Article and pic here. SpaceX is planning a main landing pad as well as four contingency landing pads at Launch Complex 13 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, according to a June 2014 environmental impact statement.
The U.S. Air Force announced Feb. 10 that SpaceX has signed a five-year lease for Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 13, which was used to launch Atlas rockets and missiles between 1956 and 1978. In its new role, it will serve as a landing pad for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy booster cores launched from Florida, the Air Force said. “The contingency pads would only be utilized in order to enable the safe landing of a single vehicle should last-second navigation and landing diversion be required. There are no plans to utilize the contingency pads in order to enable landing multiple stages” at once, the assessment said.
SpaceX has a number of launches coming up according to Space Flight Now including: * 19 Dec - Falcon 9 rocket will launch 11 second-generation Orbcomm communications satellites. * Dec ? - Falcon 9 rocket will launch the SES 9 communications satellite. * Jan - Falcon 9 rocket will launch the 10th Dragon spacecraft on the eighth operational cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station. * Jan - Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Jason 3 ocean altimetry mission. Jason 3 will measure ocean surface topography to aid in ocean circulation and climate change research for NOAA, EUMETSAT, NASA and the French space agency, CNES. * There are others scheduled for early 2016
Perchlorates may lead to health problems but likely not deadly. According to some groups, perchlorate affects only the thyroid gland. Because it is neither stored nor metabolized, any effects of perchlorate on the thyroid gland are fully reversible. Some other studies suggest that perchlorate may have pulmonary toxic effects as well. In this article it is mentioned that exposure could be managed. As for using the soil for agriculture, there are several technologies can remove perchlorate, via treatments ex situ and in situ. Ex situ treatments include ion exchange using perchlorate-selective or nitrite-specific resins, bioremediation using packed-bed or fluidized-bed bioreactors, and membrane technologies via electrodialysis and reverse osmosis. In ex situ treatment via ion exchange, contaminants are attracted and adhere to the ion exchange resin because such resins and ions of contaminants have opposite charge. It may be beneficial to process it. Researchers have proposed a biochemical approach for the removal of perchlorate from Martian soil that would not only be energetically cheap and environmentally friendly, but could also be used to obtain oxygen both for human consumption and to fuel surface operations. In any event, precautions will have to be taken but the presence of perchlorates in the soil does not appear to be 'show stopper' at this point.
Phobos has been proposed as an early target for a manned mission to Mars. The tele-operation of robotic scouts on Mars by humans on Phobos could be conducted without significant time delay, and planetary protection concerns in early Mars exploration might be addressed by such an approach.
Phobos has also been proposed as an early target for a manned mission to Mars because a landing on Phobos would be considerably less difficult and expensive than a landing on the surface of Mars itself. A lander bound for Mars would need to be capable of atmospheric entry and subsequent return to orbit, without any support facilities (a capacity that has never been attempted in a manned spacecraft), or would require the creation of support facilities in-situ (a "colony or bust" mission); a lander intended for Phobos could be based on equipment designed for lunar and asteroid landings. Additionally, the delta-v to land on Phobos and return is only 80% of that for a trip to and from the surface of the Moon, partly due to Phobos's very weak gravity.
The human exploration of Phobos could serve as a catalyst for the human exploration of Mars and be exciting and scientifically valuable in its own right.
Earth's atmosphere consists of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and only.04% carbon dioxide. The water in the ice caps contain oxygen but where could you get all the nitrogen?
Elon Musk recently posted on Twitter that is was not advocating setting off nukes on Mars but merely presenting it as one of the options available to quickly generating an atmosphere. Setting aside the problems of radiation and the mechanics of getting thousands of bombs to Mars, what would be the effect of nuking the poles?
The polar caps at both poles consist primarily (70%) of water ice. The northern polar cap has a diameter of about 1,000 km during the northern Mars summer, and contains about 1.6 million cubic kilometres of ice, which, if spread evenly on the cap, would be 2 km thick. (This compares to a volume of 2.85 million cubic kilometres for the Greenland ice sheet.) The southern polar cap has a diameter of 350 km and a thickness of 3 km. The total volume of ice in the south polar cap plus the adjacent layered deposits has also been estimated at 1.6 million cubic km.
So there are a few problems with this. First the northern pole region has a surface area of 3,141,590 sq km and the southern a further 384850 sq kms.. Even the mort powerful nukes only cover a few sq kms with the direct fireball. And even if they can vaporize the ice, it would condense and freeze in a short period of time due to the cold tempuratures. The Martian surface temperatures vary from lows of about 143 C (225 F) at the winter polar caps to highs of up to 35 C (95 F) in equatorial summer. The wide range in temperatures is due to the thin atmosphere which cannot store much solar heat, the low atmospheric pressure, and the low thermal inertia of Martian soil. The planet is also 1.52 times as far from the Sun as Earth, resulting in just 43% of the amount of sunlight.
In the long run, it might be easier to cool Venus with space shades than try to warm Mars.
The surface gravity on Mars is 38% of that on Earth. It is not known if this is enough to hold a breathable atmosphere. Additionally, the lower gravity of Mars would require 2.6 times Earth’s column air mass to obtain 100 kPa pressure at the surface. Earth's atmosphere has a mass of about 5.15×1018 kg three quarters of which is within about 11 km of the surface. The atmosphere becomes thinner and thinner with increasing altitude, with no definite boundary between the atmosphere and outer space. The Kármán line, at 100 km, is often used as the border between the atmosphere and outer space. So the atmosphere on Mars would have to extend to 260kms to have the same surface air pressure as Earth.
Many associate Sensory deprivation with torture but short-term sessions have been described as relaxing and conducive to meditation. Sessions of up to 24 hrs for therapeutic purposes are referred to as Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy (REST) There is a substantial amount of research in treating addictive behaviors with REST is reviewed with smoking, overeating, alcohol consumption, and drug misuse. There are two types: Flotation REST and Chamber RESTIn chamber REST, subjects lie on a bed in a completely dark and sound reducing (on average, 80 dB) room for up to 24 hours. Their movement is restricted by the experimental instructions, but not by any mechanical restraints. Food, drink and toilet facilities are provided in the room and are at the discretion of the tester. Subjects are allowed to leave the room before the 24 hours are complete; however, fewer than 10% actually do. With regard to the article, I would be concerned as some studies have had participant experience hallucination after 48 hrs.
During the filming of the 1989 movie 'The Abyss' James Cameron used black beads to cover the big tanks he was using for filming. Blooming algae often reduced visibility to 20 feet (6 m) within hours. Over-chlorination led to divers' skin burning and exposed hair being stripped off.
For the 1989 Movie The Abyss James Cameron shot the underwater sequences for the film were shot at an unfinished Cherokee Nuclear Power Plant, situated outside Gaffney, South Carolina, which had been abandoned by Duke Power. Two specially constructed tanks were used. The first one held 7.5 million US gallons (28,000 m3) of water, was 55 feet (18 m) deep and 209 feet (70 m) across. At the time, it was the largest fresh-water filtered tank in the world. Additional scenes were shot in the second tank, which held 2.5 million US gallons (9,500 m3) of water. The filmmakers had to figure out how to keep the water clear enough to shoot and dark enough to look realistic at 2,000 feet (700 m), which was achieved by floating a thick layer of plastic beads in the water and covering the top of the tank with an enormous tarpaulin.
I tried Chromecast but hated it. Eventually I realized the best solution was connecting my laptop to my home theatre via HDMI. When I need it I just select the video setting and when finished selected back to TV. No need for special apps or even an internet connection. Even when my TV is off I can play music from my laptop through the home Theatre speakers. With Blackberry Blend I can see my incoming email/BBMs when I am watching movies. Video chats on my big screen TV are amazing and remind me of the view screens in Star Trek. We are living in the future.
Several Mars missions have reported a significant amount of Perchlorates in the Martian soil which is a problem as it is toxic to humans. This will prevent the use of the soil for agriculture and will be hard to avoid as colonists will track the dust into habitats. How do plans to colonize Mars deal with the presence of Perchlorates in the soil?.
Yes a Colony on Venus would have water and sunlight but they would still be at the bottom of a gravity well(same for Mars). It would make more sense to establish a colony in space where you could find water and minerals in asteroids. Supply ships would not need to overcome gravity and return flights could take back precious minerals that would help fund the expense.
I read that the Dragon escape thrusters can be used anytime prior to orbit since they are built in and not jettisoned like the old escape tower rockets. Likely not installed in the cargo version but perhaps they should be precisely for this type of event. It would have been useful to save the Dragon capsule and the cargo.
The Dragon SpX-7 mission was to deliver supplies to the International Space Station and return cargo to Earth. Dragon remains the only visiting vehicle of ISS that can return a significant mass of cargo to the ground, aside from the crewed Soyuz spacecraft that can ferry a few dozen Kilograms of return items back to Earth along with its three crew members. The SpX-7 mission will carry 1,952 Kilograms of cargo to the Space Station and return 675 Kilograms to Earth at the conclusion of its five-week mission.
Interesting to note that part of the science cargo was the Meteor study. The Meteor study, going by the full name of ‘Meteor Composition Determination,’ was to be the first of its kind to be deployed in space, solely focused on the analysis of meteors entering Earth’s atmosphere and pin-pointing their composition through their optical emissions when burning up in the atmosphere. The original Meteor hardware was expected to arrive aboard the International Space Station in October 2014 on the Cygnus Orb-3 resupply craft that unfortunately was lost in a launch failure of its Antares launch vehicle just seconds after lifting off. Coincidence or someone really does not want this study to go ahead.
'It's virtually impossible to determine how much recovery will bring down the costs of launch because we don't know how much it will cost to refurbish the recovered vehicle. Certainly it will be cheaper than building a new one, but how much cheaper is impossible to predict... especially in the beginning with zero experience.'
SpaceX has stated that in order to achieve the full economic benefit of the reusable technology, it is necessary that the reuse be both rapid and complete—without the long and costly refurbishment period or partially reusable design that plagued earlier attempts at reusable launch vehicles. SpaceX has been explicit that the "huge potential to open up space flight" is dependent on achieving both complete and rapid reusability. CEO Musk has publicly stated that success with the technology development effort could reduce "the cost of spaceflight by a factor of 100" because the cost of the propellant/oxidizer on the Falcon 9 is only 0.3 percent of the total cost of the vehicle.
And yes they did learn much from the shuttle program. They plan to inspect, refuel and relaunch in a matter of days so those costs will be minimal. Remember the boosters are not going into space nor the stress of reentry.
Slashdot Mirror
Good tips. Thanks. This may be an historic landing.
Much appreciated. Thanks.
Article and pic here. SpaceX is planning a main landing pad as well as four contingency landing pads at Launch Complex 13 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, according to a June 2014 environmental impact statement.
The U.S. Air Force announced Feb. 10 that SpaceX has signed a five-year lease for Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 13, which was used to launch Atlas rockets and missiles between 1956 and 1978. In its new role, it will serve as a landing pad for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy booster cores launched from Florida, the Air Force said.
“The contingency pads would only be utilized in order to enable the safe landing of a single vehicle should last-second navigation and landing diversion be required. There are no plans to utilize the contingency pads in order to enable landing multiple stages” at once, the assessment said.
SpaceX has a number of launches coming up according to Space Flight Now including:
* 19 Dec - Falcon 9 rocket will launch 11 second-generation Orbcomm communications satellites.
* Dec ? - Falcon 9 rocket will launch the SES 9 communications satellite.
* Jan - Falcon 9 rocket will launch the 10th Dragon spacecraft on the eighth operational cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station.
* Jan - Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Jason 3 ocean altimetry mission. Jason 3 will measure ocean surface topography to aid in ocean circulation and climate change research for NOAA, EUMETSAT, NASA and the French space agency, CNES.
* There are others scheduled for early 2016
Is there a public viewing area? Is the space centre and museums still open on launch days?
Here is the link to the article.
Perchlorates may lead to health problems but likely not deadly. According to some groups, perchlorate affects only the thyroid gland. Because it is neither stored nor metabolized, any effects of perchlorate on the thyroid gland are fully reversible. Some other studies suggest that perchlorate may have pulmonary toxic effects as well. In this article it is mentioned that exposure could be managed. As for using the soil for agriculture, there are several technologies can remove perchlorate, via treatments ex situ and in situ. Ex situ treatments include ion exchange using perchlorate-selective or nitrite-specific resins, bioremediation using packed-bed or fluidized-bed bioreactors, and membrane technologies via electrodialysis and reverse osmosis. In ex situ treatment via ion exchange, contaminants are attracted and adhere to the ion exchange resin because such resins and ions of contaminants have opposite charge. It may be beneficial to process it. Researchers have proposed a biochemical approach for the removal of perchlorate from Martian soil that would not only be energetically cheap and environmentally friendly, but could also be used to obtain oxygen both for human consumption and to fuel surface operations. In any event, precautions will have to be taken but the presence of perchlorates in the soil does not appear to be 'show stopper' at this point.
... the N's do justify the means.
You could have walked out if you attended the world premiere of The Martian at the Toronto International Film Festival a few weeks ago.
Phobos has been proposed as an early target for a manned mission to Mars. The tele-operation of robotic scouts on Mars by humans on Phobos could be conducted without significant time delay, and planetary protection concerns in early Mars exploration might be addressed by such an approach.
Phobos has also been proposed as an early target for a manned mission to Mars because a landing on Phobos would be considerably less difficult and expensive than a landing on the surface of Mars itself. A lander bound for Mars would need to be capable of atmospheric entry and subsequent return to orbit, without any support facilities (a capacity that has never been attempted in a manned spacecraft), or would require the creation of support facilities in-situ (a "colony or bust" mission); a lander intended for Phobos could be based on equipment designed for lunar and asteroid landings. Additionally, the delta-v to land on Phobos and return is only 80% of that for a trip to and from the surface of the Moon, partly due to Phobos's very weak gravity.
The human exploration of Phobos could serve as a catalyst for the human exploration of Mars and be exciting and scientifically valuable in its own right.
Earth's atmosphere consists of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and only .04% carbon dioxide. The water in the ice caps contain oxygen but where could you get all the nitrogen?
Elon Musk recently posted on Twitter that is was not advocating setting off nukes on Mars but merely presenting it as one of the options available to quickly generating an atmosphere. Setting aside the problems of radiation and the mechanics of getting thousands of bombs to Mars, what would be the effect of nuking the poles?
The polar caps at both poles consist primarily (70%) of water ice. The northern polar cap has a diameter of about 1,000 km during the northern Mars summer, and contains about 1.6 million cubic kilometres of ice, which, if spread evenly on the cap, would be 2 km thick. (This compares to a volume of 2.85 million cubic kilometres for the Greenland ice sheet.) The southern polar cap has a diameter of 350 km and a thickness of 3 km. The total volume of ice in the south polar cap plus the adjacent layered deposits has also been estimated at 1.6 million cubic km.
So there are a few problems with this. First the northern pole region has a surface area of 3,141,590 sq km and the southern a further 384850 sq kms.. Even the mort powerful nukes only cover a few sq kms with the direct fireball. And even if they can vaporize the ice, it would condense and freeze in a short period of time due to the cold tempuratures. The Martian surface temperatures vary from lows of about 143 C (225 F) at the winter polar caps to highs of up to 35 C (95 F) in equatorial summer. The wide range in temperatures is due to the thin atmosphere which cannot store much solar heat, the low atmospheric pressure, and the low thermal inertia of Martian soil. The planet is also 1.52 times as far from the Sun as Earth, resulting in just 43% of the amount of sunlight.
In the long run, it might be easier to cool Venus with space shades than try to warm Mars.
The surface gravity on Mars is 38% of that on Earth. It is not known if this is enough to hold a breathable atmosphere. Additionally, the lower gravity of Mars would require 2.6 times Earth’s column air mass to obtain 100 kPa pressure at the surface. Earth's atmosphere has a mass of about 5.15×1018 kg three quarters of which is within about 11 km of the surface. The atmosphere becomes thinner and thinner with increasing altitude, with no definite boundary between the atmosphere and outer space. The Kármán line, at 100 km, is often used as the border between the atmosphere and outer space. So the atmosphere on Mars would have to extend to 260kms to have the same surface air pressure as Earth.
Many associate Sensory deprivation with torture but short-term sessions have been described as relaxing and conducive to meditation. Sessions of up to 24 hrs for therapeutic purposes are referred to as Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy (REST) There is a substantial amount of research in treating addictive behaviors with REST is reviewed with smoking, overeating, alcohol consumption, and drug misuse. There are two types: Flotation REST and Chamber RESTIn chamber REST, subjects lie on a bed in a completely dark and sound reducing (on average, 80 dB) room for up to 24 hours. Their movement is restricted by the experimental instructions, but not by any mechanical restraints. Food, drink and toilet facilities are provided in the room and are at the discretion of the tester. Subjects are allowed to leave the room before the 24 hours are complete; however, fewer than 10% actually do. With regard to the article, I would be concerned as some studies have had participant experience hallucination after 48 hrs.
During the filming of the 1989 movie 'The Abyss' James Cameron used black beads to cover the big tanks he was using for filming. Blooming algae often reduced visibility to 20 feet (6 m) within hours. Over-chlorination led to divers' skin burning and exposed hair being stripped off.
"How many Olympic-sized swimming pools(OSSPs) does that make?
Based on a nominal depth of 2 m, this is 2,500,000 L (550,000 imp gal; 660,000 US gal) or, in terms of cubic volume, 2,500 m3 (88,000 cu ft), as is commonly quoted. So Cameron's big tank was the equivalent 11.36 OSSPs and the smaller one held 3.79 OSSPs.
For the 1989 Movie The Abyss James Cameron shot the underwater sequences for the film were shot at an unfinished Cherokee Nuclear Power Plant, situated outside Gaffney, South Carolina, which had been abandoned by Duke Power. Two specially constructed tanks were used. The first one held 7.5 million US gallons (28,000 m3) of water, was 55 feet (18 m) deep and 209 feet (70 m) across. At the time, it was the largest fresh-water filtered tank in the world. Additional scenes were shot in the second tank, which held 2.5 million US gallons (9,500 m3) of water. The filmmakers had to figure out how to keep the water clear enough to shoot and dark enough to look realistic at 2,000 feet (700 m), which was achieved by floating a thick layer of plastic beads in the water and covering the top of the tank with an enormous tarpaulin.
I tried Chromecast but hated it. Eventually I realized the best solution was connecting my laptop to my home theatre via HDMI. When I need it I just select the video setting and when finished selected back to TV. No need for special apps or even an internet connection. Even when my TV is off I can play music from my laptop through the home Theatre speakers. With Blackberry Blend I can see my incoming email/BBMs when I am watching movies. Video chats on my big screen TV are amazing and remind me of the view screens in Star Trek. We are living in the future.
Several Mars missions have reported a significant amount of Perchlorates in the Martian soil which is a problem as it is toxic to humans. This will prevent the use of the soil for agriculture and will be hard to avoid as colonists will track the dust into habitats. How do plans to colonize Mars deal with the presence of Perchlorates in the soil?.
Perchlorates, a reactive chemical and toxic to human is present in the soil on Mars. This will prevent the use of the soil for agriculture and will be hard to avoid as colonists will bring the dust into habitats. How do plans to colonize Mars deal with the presence of Perchlorates in the soil?.
Yes a Colony on Venus would have water and sunlight but they would still be at the bottom of a gravity well(same for Mars). It would make more sense to establish a colony in space where you could find water and minerals in asteroids. Supply ships would not need to overcome gravity and return flights could take back precious minerals that would help fund the expense.
I read that the Dragon escape thrusters can be used anytime prior to orbit since they are built in and not jettisoned like the old escape tower rockets. Likely not installed in the cargo version but perhaps they should be precisely for this type of event. It would have been useful to save the Dragon capsule and the cargo.
There is a listing and pics of the lost cargo here.
The Dragon SpX-7 mission was to deliver supplies to the International Space Station and return cargo to Earth. Dragon remains the only visiting vehicle of ISS that can return a significant mass of cargo to the ground, aside from the crewed Soyuz spacecraft that can ferry a few dozen Kilograms of return items back to Earth along with its three crew members. The SpX-7 mission will carry 1,952 Kilograms of cargo to the Space Station and return 675 Kilograms to Earth at the conclusion of its five-week mission.
Crew Supplies - 676kg
Systems Hardware - 461kg
Science Cargo - 529kg
Computer Resources - 35kg
EVA Equipment - 166kg
External Payloads - 526kg
Interesting to note that part of the science cargo was the Meteor study. The Meteor study, going by the full name of ‘Meteor Composition Determination,’ was to be the first of its kind to be deployed in space, solely focused on the analysis of meteors entering Earth’s atmosphere and pin-pointing their composition through their optical emissions when burning up in the atmosphere. The original Meteor hardware was expected to arrive aboard the International Space Station in October 2014 on the Cygnus Orb-3 resupply craft that unfortunately was lost in a launch failure of its Antares launch vehicle just seconds after lifting off. Coincidence or someone really does not want this study to go ahead.
'It blowed up. It blowed up real good'
'It's virtually impossible to determine how much recovery will bring down the costs of launch because we don't know how much it will cost to refurbish the recovered vehicle. Certainly it will be cheaper than building a new one, but how much cheaper is impossible to predict... especially in the beginning with zero experience.'
I am going by what SpaceX themselves have estimated.Reusable Falcon 9 Would Cost $5 to $7 Million Per Launch. 13,000kg to LEO at that price is $500/kg or $209/lb. Falcon Heavy's payload is 53,000 kgs.
SpaceX has stated that in order to achieve the full economic benefit of the reusable technology, it is necessary that the reuse be both rapid and complete—without the long and costly refurbishment period or partially reusable design that plagued earlier attempts at reusable launch vehicles. SpaceX has been explicit that the "huge potential to open up space flight" is dependent on achieving both complete and rapid reusability. CEO Musk has publicly stated that success with the technology development effort could reduce "the cost of spaceflight by a factor of 100" because the cost of the propellant/oxidizer on the Falcon 9 is only 0.3 percent of the total cost of the vehicle.
And yes they did learn much from the shuttle program. They plan to inspect, refuel and relaunch in a matter of days so those costs will be minimal. Remember the boosters are not going into space nor the stress of reentry.