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Jeff Bezos's Space Company Reveals Some Secrets
An anonymous reader writes "Jeff Bezos's commercial spaceflight company, Blue Origin, has kept its plans secret to better compete with rivals such as Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic. But in order to build its launch facility in West Texas, it has revealed some details of its future operations: Blue Origin's Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) will carry three or more passengers on suborbital, ballistic trajectories to altitudes in excess of 325,000 feet above sea level. It will launch vertically and land vertically, and will use hydrogen peroxide and kerosene as propellants. It will operate autonomously under control of on-board computers, with no ground control. Blue Origin plans a maximum rate of 52 launches per year."
I don't know about this one. "Culberson County, we have a problem" just doesn't have a good ring to it.
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Any idea on how much tickets are going to cost?
I'll probably be modded down for this...
Look for life insurance policies to have a new clause added to explicitly exclude coverage in the event of a spacecraft mishap (if they don't already have such a clause).
The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
will use hydrogen peroxide and kerosene as propellants. It will operate autonomously under control of on-board computers, with no ground control.
No problems what so ever. Sounds incredibly safe to me.
I'm assuming they mean they're going to use 'chutes to land - landing on reverse thrusters or what have you in earth's gravity well could be fairly fuel expensive, and doesn't make much sense.
As long as the passengers after the flight are reusable too, it should be a workable, safe plan. However, could we claim spaceflights under the "Amazon Prime Plan", which claims "Unlimited shipping privileges cost just $79 per year"? After all, it all boils down to being shipped by Amazon.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Apparently, the interface for the vehicle will be a single button with the word "click" stenciled underneath it.
I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
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I suggest a compromise with these "unmanned spaceflght zealots". We send each of them up in a manned spaceflight. At some pre-determined point, the spacecraft is programmed to become unmanned due to explosive decompression of the passenger compartment. Then, the flight continues on, unmanned. Everybody's happy.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
As a public service, here are some facts about Culberson County, Texas.
* The county seat is Van Horn.
* As you can see by the satellite photo, the rugged Guadalupe Mountains meet the barren, flat Llano Estacado.
* Culberson County includes the highest point in Texas, part of Guadalupe Mountains National Park.
* Road geeks will appreciate the significance of this fact: Van Horn is the western terminus of U.S. Highway 90.
* Due to the lack of water, tourism and mining are the only sources of income. For details on how the county's 3,407 souls bide their time while waiting for the new spaceport to be built, see the Handbook of Texas Online.
And in the tongue-in-cheek words of singer-songwriter Brian Burns:
Welcome to Texas,
Don't anybody get me wrong;
We're glad y'all came to see us,
Just don't forget to go back home.
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
Pipe dream. Like the Red Hat Center (now the Center for the Public Domain) for Mr. Bob Young.
[...]would operate autonomously under control of on-board computers,
:)...
Didn't know anyone had systems relable enough for civilian passengers (i.e. not NASA, military, etc.) to do this yet (or maybe it's all in the disclaimer you have to sign beforehand
with no ground control during nominal flight conditions[...]
So they will have ground control during less than nominal flight conditions?
The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
Since the only real use for this sort of suborbital flight that isn't already adequately served by other methods (like high-flying aircraft) is tourism, unmanned flights wouldn't really work very well in this case.
"The TANG was stale"
"Space captain farted in airlock and refused to provide refund"
"Unsecured lunch lockers: tribbles ate my sandwich"
"I am a smoker, and was told that smokers had to step outside during spaceflight. Do NOT buy!"
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
at one launch per week, it wouldnt take more than a year or two to send prety much everyone i dont like into space. ^_^
I guess weekly launches aren't unattainable, as long as there's no requirement for an equal number of landings, and a large supply of launch vehicles.
S
I don't know. To me this is like the Wright brothers announcing their new airline and airport before ever flying at Kittyhawk.
jfs
The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
Would he have a one click launch sequence?
Would he patent it?
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
What about evasive evasive maneuvers? Ground clearance? and all the other details involved in space flight?
This thing is supposed to land vertically? That sounds more like a crash to me.
Will it have parachutes?
The Internet is full. Go Away!!!
"WTF do you want us to do about it, all the guidance computers are on your ship!"
Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.
You are going to have to have an awfully slick sales pitch to get over the fact that the flights always end with 600 mp/h impact at former Soviet Union strategic targets. Other than that, it's a great flight, man!
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Approximately 1/3 of astronauts get space adaption syndrome. Basically, when you're in microgravity, the fluid in your inner ear doesn't settle, and so doesn't give your body a proper sense of balance. This does cause nausea and disorentation (lasting for up to a few days) in some people. Since these sub-orbital hops only give a few minutes of weightlessnesss, this will hopefully not be an issue.
Yup...and he has already patented the "One-Click Launch Sequence"
Well, in a nutshell -
:)
The amount of GPE gained during an ascent requires X amount of fuel.
Descent requires no fuel to move downwards, however K.E. will be accumulated equal to the sum of the GPE and disippated thermal energy.
Therefore the amount of fuel required to stop a descent is less than that required to ascend.
To be honest, the best solution would probably be a combination of the two - drogue chute, main chute (both lightweight and easily re-deployable in future missions), which ensure a low velocity, and also proper alignment for the retro-rockets, which could be used for final touchdown (much like several mars missions).
And yes, I am a rocket scientist.
Yes, but you would have to go first.
You're still in Texas. Sheesh! I though the idea was to escape.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, The Baroque Cycle, etc.) has taken a part-time job as a consultant for Blue Origins.
Don't blame me, I voted for Durga.
Not really on topic, or of any use whatsoever, but NASAs group life indurance policy (as of 10 years ago) actually did include loss of life due to space craft disaster.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
"It will operate autonomously under control of on-board computers, with no ground control..."
This could certainly add new meaning to the phrase "Blue Screen of Death."
I'll wager that they'll never get guv'mint approval to operate without at least one human pilot.
Keep the peace(es).
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies
The Wright brothers probably did not have to file environmental impact statements or calculate mean casuality per launch or estimate the damage of an explosion for insurance purposes or...
Jeff Bezos brought his evironmental impact statement to a conference once; it's about the size of a metropolitan phone book. It has sections that state that their rocket will not cause floods or hurricanes, will not change the flow of any rivers, will not interfere with the mating habits of local desert lizards, and on and on.
Present day aerospace development is regulated to the point of near inactivity. At least, the developers are still allowed to kill themselves in the process or nothing would get done.
On the upside, recent legislation has made launching easier. Finding a launch site with an appropriate window and a minimum of EPA hassles is still tricky.
-Hope
Carmack's first attempt used an H2O2 monopropellant engine. This one uses H2O2 as oxidizer and Kerosene as propellant. It is not the same thing by a long shot. To be honest, I would have used O2 instead of H2O2 for the oxidizer (like Carmack is finally doing now). H2O2 is more expensive and decomposes into H2 and O2 easily. Too much trouble considering what it is worth. The only real bonus is that H2O2 is not cryogenic.
You are so right. It is a very bad example, like "ape going ugly".
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.