Updates Blue Origin New Shepard News and Updates

[MaverickSawyer]

That's the abort motor. They didn't have any other spot to put it, and it will hopefully never get used.

EDIT: :ninja:'d by Urwumpe. :lol:

 

[Donamy]

Article here:

Take a Peek Inside Blue Origin’s New Shepard Crew Capsule.
Published: 29 Mar , 2017
by Nancy Atkinson
http://www.universetoday.com/134783/take-peek-inside-blue-origins-new-shepard-crew-capsule/

I don't get that engine in the center of the picture. Why would it be on the inside of the capsule?


Bob Clark

It has to be attached somewhere to the capsule.

 

[RGClark]

I don't know but I don't think NASA or the FAA would be too pleased with that arrangement. For one thing solid rockets have been known to undergo chamber breeches during combustion.
Imagine hot combustion gases being aimed directly at the passengers.

Bob Clark

 

[GLS]

I don't know but I don't think NASA or the FAA would be too pleased with that arrangement. For one thing solid rockets have been known to undergo chamber breeches during combustion.
Imagine hot combustion gases being aimed directly at the passengers.

Bob Clark

I doubt NASA has a word to say about New Shepard... anyway, solid rockets have been known to go boom, liquid rockets have been known to go boom... I doubt the passengers will care much about what the propellant is, and more that the escape rocket fires.

 

[Hlynkacg]

I don't know but I don't think NASA or the FAA would be too pleased with that arrangement.

Take a look at the Apollo LM's interior arrangement some time. The only thing between the astronauts and the APS along with it's associated hypergolic propellant lines (aside from their space suits) is some canvas netting.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Hey, they're currently 2 for 2 on successful uses of the motor without issue... The Pad Abort test back in, what 2011? And the MaxQ test last year. Besides, it's not a Thiokol/ATK/Orbital ATK motor, so I have pretty high hopes that it'll perform just fine.

 

[Urwumpe]

For one thing solid rockets have been known to undergo chamber breeches during combustion.

Actually, solid rocket motors are VERY reliable. The case bursts happen mostly for motors with filament wound case or segmented motors. Simpler steel casings for example fail about as often as steel bolts.

Also, you can see how reliable solid rocket motors can be by one tiny fact: The smaller brother of them is installed multiple times in almost every car you see. A solid gas generator is just a solid rocket motor designed for fast combustion and low gas temperatures. They are used in airbags and for tensioning the seatbelts during collisions.

 

[RGClark]

I doubt NASA has a word to say about New Shepard... anyway, solid rockets have been known to go boom, liquid rockets have been known to go boom... I doubt the passengers will care much about what the propellant is, and more that the escape rocket fires.

The difference is for a solid rocket the entire rocket serves as the combustion chamber so a breech can occur anywhere along its length.

Bob Clark

---------- Post added at 10:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:25 PM ----------

...
Also, you can see how reliable solid rocket motors can be by one tiny fact: The smaller brother of them is installed multiple times in almost every car you see. A solid gas generator is just a solid rocket motor designed for fast combustion and low gas temperatures. They are used in airbags and for tensioning the seatbelts during collisions.

Probably the example of an airbag is not the best example to use of safety currently.

Bob Clark

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Then think of the abort motor as a higher-performance version of a Star-series motor. When was the last time one of those blew up?

 

[Urwumpe]

Probably the example of an airbag is not the best example to use of safety currently.

Maybe exactly because of that. Aside of Takata, you have millions of airbags in the world. Most doing exactly their job. Even in some airliners, you can find airbags on every seat.

---------- Post added at 10:14 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:09 AM ----------

Then think of the abort motor as a higher-performance version of a Star-series motor. When was the last time one of those blew up?

Actually, those never blew up, though there had been ignition failures in history.

 

[RGClark]

Things are getting interesting.

SpaceX is run by a James Bond villain, vs. Blue Origin, run by Superman's archenemy, Lex Luthor!

The second richest man in the world now. BTW, how can Bezos be worth that much when Amazon is constantly losing money?


Bob Clark

 

[Urwumpe]

The second richest man in the world now. BTW, how can Bezos be worth that much when Amazon is constantly losing money?

You should really learn economics at times, it is fascinating. :lol:

The trick is: Amazon invests more into its future growth, than it earned in the current year, it essentially tries to stay near zero profit or a small bit less, for a VERY aggressive growth strategy. Even if losses, Amazon grows. If it would shrink and have losses, it would be a disaster. If it would shrink and have profits, it would be alerting. But you must not have profits as long as the company grows....

Now, how does that make Bezos rich? Well, Bezos owns Amazon shares (which represent how much his company is worth), and with the growth of Amazon, his shares grow as well. Even if he sells a bit of them every year, his wealth in amazon shares continues to grow, together with the wealth invested elsewhere. He sure has diversified his assets by now enough to be only partially depending on the success of Amazon.

Still, in the Forbes list of 2017, he is just place 3. Maybe I'll drop him a dime to get past Warren Buffet.

 

[RGClark]

The latest news reports have Bezos edging Buffet for second-richest.

This must be creative financing at its finest. From what I read Amazon has never been profitable in its 20 year history. How do they get people to continue to invest in it? It's like the opposite of what investors normally look for in good investment opportunities.

I think this is also true of both Musk companies SpaceX and Tesla. They have never been profitable. The top investors must be entranced by the high-tech goals of the companies, to the extent they ignore commonly accepted good investment strategies.

Bob Clark

 

[Unstung]

The second richest man in the world now. BTW, how can Bezos be worth that much when Amazon is constantly losing money?

Amazon makes most of its money net income off web services, not shopping. The company is actually running a profit.

 

[Urwumpe]

From what I read Amazon has never been profitable in its 20 year history.

That is because you mistake "Does not make a profit." with "not profitable". Amazon invested largely in growth. Would they have stopped their growth strategy, they would be instantly profitable - but for how long? The competition does the same strategy. But for investors and banks, it is easily visible, that investing into Amazon is a good thing - they will get their investments back with interests. Even without a profit.

BTW: Last year (2016), Amazon.com was profitable actually. 2 billion USD net income.

 

[dman]

would say two factors there are obvious:

Volume and
CoG

The motor needs a specific geometry to get the right thrust curve. you can of course try to fit a SRM into a more complex geometry, but that not just increases costs for manufacturing, you also can't just buy the motor from the shelf.

So, the motor has to be installed somewhere where enough room exists for it.

Next, once you have an abort, the motor will burn fuel, get lighter and the CoG shifts. If you have the CoG of this motor near the CoG of the capsule, you have less problems there. Would you install it under deck, the CoG would rise quickly during the abort and controlling the capsule would get harder.

Placing the solid fuel escape motor in crew cabin brings to mind that scene from "DR STRANGELOVE" of Major Kong (Slim Pickens ) in the bomb bay of the B52 riding the bomb down..............

 

[RGClark]

A Blue Origins video animation from 2015 shows the solid rocket escape motor with handholds at about the 2:25 point:

[ame="http://youtu.be/-YJhymiZjqc?t=145"]Soar with Blue Origin - YouTube[/ame]

Be careful to mind your head while floating though!

Bob Clark

 

[RGClark]

An article and video presentation with Jeff Bezos:

How Jeff Bezos is using Amazon’s success to fuel Blue Origin’s space effort, a billion dollars at a time.
BY ALAN BOYLE on April 5, 2017 at 5:13 pm
http://www.geekwire.com/2017/jeff-bezos-amazon-blue-origin/

He says they hope to have the first manned tests flight and also first passenger flights for New Shepard in 2018.
Like Elon Musk, he wants to make a radical reduction in orbital space costs by reusability.
He stated must of the costs of the New Glenn orbital rocket of $2.5 billion will be by self-financing. Perhaps half jokingly, he said he'll sell $1 billion worth of Amazon stock per year to pay for it.
Also interesting is he mentions possibly giving the New Shepard a small upper stage to get a small sat orbital launcher.

A video description of the interior of the New Shepard capsule:

Video: Here’s what it’s like to sit inside Blue Origin’s New Shepard spaceship.
BY ALAN BOYLE on April 5, 2017 at 7:26 pm
http://www.geekwire.com/2017/video-blue-origin-new-shepard-spaceship/

Bob Clark

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Got another walk through the plant today. Guess what was available for photo ops?

That, folks, is the crew capsule mockup for New Shepard. It's very nicely fitted out. Window frames are handholds, there's a ring of handholds in the ceiling and around the abort motor housing, and the seats are, well...

(of course I'm grinning like an idiot. Can you honestly claim you'd do differently?)
As advertised, the view from the windows will be utterly amazing. GREAT view upwards while in the seat, so you can watch the sky go black as you climb, and the view down is pretty good if you turn your head a little in the headrest. And the view outwards will be incredible.

Headspace for 6'3"/190cm tall me was somewhat limited in the capsule while standing... I could stand up straight and put my head into the cushioned ceiling with a moderate amount of force, which could be useful for freefall... should I ever get the opportunity to ride for real.

 

[Urwumpe]

Well, the seat looks a tiny bit small compared to you. :lol:

How much configuration is possible there? I would suspect the seats are not based on customized seat liners like Soyuz does.