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At this scale they're gonna have to go no oven for the underlay, and the overlay will have to be individual (smaller) panels that are form-fitted. This is totally uncharted territory; the largest things they've made with CCF have been those super-designer Yachts, and even those were only CCF panels, then a few layers overtop (then baked in sections) then an enamel gloss coat on top of that for additional stiffening much like schellacking.

 

I'm really interested to find out what they're doing, inside and out. I wanna know if they went with the super-dense CCF structural materials to save on the weight. Hell, the whole thing is interesting to me. :D 

Yup, this whole thing is an example of an Undiscovered Country, charting new territory as they go.  

 

Ascent Aerospace and SpaceX have a great licensing opportunity here as the processes developed could be very lucrative for both.

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Oh yeah. ALL of this is going to filter down into all aspects of Industry, Science, Construction ... the applications are quite literally unlimited.

 

Working on the ideas they figure out here they'll have the groundwork for the next great revolutions in Structural & Capitol Engineering, Architecture, you name it, that'll carry us through the next 50+ years.

 

This is where the "Industrial-Scale" CCF Applications begin to get sorted out. The one area the technologies haven't seen much growth because the Logistics haven't been worked out yet -- nobody has taken the plunge until now on this scale.

[EDIT] Good GRAVY, think of the patent returns on the IP ... residuals and licensing for YEARS. :yes: 

16 hours ago, DocM said:

SpaceX is recruiting "Naval Architects" to build "launch sites." 

 

Hmmmm....

 

spacex-bfr-earth-transport.thumb.jpg.0354652503af274e1746fbfdca985be2.jpg

The picture looks great, but there's no way they'd be allowed to launch so close to a city.  Ignoring the normal launch shockwave damage that would happen at that close proximity, imagine if there was an incident on the pad?  The damage that city would suffer would be unreal...

33 minutes ago, FloatingFatMan said:

The picture looks great, but there's no way they'd be allowed to launch so close to a city.  Ignoring the normal launch shockwave damage that would happen at that close proximity, imagine if there was an incident on the pad?  The damage that city would suffer would be unreal..

 

Not really. Explosive yeild and damage to a given location don't  scale linearly, so a rocket with 10x the propellants may only have a blast radius 2x as great. The vast majority of the energy would go up or in directions away from the city.

 

Also, the result is a conflagration; a fast burning fire and not a detonation. This means the impulse is spread over a longer time, greatly reducing the peak pressure wave and overpressure at a given distance.  

 

Example: a Falcon Heavy has about 3x the propellants of a Falcon 9, but its safety zones radius, established by the FAA, is only 50% larger.  Conflagration ≠ detonation.

 

BFR is about 3x the Falcon Heavy, so.....

 

Depiction aside - while a pad explosion on a platform 10+ miles offshore may put on a big show for the city folks there won't be a nuke  scale shockwave hitting them.

1 minute ago, DocM said:

Depiction aside - while a pad explosion on a platform 10+ miles offshore may put on a big show for the city folks there won't be a nuke  scale shockwave hitting them.

Sure, but that depiction isn't anywhere near 10 miles.  It's barely even 1! :p

 

SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell today at a conference, talking about Earth P2P happening within 10 years. The moderator was skeptical about it being 'Elon time.'

 

Shotwell: "That's my time, not Elon time."

 

Before SpaceX Shotwell worked for The Aerospace Corporation, which advises DoD and NASA.  Her focus; advanced thermal analysis for military projects, and she's been published many times. 

  • Like 1

Scooby_errp_.thumb.jpg.0ba9514d2645f9eda8a3b45d61ee9ee2.jpg

 

Ahh-rou?

(E2E = Earth to Earth, Point to Point etc.)

The TED video is unreleased, but a few people caught it on their cellphones and did comparisons.

Looks to be ≥400 feet.

 

 

Edited by DocM
  • Like 1

The specific information that we've garnered in Academia is embargoed right now. SpaceX will release it when they're ready. There have been some additional changes to BFR/BFS, but those changes add capability and redundancy in Earth SOI (including SSTO refinements for BFS previously thought unworkable).

 

Here's a teaser: BFS will be taking over ALL Falcon-9 and Falcon Heavy roles, except for Dragon & Dragon 2 OPS to the ISS because of NASA requirements. SOON. :yes:

 

Plenty more to come in short order. PLENTY.

  • Like 2
1 hour ago, Unobscured Vision said:

Bwahaha ... that image doesn't look real, does it. Like a model almost. Neat! :) 

It's called the tilt-shift effect, which makes a real world pic look like one taken of a model. It can be done either with a special lens or in editing software.

 

1266382800000_IMG_151263_0.jpg

Edited by DocM
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37 minutes ago, DocM said:

It's called the tilt-shift effect, which makes a real world pic look like one taken of a model. It can be done either with a special lens or in editing software.

So THAT'S how Gerry Anderson did Thunderbirds! I knew those models looked too good! It was all real!!! :p

 

  • Like 2

LA Times....

 


The initial 10-year lease, which has two options for 10-year extensions, has an initial annual rent of about $1.38 million with annual adjustments based on the Consumer Price Index. SpaceX can offset about $44.1 million of rent in exchange for improving the site in its first 20 years of tenancy.

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Then place the DWARF mini outside, make sure your smartphone or tablet is connected to it, and then head back inside, because you can manage it from the comfort of your home. Simply enter the Atlas tab in the app and search for what you want to capture, and then tap on the camera icon; the DWARF mini will then attempt to track the object and give you a live view right on your connected device. Results I've had the DWARF mini since April, but even though my garden is south-facing, I had a lot of trouble trying to capture a good image of the moon. In the end, it was possible after I took it with me on a trip to my parents in Southend, UK, at the end of May. Here is a capture of the moon, resulting from 20 stacked images over a 90-second exposure. What you are seeing here is not AI-assisted. 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The bad Some issues I came across while operating the DWARF mini were that it sometimes failed to connect unless I held my smartphone right next to it, and finding and tracking sometimes took several attempts to get it calibrated. I discovered that it helped if I sort of positioned and pointed the telescope in the general area it was supposed to detect, but this obviously wouldn't work with objects you can't see with the naked eye; more testing is required for that. Another bit of advice is to ensure that the lens is clean. While making the examples of live zooming on the sun, I discovered that the telescope lens and sun filter were not completely clean, and only after cleaning with a microfiber cloth was I able to get a decent shot of the sun. Where to buy and a coupon Okay, $399 is not cheap for a side hobby, but nor is a $1,500 smartphone flagship that you'll most likely have for a couple of years. This is a one-time entrance into astrology, and it won't become obsolete in one year like a smartphone. It's a thumbs up from me. The DWARF mini is available to buy right now in the U.S. and U.K. at the links below. DWARF mini for $399 on the official site DWARF mini for $399 on Amazon U.S. Use the NEOWIN5OFF coupon code for an additional 5% off at checkout (expires June 21) As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
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    • The name, you mean? If so, it's actually the objects common name. There's another one called NGC 7293 which is also known as Helix Nebula (because we're looking at a helix structure top down) but other times also known as the Eye of God. You'll understand when you see it
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