space General Space Discussion (Thread 1)

[DocM]

Russia's latest reusability concept 

 

 

 

[DocM]

Posting here because of the global scope,

 

SpaceX "Lone Star Minerals Development" subsidiary shipyard

 

From the Port of Brownsville (Texas)  minutes,

 

https://www.portofbrownsville.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/2020-12-16-Minutes.pdf

 

An 'authority to negotiate' for a site in the Port of Brownsville near the new connector road to Route 4 (leading to SpaceX's Boca Chica factory/launch site) was granted.

 

 

This shipyard will, at the least, be used for building/modifying/outfitting ships, droneships, sea platforms, etc. for launch & landing, Point to Point Earth transportation, etc. 

 

Presumably they'll then be moved to new points of operation; US & the Americas, Asia, Europe, where ever.

 

[DocM]

At Cape Canaveral there have been two launch bases as part of the Eastern Range.

 

the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), which is NASA/civilian, and

 

USAF's 45th Air Wing at Patrick Air Force Base, which controls the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS). It also manages the Eastern Range, which includes KSC.

 

With the US Space Force taking over most of the USAF launch and space operations,  its units are being folded into the new service under the Space Operations Command (SpOC), with Space Force units being designated "Deltas" (the Delta insignia dating to the 1940's)

 

the USAF 45th Space Wing becomes Space Force Delta 45 (effective today), and Patrick AFB has already been renamed  Patrick Space Force Base.

 

 

Note the 45th's Delta emblem symbolizes not only orbital ops but the Moon, signalling Space Force will operate in cis-lunar space. 

 

Under a program called DRACO,  DARPA (DoD's R&D branch) has contracted with General Atomics to produce nuclear propulsion for cis-lunar vehicles.  (link...)

 

Lockheed-Martin and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin have been contracted to build a demonstration vehicle, with a test flight targeting 2025. (link...)

 

Sierra Space (a spinoff of Sierra Nevada Corporation) and NanoRacks have  received study contracts for orbital "outposts" in low, medium, geostationary, and cis-lunar orbits. The following story doesn't mention that the DoD procurement docs mention them being "optionally manned." (link..) Funny thing: Sierra Space is offering a 300 cubic meter  expandable habitat.

 

[DocM]

Sacrilege... 😡

 

1) that some a-holes did it

 

2) that Roscosmos isn't taking better care of Russia's history

 

 

 

[DocM]

Source: FY2022 USAF budget proposal:

 

("Starship" because it's the only vehicle which meets the specs, and this has been in the works for >1 year)

 

1) Starship military Point to Point cargo of up to 100 tonnes.

 

2) Starship 'ejectable pods' for rapid deployment payloads. 

 

From page 301 of the USAF budget document, 

Quote

Rocket Cargo will demonstrate new trajectories and ways to fly large rockets, the ability to land rockets at austere locations, and design & test an ejectable pod for air drop.

 

Essentially, a Mobile Infantry cargo Drop Ship. Maybe something like SuperDraco or the HLS methane/LOX landing thrusters get to do propulsive landings after all.

 

Mobile Marines later?

 

Robert A. Heinlein would love this...

pp 305

[FloatingFatMan]

*sigh* Rocket cargo... What a load of completely ridiculous, impractical and utterly useless twaddle.  Scientific illiteracy at it's worst.  I daren't even TRY to facepalm at all the stupid in this one for fear of pushing my brain out the back of my head...

 

Less than an hour huh?  How are you going to do that when it'll take a minimum of 3-4 hours just to FUEL the thing, and that can't be done until you've loaded it which will also take several hours because you can't exactly park the ship next to the warehouse... Not to mention all the clearances necessary to launch the thing, PLUS all the coding time the flight programmers need to create the flight plan.

 

No... Just... No.  A C17 can carry more and be loaded and in the air within an hour or two at the most and given there are US airbases all around the world, can be on site to drop their supplies before the rocket has even been loaded, let alone fuelled.

 

But hey, don't take my word on it... Let's listen to someone who's done more homework than I, and no, it's not Thunderf00t.

 

 

This is LITERALLY just another exercise in wasting tax dollars on nonsense, just to justify their existence.  It's a $500 hammer, a $1000 toilet seat. It's twaddle.

 

[DocM]

Likely with redundant routing via StarLink, OneWeb, and eventually Kuiper (Amazon's data constellation) and to allies.

 

The Space Development Agency was created in 2019, in parallel with the US Space Force.

 

https://spacenews.com/dod-space-agency-to-create-marketplace-for-commercial-satellite-data/

 

Quote

DoD space agency to create marketplace for commercial satellite data

 

WASHINGTON — The Space Development Agency is looking to work with commercial operators of imaging satellites so they can send data directly to U.S. government satellites in orbit, the agency’s director Derek Tournear said June 22.

 

The idea is to make it easier for Earth observation satellite operators to sell their data to the government without having to download it to ground stations, Tournear said at the Defense One Tech Summit.

 

Using optical inter-satellite links, companiescould send data directly from their constellations to SDA’s satellites, he said. 

 

SDA is building a network of data-relay satellites in low Earth orbit known as the Transport Layer. It plans to have as many as 150 satellites in orbit by 2024 and hundreds more could follow. Each satellite in the network would have multiple optical communications terminals to pass data to other satellites and to military platforms like aircraft, ships and command centers on the ground. 

>

 

[Jim K Global Moderator]

On 15/06/2021 at 00:34, FloatingFatMan said:

*sigh* Rocket cargo... What a load of completely ridiculous, impractical and utterly useless twaddle.  Scientific illiteracy at it's worst.  I daren't even TRY to facepalm at all the stupid in this one for fear of pushing my brain out the back of my head...

 

Less than an hour huh?  How are you going to do that when it'll take a minimum of 3-4 hours just to FUEL the thing, and that can't be done until you've loaded it which will also take several hours because you can't exactly park the ship next to the warehouse... Not to mention all the clearances necessary to launch the thing, PLUS all the coding time the flight programmers need to create the flight plan.

 

No... Just... No.  A C17 can carry more and be loaded and in the air within an hour or two at the most and given there are US airbases all around the world, can be on site to drop their supplies before the rocket has even been loaded, let alone fuelled.

 

But hey, don't take my word on it... Let's listen to someone who's done more homework than I, and no, it's not Thunderf00t.

 

 

This is LITERALLY just another exercise in wasting tax dollars on nonsense, just to justify their existence.  It's a $500 hammer, a $1000 toilet seat. It's twaddle.

 

The cargo rocket is dumb.  However, the 100 tons is more than the C-17 (85 tons) and C-130 (21 tons) ... but far, far less than the C-5 (140 tons).  With all our bases around the world ... I really can not see how it would be beneficial in cost and time to launch/land (or parachute) cargo from a big rocket.  

 

Seems very silly...we you can just load up several C-130s, a few C-17s or one C-5 and throw the cargo out the rear.  

 

Yup...it is a waste.

[DocM]

WRT orbital debris lifetimes...

 

[DocM]

AKA: Cislunar Highway Patrol System (CHPS) 

 

https://spacenews.com/report-space-force-has-to-prepare-for-operations-beyond-earths-orbit/

 

Quote

Report: Space Force has to prepare for operations beyond Earth’s orbit

 

WASHINGTON — A new report published by the Air Force Research Laboratory suggests the U.S. Space Force has to prepare for a day when the moon and the volume of space around it could become the next military frontier.

 

 “A Primer on Cislunar Space” was released June 23 by AFRL’s Space Vehicles Directorate. Its intended audience are military space professionals who one day might have to develop spacecraft and concepts for operations in regions beyond Earth’s orbit.

>

One of the concerns is developing technologies for surveillance, navigation and communications in cislunar space.

 

A cooperative agreement signed by the Space Force and NASA last year calls for future collaboration on cislunar space research and technologies.

 

[DocM]

 

[DocM]

On 10/04/2021 at 13:40, DocM said:

DoD's DRACO program advances another step. This fits with other DoD projects to maneuver in cis-lunar space, a counter to China & Russia's published plans. China's CNSA space agency is a military program, both are negotiating a cooperative cis-lunar Operations, and both are developing & testing space weapons. 

 

https://spacenews.com/general-atomics-wins-darpa-contract-to-design-nuclear-reactor-to-power-missions-to-the-moon/

 

Sounds like they're very serious about US Space vehicles having nuclear engines...

 

Quote

Sierra Space Provides Integration Services for New Nuclear Propulsion System as Part of DARPA’s DRACO Program

Presser:

LOUISVILLE, Colo. (June 24, 2021) – Sierra Space, the new commercial space subsidiary of global aerospace and national security leader Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), will supply the propulsion components and integration services for a Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) system under a recent contract with General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS). GA-EMS and Sierra Space will develop and demonstrate an on-orbit NTP system for a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program called Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO).

While the primary mission of DRACO is to enable fast transit time between Earth and the moon, the development of nuclear powered spacecraft propulsion is also expected to open up deep space exploration to humans.

“This technology is an essential component of the new space economy,” said Tom Crabb, vice president of Sierra Space’s Propulsion & Environmental Systems group. “Faster, more fuel efficient propulsion and transportation systems support greater awareness of the cislunar space domain and broader exploration of our solar system. Theoretically we should be able to reach other planets nearly twice as fast with nuclear propulsion, placing less strain on the human body and the environmental systems needed for space travel.”

NTP uses a nuclear reactor to heat propellant to extreme temperatures before expelling the hot propellant through a nozzle to produce thrust. Compared to conventional space propulsion technologies, NTP offers a high thrust-to-weight ratio around 10,000 times greater than electric propulsion and two-to-five times greater specific propellant efficiency than chemical propulsion.

“We are really excited about the team dynamic with GA-EMS,” said Dr. Marty Chiaverini, director of Propulsion Systems at Sierra Space. “The GA-EMS reactor is smaller and more technologically advanced and Sierra Space brings extensive experience in developing and fielding mechanical, electrical and thermal conditioning systems that work reliably in space, as well as proven performance with liquid hydrogen-based rocket engines and liquid hydrogen turbomachinery.”

The NTP design will utilize a liquid hydrogen propellant heated by a nuclear fission reactor to provide two times the amount of energy than the most advanced liquid propellant rocket engine. Over the next 18 months, the team will define the system requirements such as power, weight, interfaces and control, and perform some subsystem risk reduction. Follow-on phases are anticipated to complete the demonstration system, leading to a flight test in 2025.

 

[jerry55]

Hi there, I am a new member of this forum) 
I`d like to share with you some interesting piece of information about Space X. Till September 2021 Space X is gonna cover the whole planet with a Starlink internet connection and it's gonna launch 42 thousand of satellites. How do you relate to the number of satellites in the orbit of Earth?

[DocM]

19 hours ago, jerry55 said:

Hi there, I am a new member of this forum) 
I`d like to share with you some interesting piece of information about Space X. Till September 2021 Space X is gonna cover the whole planet with a Starlink internet connection and it's gonna launch 42 thousand of satellites. How do you relate to the number of satellites in the orbit of Earth?

 

They launch 60 Starlink satellites at a time using the Falcon 9 rocket, which now launches more often than any other rocket. Falcon 9 is also reusable, lowering SpaceX's cost per launch.

 

Once SpaceX's new Starship system begins service each of those could launch up to 400 Starlink satellites per launch.

[jerry55]

I am a bit concerned with a number of satellites which gonna cover Earth. I hope that those satellites will not have any detrimental effect on humans.

[jerry55]

Also, I`d like to mention that Musk claimed that Starlink satellites when their time of usage comes to the end will be able to lead themself to the atmosphere of Earth and burn in order not to increase the number of space junk

[DocM]

15 hours ago, jerry55 said:

I am a bit concerned with a number of satellites which gonna cover Earth. I hope that those satellites will not have any detrimental effect on humans.

 

15 hours ago, jerry55 said:

Also, I`d like to mention that Musk claimed that Starlink satellites when their time of usage comes to the end will be able to lead themself to the atmosphere of Earth and burn in order not to increase the number of space junk

Starlinks have ion thrusters for maneuvering and self-disposal, but even if the ion thrusters fail the orbit is so low they'll come down and burn up 0 in about a year due to atmospheric drag (yes, there's a thin atmosphere even at 500+km).

[jerry55]

This is a video about the possibility of the colonization of Venus put forward by NASA. Personally, I think the idea of colonizing Venus is a completely useless idea. Even more useless than colonizing Mars. Venus's environment is even more harsh than the environment on Mars which will we should understand that the life of human beings will be changed completely as a result of the harsh environment of Venus and will not be the same as we have on Earth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7A0O_4J5LE

[Jim K Global Moderator]

10 years ago today....

 

 

...of note:  Doug Hurley flew on this last Space Shuttle mission and would later fly on America's return to space aboard SpaceX DM2.

[DocM]

On 11/05/2021 at 18:30, DocM said:

>

Under a program called DRACO,  DARPA (DoD's R&D branch) has contracted with General Atomics to produce nuclear propulsion for cis-lunar vehicles.  (link...)

 

Lockheed-Martin and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin have been contracted to build a demonstration vehicle, with a test flight targeting 2025. (link...)

 

Sierra Space (a spinoff of Sierra Nevada Corporation) and NanoRacks have  received study contracts for orbital "outposts" in low, medium, geostationary, and cis-lunar orbits. The following story doesn't mention that the DoD procurement docs mention them being "optionally manned." (link..) Funny thing: Sierra Space is offering a 300 cubic meter  expandable habitat.

 

A 2 phase design and construction contract for the DRACO nuclear engine prototype has been awarded to Ultra Safe Nuclear Technologies (USNC-Tech). The engine will use High Assay Low Enrichment Uranium (HALEU) in its core, a fuel which presents little proliferation risk.

 

Website: https://usnc.com/space/

 

Presser: https://usnc.com/darpa-awards-ultra-safe-nuclear-technologies-draco-ntp-contracts/

[jerry55]

A few words about Virgin Galactic The “Unity 22” mission will be the twenty-second flight test for VSS Unity and the Company’s fourth crewed spaceflight. It will also be the first to carry a full crew of two pilots and four mission specialists in the cabin, including the Company’s founder, Sir Richard Branson, who will be testing the private astronaut experience.
 

[FloatingFatMan]

On 13/07/2021 at 08:57, jerry55 said:

A few words about Virgin Galactic The “Unity 22” mission will be the twenty-second flight test for VSS Unity and the Company’s fourth crewed spaceflight. It will also be the first to carry a full crew of two pilots and four mission specialists in the cabin, including the Company’s founder, Sir Richard Branson, who will be testing the private astronaut experience.
 

You're a wee bit late with your words, dude...

 

[DocM]

Astronaut Doug Hurley (STS-135 Crew Dragon Demo-2) retires.

 

Wouldn't be surprised if he lands at a commercial space outfit; Axiom, Sierra Space, SpaceX, Blue Origin...

 

https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/1416056252820566030

 

 

[DocM]

Russia's new Nauka module for ISS had trouble after launch, then today...

 

 

 

 

Starliner OFT-2 was scrubbed, likely until August 3.

[DocM]

https://spacenews.com/starliner-rese...-iss-problems/

 

Quote

 

>

Vladimir Solovyov, designer general of RSC Energia and flight director of the Russian segment of the ISS, said in a Roscosmos statement July 30 that the thruster firing was caused by a software problem. “Due to a short-term software failure, a direct command was mistakenly implemented to turn on the module’s engines for withdrawal, which led to some modification of the orientation of the complex as a whole,” he said.
>
However, the situation may have been more serious than what NASA originally claimed. Publicly available telemetry showed much greater excursions in roll, pitch and yaw during the hour it took to restore the station’s attitude.

>

 

 

Zebulon Scoville, NASA ISS flight director,