SpaceX Updates (Thread 8)

[Unobscured Vision]

You're good. We enjoy the Science thread no matter what. This Constellation is gonna be great, and I know everyone out in remote areas will appreciate it being there. I know I will when I'm out in Wyoming doing my Geology stuff.

 

And yes, I've taken on a second Major. Mars needs Geologists, and SpaceX wants Multi-Disciplinary employees. Former Military with an Administrative MOS background + Mechanical Engineer who's also a Geologist? Looks great on a Resume.  

[DocM]

Methinks someone wants a ride on ITS

[Unobscured Vision]

Just now, DocM said:

Methinks someone wants a ride on ITS

You know it.  

[Jim K Global Moderator]

13 minutes ago, DocM said:

Methinks someone wants a ride on ITS

So...is that your way of telling me to get out this particular topic?  I figured a simple thanks would have suffice ... or expanding on what was in the FCC filing ... or nothing at all ... what I didn't expect was a "Been discussing it a while" and pointed to an outdated thread from last year.

[DocM]

That was NOT the intent!! Just pointing to a link & nudge at  Unobscured Vision 

 

The best stuff on "CommX" (placeholder name, aka STEAM) is yet to come!! Stick around for very cool stuff.

Edited November 22, 2016 by DocM

[Unobscured Vision]

5 minutes ago, jjkusaf said:

So...is that your way of telling me to get out this particular topic?  I figured a simple thanks would have suffice ... or expanding on what was in the FCC filing ... or nothing at all ... what I didn't expect was a "Been discussing it a while" and pointed to an outdated thread from last year.

No bud, @DocM is referring to me ... I've added another Major to my College Curriculum. I want the ride on ITS. You're 5x5, @jjkusaf. I appreciate your contributions, as do everyone else. You're good, bud.

[Jim K Global Moderator]

Ah.  Sorry.  Completely missed the second line in your post.  

 

[DocM]

Check your PM's

[FloatingFatMan]

4 hours ago, Unobscured Vision said:

And yes, I've taken on a second Major. Mars needs Geologists, and SpaceX wants Multi-Disciplinary employees. Former Military with an Administrative MOS background + Mechanical Engineer who's also a Geologist? Looks great on a Resume.  

Don't forget to add some botany to that... Just in case there's a storm and everyone leaves you behind.

 

[DocM]

And make sure threes enough potatoes, and yams!.

 

No joke. They're really energetic foods you can grow most anywhere, even in containers with drip irrigation - which is what Watney should have done.

[FloatingFatMan]

53 minutes ago, DocM said:

And make sure threes enough potatoes, and yams!.

 

No joke. They're really energetic foods you can grow most anywhere, even in containers with drip irrigation - which is what Watney should have done.

That was something I didn't get with that movie.... So he lost his crop when the airlock blew out. He COULD have rebuilt it again!

 

Never mind that even the strongest of Martian storms wouldn't really be much of a threat to an outpost, or have enough oomph to tip over a MAV, but y'know.. Drama!  

[Skiver Veteran]

14 minutes ago, FloatingFatMan said:

That was something I didn't get with that movie.... So he lost his crop when the airlock blew out. He COULD have rebuilt it again!

 

Never mind that even the strongest of Martian storms wouldn't really be much of a threat to an outpost, or have enough oomph to tip over a MAV, but y'know.. Drama!  

 

It was the loss of bacteria in the soil that was needed to help the potatoes grow IIRC. 

[FloatingFatMan]

1 minute ago, Skiver said:

It was the loss of bacteria in the soil that was needed to help the potatoes grow IIRC. 

He got that from poop. He could still poop!

 

[Skiver Veteran]

Just now, FloatingFatMan said:

He got that from poop. He could still poop!

 

 

No, the original bacteria came from the potatoes they had been sent with for a thanksgiving meal. I'm not commenting on the actual science behind the book just how I remember it. So whether the poop would have worked is another thing.

[Unobscured Vision]

Simple botany is easy. I've been growing stuff all my life -- carrots, squash, tomatoes, etc -- since I was a boy. Always had a garden. Potatoes and Yams are tricky but easy if you know how.  On Mars they're bit more difficult, and the soil needs to be washed out first then treated, but it's possible to do without a ton of effort. That movie made it way more difficult than it actually would be. It also depends on where that soil is gotten from. Plus, the movie added waaaaaaaay too much moisture to that soil. He'd rot his plants out before they got big enough to produce anything.

 

That's another reason we need Geologists on the ground there. Gotta test that stuff directly, and Rovers (while we love 'em) aren't a replacement for a trained Geologist with a Lab Kit.  

 

[EDIT] Think I might start a ThinkTank thread on how to grow stuff on Mars, as well as what can be done to jump start a garden there beforehand. I've got some ideas, and I had another surgery yesterday so it'll be a good distraction for me.  

Edited November 22, 2016 by Unobscured Vision

[SALSN]

He didn't get the dirt bacteria from the poop but from some dirt he brought from earth, to use with Martian soil try to grow some grass as a test for the actual mission. At least that is the way it was in the book.
Not really sure why you need that dirt bacteria, hydroponics works with no dirt at all, so it can obviously work without the dirt bacteria.

[DocM]

N

You can grow root crops in synthetic soil or sorghum, so long as you get the pH right and provide nutrients.

 

Processed urine byproducts from the ECLSS water reprocessor is actually better than poop for quickly accessible phosphates and nitrates (nitrites are bad = you have an infection) as you don't get the harmful bacteria, especially if it's not your poop - everyone has a slightly different gut microbe mix. Still, poop can be safely composted as can food wastes. Potassium is in Mars soil.

 

The soil around Phoenix also had Mg, Na and chlorates, but as noted the perchlorates need rinsing out and reduction by any of several means including microbes.

Edited November 22, 2016 by DocM

[DocM]

 

 

Quote

 

Surface Water Survey Mission

 

NASA has selected Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, California, to provide launch services for the agency’s Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission. Launch is targeted for April 2021 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

 

The total cost for NASA to launch SWOT is approximately $112 million, which includes the launch service; spacecraft processing; payload integration; and tracking, data and telemetry support.

 

Designed to make the first-ever global survey of Earth’s surface water, in addition to high-resolution ocean measurements, the SWOT mission will collect detailed measurements of how water bodies on Earth change over time. The satellite will survey at least 90 percent of the globe, studying Earth's lakes, rivers, reservoirs and oceans, at least twice every 21 days, aid in freshwater management around the world, to improve ocean circulation models and weather and climate predictions. The SWOT spacecraft will be jointly developed and managed by NASA and the French space agency Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES).

 

NASA’s Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center in Florida will manage the SpaceX launch service. The SWOT Project office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages spacecraft development for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

 

For more information about NASA programs and missions, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

 

-end-

 

Cheryl Warner
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100

 

 

[DocM]

http://www.floridatoday.com/story/tech/science/space/spacex/2016/11/23/spacex-plans-five-year-lease-complex-port-canaveral/94231520/

 

Quote

SpaceX plans five-year lease of Port Canaveral complex

Port Canaveral has reached a tetative five-year lease agreement with SpaceX, which will operate a rocket refurbishing facility there.

As part of the deal, SpaceX will continue to work out of a 53,360-square-foot building at the port that formerly was used by SpaceHab.

SpaceX currently is using that facility at 620 Magellan Road, occupying the building under terms of a month-to-month temporary use permit. It also plans to build a 44,000-square-foot hangar building on the 4-acre site.

SpaceX operates two launch pads at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Kennedy Space Center, but has needed more room since it began landing Falcon 9 rocket boosters last December.

“With SpaceX’s recent progress in recovering first-stage Falcon 9 boosters, we’re looking to expand our facilities on the Space Coast to support rocket refurbishment," SpaceX Communications Director John Taylor said in a statement. "We appreciate the port's partnership in our recovery efforts to date, and continue to discuss further opportunities at Port Canaveral.”
>
Under the letter of intent between the port and SpaceX, the rocket company will pay the port $306,880 a year in rent for the SpaceHab building. It also will pay a port infrastructure fee of $26,680 a year, plus $60,990 a year for use of additional land for roadway access and retention ponds.

As part of the agreement, SpaceX will be responsible for making all improvements at its facilities, including the cost of a road for transporting the SpaceX rocket boosters from the dock to the SpaceX building.

Port Canaveral will reimburse SpaceX for up to $250,000 of those renovations.

 

 

 

 

[DocM]

Germanys PTScientists (Part-Time Scientists, Google Lunar X-Prize) contract with Spaceflight, Inc. will see Audi Lunar land a quattro rover launched to the Moon on Falcon 9. Quattro is largely 3D printed.

 

Project page

http://microsites.audi.com/mission-to-the-moon/

 

 

Edited November 30, 2016 by DocM

[DocM]

Contracting for FD-SOI = Fully Depleted Silicon On Wafer, supposedly radiation tolerant. CommX? Red Dragon? ITS? All maybe. Rumors are its a large contract.

 

http://www.electroniques.biz/component/k2/item/58281-stmicroelectronics-aurait-remporte-d-importants-contrats-aupres-d-apple-et-de-spacex

 

According to the site challenges.fr, STMicroelectronics have signed two major contracts with Apple and SpaceX. The contract was signed with Apple and the provision of image sensors, is described as "huge" by the online publication. This contract is expected to boost the workload in Crolles (Isère), where fifty machines are being installed, according to Challenges.

Another agreement was also signed with SpaceX for the development of space electronics. The space travel company Elon Musk might be interested in the FD-SOI technology developed in partnership with Soitec, because it can produce electromagnetic radiation resistant components such as solar radiation.

STMicroelectronics group would not comment on this information.

If these new orders materialize, they should allow the plant Crolles 200 displays a load rate of 100%, and that of Crolles 300 to exceed 80%, argued Challenges.

STMicroelectronics is a traditional supplier of Apple, but in the case of image sensors, Apple had turned in recent years to InvenSense.

[DocM]

More about PTScientists & Audi

 

 

[SALSN]

Aren't they about to run out of time (again) or has the deadline been extended further (again)?

On a related note, does anyone know if the rocket racing league is still a thing?

[+John. Subscriber¹]

Well, in other slightly better Space news today ...

 

 

[DocM]

1 hour ago, SALSN said:

Aren't they about to run out of time (again) or has the deadline been extended further (again)?

On a related note, does anyone know if the rocket racing league is still a thing?

GLXP was extended to the end of 2017. 

 

Rocket Racing Association went kaput in 2014.