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SpaceX Details Its Plans For Landing Three Falcon Heavy Boosters At Once (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: As part of the process to gain federal approval for the simultaneous landing of its Falcon Heavy rocket boosters in Florida, SpaceX has prepared an environmental assessment of the construction of two additional landing pads alongside its existing site. The report considers noise and other effects from landing up to three first stages at the same time. After undergoing a preliminary review by the U.S. Air Force, the document has been released for public comment. As part of the document, SpaceX also says it would like to build a Dragon capsule processing facility on the landing zone to support refurbishment of the Dragon 2 spacecraft, designed to carry crew into orbit. The 130-foot-long facility would provide a "temporary" facility for vehicle propellant load and propulsion system servicing. When it originally designed its Landing Zone 1 facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, for the single Falcon 9 first stage booster, the company envisioned the need for one main pad approximately 200 feet across, and four smaller contingency pads, each approximately 150 feet in diameter. The chosen site had enough acreage to accommodate all five pads. Improvements in the rocket's landing navigation guidance system obviated the need for the contingency pads with the Falcon 9, however. So now the company wants to use the additional space to construct two concrete landing pads, each with an approximate diameter of 282 feet surrounded by an approximate 50-foot-wide hard-packed soil "apron." This would give SpaceX three landing pads and the ability to bring back all three Falcon Heavy boosters to land while also retaining the option to land one or two on drone ships in the Atlantic Ocean. In addition to the potential for a dozen Falcon 9 launches and landings each year, the document says SpaceX may eventually make six Falcon Heavy launches a year, potentially returning an additional 18 boosters to the Florida-based site. The new pads and crane sites would be configured to allow parallel processing of landed boosters. With U.S. Air Force Approval, construction could begin as early as this spring.
"This would give SpaceX three landing pads and the ability to bring back all three Falcon Heavy boosters to land while also retaining the option to land one or two on drone ships in the Atlantic Ocean."
I can imagine scenarios where you'd want to land zero, one or three boosters on drone ships. I can't imagine any scenario where it makes sense to land two boosters on drone ships. One way would be to have the center booster and one side booster landing at sea - but if one side booster can return to landing site, so can the other (and landing on land is both cheaper and safer if you can do it.) The other way is to land both side boosters at sea but return the center booster to land - but the center booster is always going to be much harder to return to land, as it burns longer and so is higher velocity and further down range when it has finished boosting.
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
But they want to push without fixing the problems they already have.
If you want rapid progress, you have qualified people work on current problems, while other people work on anticipated future problems.
Have you ever watched six-year-olds play soccer? They all cluster around the ball, in a tight little group, with everyone 100% focused on just the immediate problem of kicking the ball. By the time they are eight, they understand that is not a winning strategy.
GPS navigation, communications infrastructure, weather forecasts that have any chance of working...
SpaceX may intend to do serious exploration and colonization with their profits, but their bread and butter are pretty much based on what they get paid for by people who care about shit here on the ground. There's not a lot of exploration in, say, upgrading the iridium network, which is the next launch on the list. Oh, and the return thing is so we can have more of those things for less money. Pretty down-to-earth considerations, that.
If you want to view the launch live, instructions are here.
Bruce Perens.
Maybe your news sources are not reliable. Musk's previous business efforts have made a ton of profit and he has reinvested his own funds in his more recent efforts. Tesla is a public stock company, so both institutions and individuals are invested in it. SpaceX is privately funded, you can see who the investors are here.
Bruce Perens.
Not only have they landed a number of them, but the launch of comsat SES-10, currently expected sometime in February, is being done on the booster that flew ISS resupply mission CRS-8, and was the first successful landing on the droneship at sea. Another used stage is undergoing conversion to be used as one of the boosters on the Falcon Heavy launch that will use these pads.
It's not that anyone is dodging an important question. It's that the question is, I'm sorry, naive. The benefits of space research are around you every moment of your life.
The Apollo program, for example, used some of the first integrated circuits. This work progressed to essentially all modern electronic devices.
Bruce Perens.
The main reason why crossfeed isn't being worked on is that the extra capacity it would deliver isn't needed by any customers. The heavy is already a beast of a launcher without it. But, if someone came up with a mission that required the extra capacity and was willing to pay for its development, then they would restart work on crossfeed.
Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
This is what I hate from SpaceX. They refuse to acknowledge their problems.
Not one single Falcon has landed without mayor damage today. But they want to push without fixing the problems they already have.
This is what I hate from SpaceX. They refuse to acknowledge their problems.
Not one single Falcon has landed without mayor damage today. But they want to push without fixing the problems they already have.
It takes time for major construction projects, from approval through to actual building and beyond.
They have verified enough to know what they are trying to achieve is possible, so they are pushing forward with the parts they need to get out of the way.
Also, every time one of their boosters have landed they have done a full examination, learnt what they could, and then made or planned modifications to reduce the risk of the same issues occurring again. This is the definition of learning, and if they weren't do it these are lessons no one, let alone SpaceX would learn. Not to mention at least one of landed their boosters is near-launch ready.
Actually, all of the ground landings take place right next to the ocean.
It's not that hard to conceive of a rocket booster coming back to Earth going off course by a fair distance and "landing" where it shouldn't. Definitely less chance of harm to property if this happens over the ocean than over land. It's not a worry that keeps me up at night or anything but it's certainly among the possible outcomes.
All of Musk's businesses lose money every year
Except that they don't. Tesla has lost money to date but periodically shows a small profit and is approaching breakeven despite investing heavily in new products and technology. So far investors have liked what they have seen. Paypal was hugely profitable. SpaceX is private but there are rumors that it is profitable from credible sources.
Where exactly do they get the funds for all this expansion, or for the Gigafactory or the Tesla 3 tooling and production?
The Gigafactory is a joint venture with several partners, primarily Panasonic. Money for Tesla 3 development and tooling comes from sales of the Model S and X as well as loans and stock sales. (you are aware that the entire point of going public is to raise money to build the company right?) Plus Musk has put a lot of his own personal fortune into the ventures. It's no mystery where all these ventures get their funding. When you've started numerous successful businesses like Elon Musk has it's not terribly hard to get funding.
There are two types of countries. Those that use meters, and those that have been to the moon.
There are two types of countries. Those that use meters, and those that have been to the moon.
....you know that NASA is using the metric system right?
Elok