Launch News SpaceX Falcon Heavy Demo Mission (1330-1630 EST 6th Feb. 2018)

[Urwumpe]

Still, I think the JJ Abrams movies had been great and closer to the original feel of the series....

 

[Face]

And now there's discovery, and I'm not yet quite sure what to make of it... The whole spore drive thing is ridiculously contrieved for no good reason, I'm not sure why another Klingon redesign was neccessary, and getting them stuck in the evil parallel universe was just about the bloody most stupid thing they could have done. I'm kinda enjoying it for now as a generic scifi show, but I'm not getting any star trek vibes at all from it.

Oughtta' put some spoiler tags around that.

 

[jedidia]

Oughtta' put some spoiler tags around that.

There's spoilers, and then there's fair warnings :lol:

 

[Screamer7]

Another view.

"Two Candles coming down"

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_kfM-BmVzQ"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_kfM-BmVzQ[/ame]

 

[Andy44]

There is no Star Trek after TNG. :tiphat:

Wrong.

There is no Star Trek after Wrath of Khan. All that follows is fan fic at best.

---------- Post added at 12:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:14 PM ----------

Another view.

"Two Candles coming down"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_kfM-BmVzQ

Loving the sound from these latest videos. Really increases the dramatic feeling of what you are witnessing.

 

[RGClark]

Seriously OT, which is unforgivable for me, but I enjoy all Trek except ENT - never could get into that series.

You seem to be in agreement with almost all Trek fans on that point. For whatever reason, people never warmed to Scott Bakula as captain.

Bob Clark

 

[Messierhunter]

The Tesla/2nd Stage is now down around magnitude 19. It probably won't be this close to earth again anytime in my lifetime, so I took a couple more pictures of it yesterday using a 20" scope in Australia. It's dim, but it's there.
http://h.dropcanvas.com/la9rq/tesla21318.gif
It was already over 5 times the distance to the moon as of yesterday.

 

[Notebook]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-43063379

Musk's Tesla to stay in space for millions of years
By Paul Rincon
Science editor, BBC News website

 

[Andy44]

I wonder how quickly the sun will destroy the finish and upholstery in that car...

Did they instrument the space suit to gather some data?

 

[Notebook]

Had a read of the arxiv article, and looking at this:

Giventheobject’scomparativelyhighsurface-areatomassratio, other non-gravitational forces could play an important role. In particular, the Yarkovsky effect caused by delayed thermal emission as the object rotates causes a secular drift in the semi-major axis. Given the ∼ 4 m × 4 m × 2 m dimensions of the combined Tesla and Payload Attach Fitting (PAF), a useful point of comparison is 2009 BD, the smallest asteroid (4m across) with a measuredYarkovskydriftofda/dt≈0.05AU/Myr(Vokrouhlick´yetal. 2015). If we assume a density for the carbon-fibre surface of the Tesla of∼1000 kg m−3, a heat capacity of∼1000 J kg−1 K−1, and a thermal conductivity of∼100 W m−1 K−1, then the thermal inertiais∼104 inSIunits.Thisisroughlyanorderofmagnitudelarger than might be expected for 2009 BD. The Tesla rotates quickly compared to the thermal re-emission timescale with a period of 4.7589±0.0060 minutes2. Thus, similarly to small asteroids like 2009 BD, the Tesla is in the limit of large thermal parameter Θ, so the Yarkovsky drift scales inversely with the thermal inertia (Bottke et al. 2006). However, the effect also scales inversely with the density of the body. Assuming a total mass of ∼ 6000 kg for the combined Tesla and PAF, this yields a density of∼ 200 kg/m3, an order of magnitude lower than typical asteroids. Thus the effect of a larger thermal inertia is offset by the reduced density. In summary,areasonableestimateforthestrengthoftheYarkovskyeffect is∼0.05 AU/Myr, i.e. close to that of 2009 BD.

I would say the interior will be ok, but the furry-dice may need to be replaced.

N.

 

[Messierhunter]

Here's a video I did summarizing my tracking of the second stage and then using Orbiter to simulate the launch to match the observed trajectory (roughly):

 

[Nicholas Kang]

No, we are not yet done with this. :lol:

Some more footage...

1:11 shows the booster heading straight for the Atlantic, just beside the drone ship.

 

[Artlav]

Oh, and was the center core crash video released?

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Good thing it missed :huh:

I wonder if that is something coded in the guidance - if engine failure is detected on final approach, try to miss the landing ship? Though there are only a few seconds to play with, so I'm guessing luck is more probable.

Which leads to the concern that, if they have a bad accident on the landing ship, the whole economic model SpaceX is pursuing (lower cost access to space through reuse and rapid turnaround) grinds to a halt until they can replace the ship. It probably wouldn't have been fatal this instance as many of the subsequent missions were throwing away older block stages, so they had some time to cope with the loss. But if this were to happen when the Block 5 fleet is in full operational tempo, that would be catastrophic to the company.

Investing in some more recovery drone ships with a spare or two on standby would probably be a smart investment at this point.

 

[Artlav]

AFAIK, the guidance does actually converges to a spot in the ocean right next to the barge until the very last moment, to avoid hard impacts like that.

Can't quite find how much the barge cost, but i doubt it's more than one first stage, so they'll have spares.

 

[GLS]

Oh, and was the center core crash video released?

If we play that in reverse, we get a SLBM launch. :rofl:

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Can't quite find how much the barge cost, but i doubt it's more than one first stage, so they'll have spares.

At the moment they have two, one for the Atlantic (OCISLY) and one for the Pacific (Just Read The Directions). If the lose either, especially OCISLY, they lose recovery capability for heavy payload or high orbit missions until it can be replaced. While inexpensive, it would potentially be months before another could be sourced.

 

[Unstung]

If we play that in reverse, we get a SLBM launch. :rofl: