of the launch system could significantly drive down the cost of launches.
What success has SpaceX had in reusability? “It’s sucked,” Musk stated bluntly. “It’s super damn hard. SpaceX has learned a lot by flying and recovering Dragon, but the engineers can’t give that level of protecting to the first and second stages of the Falcon 9.”
Constructing a “suit of armor” even for the first stage has been harder than anticipated. “It comes in at a pretty steep angle, the forces are very high,” Musk said. “It’s belly flopping on the atmosphere, something has to be done to shed velocity.”
One solution being looked at is restarting the engines to slow down the first stage, but the fuel to do that has to be weighed against payload loss to orbit, increased structural margins for recovery, and better thermal shielding. “It’s a tough trade,” he said. “We have something on paper that closes. We’ll have to see if that is a reality as well.”[/QUOTE][/RELEASE]
Source: [url]http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/08/elon-musk-of-spacex-talks-about.html[/url]
ALL OF MY MONEY
Just watch the space travelling industry rocket from here on.
Oh boy oh boy oh boy...
wait this is too good to be true isn't it :smith:
$50 per pound, holy shit. That would be insane.
It would be between $3 and $6 thousand dollars to send yourself into space, BEST VACATION EVER.
Considering how expensive it costs now, $50 per pound is astonishing.
Wait, isn't 50 per pound the same estimates than those of the Sea Dragon rocket?
[QUOTE]$59/kg to $600/kg
[/QUOTE]
[url]http://projectrho.com/rocket/surfaceorbit.php[/url]
Less than 100 dollars per kilogram is close enough! One tenth of the shuttle's cost!
This would be amazing. I honestly think that companies like SpaceX are really going to help space travel / exploration etc.
It seems they can spend more money than say NASA without any of the red tape crap. They seem to actually get stuff done.
So it would only cost $100 to send a kilo of dragon dildos to space? Bargain of the century there.
[QUOTE=Jsm;31497942]This would be amazing. I honestly think that companies like SpaceX are really going to help space travel / exploration etc.
It seems they can spend more money than say NASA without any of the red tape crap. They seem to actually get stuff done.[/QUOTE]
"It's broken? Just cut it off."
shutupandtakemymoney.jpg
ya $50 per pound is a crazy thought.![img]http://owned.name/7/hOgCQ3[/img]
Although I do have mixed feelings about a company leading the way in space travel instead of the government, considering they're mostly for profit and such, I really do hope SpaceX is able to make half the promises they made. If they are really true to their word and if capital doesn't run dry, any one of us could end up going up to space in our lifetime!
So basically if you're poor it's cheaper? Space solves everything.
If I get that summer internship, I'll take as many secret photo's as I can and report back to you guys. I know everyone here would love an inside look at both the Houston facility and the Hawthorne facility.
[QUOTE=Fhenexx;31498038]Although I do have mixed feelings about a company leading the way in space travel instead of the government, considering they're mostly for profit and such, I really do hope SpaceX is able to make half the promises they made. If they are really true to their word and if capital doesn't run dry, any one of us could end up going up to space in our lifetime![/QUOTE]
Profit tends to be a great motivator when it comes to innovation and technological progression.
I fucking love this guy.
been awhile since i've seen any of your threads Eudoxia
what is the current cost per pound?
What the hell is Musk smoking? I know their numbers are already optimistic but that's a pipe dream. Get F9H flying first, then start thinking about reusability. Dragon can't even carry people yet.
Musk is out in front of the cameras making utterly insane promises. Remember that STS was supposed to initiate the era of cheap, reuseable spaceflight, and wound up making it more expensive than ever. A vehicle that you can fill up like a car and immediately fly again is a hundred years away, optimistically.
[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;31498689]What the hell is Musk smoking? I know their numbers are already optimistic but that's a pipe dream. Get F9H flying first, then start thinking about reusability. Dragon can't even carry people yet.
Musk is out in front of the cameras making utterly insane promises. Remember that STS was supposed to initiate the era of cheap, reuseable spaceflight, and wound up making it more expensive than ever. A vehicle that you can fill up like a car and immediately fly again is a hundred years away, optimistically.[/QUOTE]
Well way to rain on the parade.
[QUOTE=Jewish Paladin;31498972]Well way to rain on the parade.[/QUOTe]
I am a huge fan of SpaceX, but anybody who knows anything about space travel will know how ludicrous these promises are right now. Musk needs to stop overselling himself and focus on demonstrating what they can do now.
Which is launch a functioning spacecraft cheaper than anyone else.
[QUOTE=zombini;31497822]It would be between $3 and $6 thousand dollars to send yourself into space, BEST VACATION EVER.[/QUOTE]
Err try closer to $8k-$10k
Still not even close to affordable for 99% of the earth's population.
If it only cost you $3k to go to space you are either a midget, a very small child or extremely malnourished at 60lbs. And all three probably are disqualified from flying into space, no offense.
Kerbal Space Program: SpaceX training simulator.
This is great.
cut the red tape, make it cheap enough for normal use
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