Elon Musk and his rocket 🚀
- Thread starter Fabiopaim
- Start date
Scrote
Well-known member
The wonders of socialism (and a bit of competition).
Muttley
Well-known member
Interesting to see how quickly they can go with the second attempt. The launch pad was pretty much destroyed by the power of the rocket. They will find the cause of the six failed engines and the second stage separation problem but it might be that they need to redesign the launch pad to cope with the power of the thing.
Sometimes it seems like SpaceX just like blowing stuff up for fun and giggles.
Sometimes it seems like SpaceX just like blowing stuff up for fun and giggles.
Norman_Conquest
Well-known member
Although I like all things space I just love to see Musk fail.
I knew a lad in Grangetown who liked to make explosions with his chemistry set. He brought one of his contraptions to The Grangetown Boys Club and we went on to the field to watch his explosion expecting a little bang. He blew out the windows in the old Farm School (St Mary's to you) and we all had ringing in our ears.
jeff_potato
Well-known member
When I watched it on the news tonight I couldn't help but imagine the Dr Evil theme tune playing as it lifted off.
Scrote
Well-known member
Whilst my earlier remark was slightly tongue-in-cheek (slightly) the fact that Musk has had $billions in subsidies from the US Govt for SpaceX makes having him as a figurehead even worse.
However, it's a price worth paying if they manage to get people on Mars.
Probably...
dooderooni
Well-known member
Because he's a knob?
In the future, if we go down the route of corporate interests ruling the world and essentially replacing government then historians will reference Musk as being a being an early example of those that think the rules don't apply to them.
He's not an authoritarian like Xi, Trump, Erdogan et Al, but he's equally a threat to democratic norms.
Expat Smoggie
Well-known member
I’ve spent literally my whole working life in hi-tech and have seen some amazing things with tech, but at the same time a lot of failures. The point here, is that without failures there isn’t a path to success or perhaps a path for redemption, or to further our education.
I’ve always been happy with failures as it gives me more of a reason to believe it will work but it comes at a price of taking ten paces back and reevaluating things that you might have done better.
I’m sure this will (SpaceX) work out and will further human innovation in all things science.
I’ve always been happy with failures as it gives me more of a reason to believe it will work but it comes at a price of taking ten paces back and reevaluating things that you might have done better.
I’m sure this will (SpaceX) work out and will further human innovation in all things science.
Scrote
Well-known member
Data. They already have a replacement ready as they were expecting there to be problems. This stuff rarely works first time in real life no matter how good the simulations are.
NASA have been given the Moon-landing brief.
Musk is doing what NASA would be doing in any sensible nation but too many right-wingers decided that NASA was a government entity and therefore needed defunding.
The USA is a very strange nation!
Damn you Expat. Your job sounds amazing. I'm very jealous. NASA's explanation for not going back to the moon is lack of financial benefit. Musk has said many times he doesn't need any more financial benefit, so why has he not just copied 1969 and landed? If he could, I can't help thinking he would.
Expat Smoggie
Well-known member
NASA was always looking to be torn down from its days with the Space shuttle as it struggled to change its ways on finance and Space programs.
I don’t think you can point the finger at any one president or congress that had issues with NASA— they all had issues.
Maybe Obama cast the blame at NASA’s autocratic leadership back in 2008, or maybe it was just congress looking to scale back funding after the financial crisis but I’d say going private was the best thing that ever happened to the space industry.
Certainly the US government puts a lot of faith in NASA for security and while there’s options for launching packages through XYZ companies many of the satellites are still managed by NASA for obvious reasons.
Does politics play a major part in the US space industry? Of course but unlike other US bureaucracies the US seems to have an even approach on science projects in general. (IMO)
Scrote
Well-known member
The US governments explanation via NASA chiefs (possibly - I can't be bothered looking it up).
There was a definite push after the Cold War to cut spending on what was seen as a competitive bragging rights exercise by mainly right-leaning politicians. The scientific benefits were still huge but the thought of "big government" was too much. The Challenger disaster was a timely excuse but the wheels were in motion (as I remember it).
Going private just meant diverting cash that was going to NASA into the pockets of 'entrepeneurs'.
Everything that has been done privately could have been done by NASA and probably more cheaply and effectively (with the right oversight).
Anything over clearing the launch tower was really a success, they surpassed that and even hit max Q on a total prototype that's never flown before. Spacex are following an iterative design process, it's messier, but faster and arguably cheaper. They got a shedload of data and the next one which is already a massive upgrade is ready to go. The only downside of the mission today was how much the damage to the launch site is going to set them back ... They may regret not having a flame diverter and proper water suppression system.
The test was to launch it off the pad .. anything after that was a bonus .. thus, the test was a success
Because they are not trying to copy Saturn 5, they are building something entirely new. A fully rapidly reusable launch system. It's never been done before.
atypical_boro
Well-known member
Didn’t we go back several times in the 70s?
Muttley
Well-known member
It would probably cost just as much to build a new Saturn 5 and everything that went with it. So there would be little saved. You wouldn't learn anything. (I believe I'm right to say that your phone probably has more processing power than all the computer systems that ran the Apollo program!)
If you have read a little about the Apollo program you will know that they were incredibly lucky to achieve the success that they did. Apollo 11 was within seconds of having to abort the landing as the looked for somewhere to put the Lunar Module down. You know what happened with Apollo 1? Look it up. Apollo 13. They pulled the rest of the program as basically they knew that as some point their luck would run out (plus of course the returns were diminishing)
Musk is a complete t1t but I do find the achievements of SpaceX captivating.