SpaceX Interplanetary Transport System (updates)

[DocM]

 

[anthdci]

that looks load better than the previous single wing version

[DocM]

 

[DocM]

 

 

 

 

[DocM]

Watch the video, check the BFR banner as it pans left & compare to F9

 

 

[DocM]

 

FUNKY MUSIC

[DocM]

Increased to 118m tall

 

100t useful to LEO, Mars with refuelling

 

Spaceship has grown from 48m to 55m long.

 

Payload volume: 1100 m3

Aft cargo bins (the petals!!), easier unloading. 88 m3

 

Thought: in case of launch abort they could drop the aft cargo to increase the thrust/weight!! 

Upper fin not aerodynamic, just a leg.

Bottom fins are control surfaces and legs.

Tank cylinder built, engine bay and domes soon.

 

Trying for orbital test in 2-3 years.

Big SOB! 

 

May change it's name.

 

May launch from floating platforms.

 

Working towards closed loop CO2/water systems.

 

Would like to see lunar trips.

Re: Boeing saying 1st on Mars will be on Boeing rocket? "Bring it!!"

Engines: BFS engines & nozzles upgradeable. These are SL. Cost: a few aft cargo racks.

2-4 engine out w/landing.

Max G: adjustable in exchange for payload. This mission 2-2.5 G, up to 6 G otherwise (harsh trajectory.)
 

Edited September 18, 2018 by DocM

[DocM]

 

 

[DocM]

Mandrel

 

 

Tank segment

 

 

[DocM]

 

 

[DocM]

 

Edited September 18, 2018 by DocM

[DocM]

 

 

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[DocM]

We may have our first artist-crewmember applicant; dancer-violinist Lindsey Stirling

 

 

 

Edited September 19, 2018 by DocM

[DocM]

HOLY CRAP!!

 

The spirit of Douglas Adams gets his 42 

With 42 200 ton/448,000 lbf engines that's 18,816,000 lbf of thrust

 

Maybe a Block 2 or Block 3 returns to a 12m core?

 

 

Edited September 19, 2018 by DocM

[DocM]

Lars-J at NSF stated, and I now agree, that the 9m tanks appear to have a ~10m thrust structure. From a recent concept image...

 

[DocM]

Wireframe of BFS entry, descent and landing (EDL). 10x real-time until terminal approach, then real-time.

 

Bottom line: it comes down like a skydiver at terminal velocity, using the fins and canards like a skydiver does limbs, then rights itself for landing. 

 

There are hints it could have significant crossrange, and burn into LEO from BEO.

 

 

 

[Blue-Vision]

I was waiting to post until the dust had settled a bit, but more and more dust keeps getting kicked up hehe ...

 

There are going to be a few progressive iterations of the BFR/BFS architecture. We know of two so far. That's what the current state of Engineering can actually do right now; but there are technologies that need to be flight-proven first on BFR/BFS 1.0 before they get scaled up (and then evolved) for the 12-meter version.

 

I haven't heard of an expansion to 10-meter at the thrust structure, but there shouldn't be anything to prevent doing so. In fact, aerodynamically-speaking it would help more than hurt but I'd like to see the aero sims and the physics modelling they've done. In the grand scheme of things that'd help the booster a tad when doing its' return (more stable, etc.) ... so yeah, good call. The smaller fins can't just be there for show, either.

 

I wonder if they're still going with the "landing cradle" idea? Seems like a lot that can go wrong with that scenario, though ... I don't see any evidence of landing hardware on the booster so I'd think that's still a "yes".

[DocM]

My $0.02: this 9 meter Block 1 BFR is for exploration beyond Dragon 2,  a  USAF Launch Services Round 2 proposal, and a pathfinder for the 12 meter Block (X).

 

Those USAF LS R2 contracts are supposed to be announced very soon, and there have been reports SpaceX would get 2 awards. Getting an award for Falcon Heavy is a given, but one for BFR would be an effing market earthquake.

 

AIUI, the 3 booster "fins" near the thrust structure are guide and gripping planes for the landing cradle.

Edited September 20, 2018 by DocM

[DocM]

 

 

[DocM]

Business Insider...

 

Quote

>
[Teal Group's Marco] Cáceres, who's studied the aerospace industry for decades, said the new photos highlight a project of epic proportions.

"This is probably the biggest challenge that I've seen since the Saturn V days, in terms of engineering," Cáceres said, referring to NASA's Apollo-era moon rocket. "Nothing I've seen is remotely this size."
>
Revealing these images forces the public  and potential investors  to take Musk seriously, Cáceres said.
>
If the 2023 moon mission aboard BFR, a project Maezawa calls #dearMoon, is successful, that would send a big message to NASA about SpaceX's capabilities.

"This doesn't look like a stunt,"  Cáceres said. "It   looks like a trial run."
>
"In a way, he's shoving it in NASA's face and saying, 'You guys are crazy to build this rocket,'" Cáceres said of Musk and SLS, respectively. "Elon Musk is a very charismatic figure and a showman. He understands that, for many years, NASA has been trying to create public excitement about space exploration, and they always try to recreate the excitement around Apollo. But they're not successful."

Musk, on the other hand, may be beating NASA at that goal.

"The thing Musk is building looks like it's out of a science fiction movie. He wants to get the public excited, and that excitement can attract investors," Cáceres said.
>

[DocM]

This would be cool...

 

 

 

Edited September 23, 2018 by DocM

[Blue-Vision]

.... pretty sure it's gonna be a done deal, then ...  ?

[DocM]

Francis Rocard, lead of the Solar System Exploration Program at CNES (French space agency),

 

www.courrierinternational.com...

 

>
And what he announces loudly in high-traffic conferences, his Big F***ing Rocket (BFR ), his Raptor, all that is science fiction, let's say it. And Musk is only concerned about one thing: transportation.
>
I do not believe it too much because Nasa has already invested billions of dollars on a launcher called the Space Launch System, the SLS . And NASA has no interest in shooting itself in the foot by financing the BFR . And SpaceX alone will not be able to finance the BFR and the Raptor ... In the very long term, Elon Musk's approach is bluffing.
>

 

1) sci-fi that's being built, and Raptor is spitting very big fire, so scratch the "fi".

 

2) but NASA is interested, and that bluff is about to smack CNES and many other soverign space agencies in the nose.

[Blue-Vision]

Yep. BIG TIME. Their disbelief and complacency is going to bite them in the ass.