SLS Comments

The Musk fanboys never, NEVER, acknowledge anything except the myth of Musk. So of course they are “satisfied” with their wonderful Ayn-Rand-in-space fantasy.

The truth is this; backroom deals and political influence are the reason spacex exists. Spacex employees generally despise Musk for the nutcase he is. An expendable rocket would do the same thing for about the same price.

That is not to say reusability is not the future, but F9 is likely not breaking even.

Comparing the Falcon and the Shuttle is a sad exercise in that the Shuttle was a Saturn V class launch vehicle based on the concept of reusing everything except a single expendable tank. Unfortunately, it was actually a cheap and nasty design in many ways, and this ruined it. Wasting most of its payload on a 737-size glider, the SRB’s, and other features were failed logic, and instead of making it economical, well…. everybody knows.

The most efficient progression would have been to make the Saturn V reusable one part at a time over a couple decades. The Shuttle was meant to leap ahead and failed. The SLS could reuse liquid side boosters and perhaps crossfeed propellants, reuse the RS-25s with a module, reuse the escape tower and capsule, and this would have been a more conservative configuration for the original Shuttle.

“Its not completely clear to me why SpaceX have not pushed for faster turnarounds; it might be that the Falcon 9 system has reached a technical limit and in most cases its not possible, or at least not cost effective, to do it so quickly.”

Pretty clear to me. Too many engines. Too many technicians required, which is the biggest expense and also what spacex fanboys have always screamed bloody murder at; the thrice-damned “standing army.”

LOL!
We both know who does all the “blowing up on the pad.” (Regarding a comment including the SLS blowing up)
The DOD blows hundreds of billions on worthless projects to enrich defense shareholders….and you cry about NASA. It is so obvious what this NASA-bashing is all about is a cult of personality that wants it all handed over to Musk. Their Howard Roark/John Galt/Tony Stark hero is in reality a freak and his rocket company is the poster child for government subsidy.

“The contractor would be responsible for producing hardware and services for up to 10 Artemis launches beginning with the Artemis V mission, and up to 10 launches for other NASA missions. NASA expects to procure at least one flight per year to the Moon or other deep-space destinations.”

NASA will likely shut down the ISS and “at least” double the launch cadence to the Moon and the other ten missions to FOUR launches a year…which will, as every spacex fan knows, bring the costs down. Considering the years, if ever, it will take to rate the shiny to actually carry a human being (not going to happen without an escape system), it is not going anywhere for a long time.

SLS is here to stay.

And….Debunking Musk – TED talk 2022 Finale debuted on YouTube.

If Space Solar became the solution to climate change then an international effort pouring TRILLIONS of dollars into space might be an economic reason. Setting up an industrial infrastructure beneath the surface of the Moon would require thousands, and more likely tens of thousands, of technicians.

You see Robert, that single sentence that idiot uttered, “-the stupidest thing ever”, may lead to the needless deaths of billions. His BA (not a BS) in physics informed that very influential statement concerning Space Solar Power. Truth. And all these right-wing Ayn-Rand-in-space whackjobs will share the responsibility for promoting him.

The reason these billionaires don’t want anything to do with Space Solar is they cannot own it. It is such a tremendous undertaking only governments can finance it. Much like the Koch’s spending millions (pennies to them) to create climate change denial, Musk and Bezos both could choose NOT to be greedy sociopaths and support Space Solar….but they won’t.

I would say they will try and screw up some people for life. And then stop trying.

The only way it will work IMO is to use semi-expendable robot landers that make their own propellants with ISRU and ferry those hundreds of tons of water shielding into space from the lunar poles to the station.

In my view, just as the rocket equation dictates much about launch vehicles, the “Parker Minimum” is the main limiting factor concerning Human Space Flight Beyond Earth Orbit (HSF-BEO). And the minimum cosmic ray shielding equates to: “If the material is water, it has to be five meters deep. So a spherical water tank encasing a small capsule would have a mass of about 500 tons.” (from Shielding Space Travelers, by Eugene Parker)
Using Polyethylene drops that figure to 400 tons. Taking a wild guess that the FH could transport perhaps 20 tons at a time to the gateway that would be 20 FH missions carrying nothing but a slab of plastic. But water is a far better choice for many reasons. That much water would first of all provide a medium for a closed loop life support system that could provide air and drinking water for years.

For any practical living space at least double the shielding mass. At least. And then there is the problem of zero G debilitation ….

This is why bringing water up from the lunar poles is so important.

Exactly…it is a rock. (Regarding Mars) Too much gravity, not enough solar energy, no ocean.
The Moon is the gateway, the prize we never should have taken our eyes off of. It is the place to lift cosmic ray water shielding into space using 20 times less energy than from Earth. It is the place to assemble, test, and launch nuclear missions.

The first human missions Beyond Earth and Lunar Orbit will be to Ceres, then Callisto, and then even farther out using more and more advanced nuclear propulsion systems. Carrying submarines to the places that have subsurface oceans. Mars is a dead end that will be bypassed.
The spacex plan is a farce.