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Falcon Surprise, SpaceX Says Something Big is Coming
Greg Hullender
post Apr 5 2011, 04:01 AM
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From SpaceX about two hours ago.

QUOTE
Something Big is Coming
ElonMusk Holding Press Conference on Tuesday, April 5th
Elon Musk,CEO and Chief Technical Officer of SpaceX, will hold a press conference on Tuesday, April 5th at 11:20am EST to discuss SpaceX's latest venture.
Get a sneakpeak of the discussion on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th6HQ9RtVCE.
The press conference will be webcast live at: http://www.visualwebcaster.com/spacex. The press conference will also be accessible via the home page ofSpaceX.com by clicking the main banner. If you are unable to watch live, the press conference will be archived at http://www.visualwebcaster.com/spacex for future viewing.
Judging from the video (and the fact that the Falcon 9 Heavy Maiden Launch showed up on their mainifest a month or two ago) I'm guessing this'll be the F9H announcement. But, given the fanfare, it could be anything.

--Greg

This post has been edited by Astro0: Apr 5 2011, 04:31 AM
Reason for edit: Edited to fix formatting problems
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algorimancer
post Apr 7 2011, 03:31 PM
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Launch costs of <$1000/lb. encourage the notion of an UMSF craft. I would think that we could come up with enough donations to launch a 100-500 lb spacecraft, building on the notion of the CubeSat program. Given a piggyback beyond LEO, adding an ion drive and perhaps a magsail (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Magnetic_sail), an asteroid (perhaps 16 Psyche or 15 Eunomia?) flyby or even rendevous/landing might be entirely feasible, given a bit of creativity. I would envision 5 years to launch, followed by a 5 year mission.
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djellison
post Apr 7 2011, 03:48 PM
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QUOTE (algorimancer @ Apr 7 2011, 08:31 AM) *
Launch costs of <$1000/lb. encourage the notion of an UMSF craft. I would think that we could come up with enough donations to launch a 100-500 lb spacecraft, building on the notion of the CubeSat program.


The most expensive part has never been the launch. Build a spacecraft, testing it, the ground systems required to use it - that's the expensive part with spacecraft, typically.
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Syrinx
post Apr 7 2011, 06:28 PM
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You know the old saying. In for $1000, in for a pound. Heh.

I would like to entertain the idea of a "UMSF" craft. I'd be in for a few pounds. Integration, testing, comms, all that business is definitely a concern.
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algorimancer
post Apr 11 2011, 12:45 PM
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QUOTE (Syrinx @ Apr 7 2011, 01:28 PM) *
...
I would like to entertain the idea of a "UMSF" craft. I'd be in for a few pounds.


I too would easily be in for a few pounds, especially over a 5+ year time frame.

It has been my experience that much of the expense of this sort of endeavor is personnel. In the case of an UMSF craft, I would expect that most of this would be volunteered time. Also, I note that rather a lot of the relevant professionals are members of this site. It would certainly be of interest to work-up a reference design and costs. Are ion drives prohibitively expensive? Would we need to buy time on the DSN, or could comms be more improvised (pulsed laser, for instance)? This could be an opportunity to test some new technology. Then there's also the possibility of commercial sponsors.
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Posts in this topic
- Greg Hullender   Falcon Surprise   Apr 5 2011, 04:01 AM
- - Syrinx   I've taken all the fanfare to mean that SpaceX...   Apr 5 2011, 04:35 AM
|- - Eluchil   QUOTE I'm guessing this'll be the F9H anno...   Apr 5 2011, 06:23 PM
- - Norm Hartnett   If Space X gets this thing off the ground (and the...   Apr 5 2011, 11:49 PM
- - Greg Hullender   Spaceflight Now says NASA is eager to certify the ...   Apr 6 2011, 02:37 AM
- - Greg Hullender   Anyone have any idea why the maiden launch for FH ...   Apr 6 2011, 04:43 AM
|- - ugordan   QUOTE (Greg Hullender @ Apr 6 2011, 06:43...   Apr 6 2011, 04:33 PM
- - djellison   Pad ready quicker? Less conflicts on the range? C...   Apr 6 2011, 05:30 AM
- - stevesliva   Beats me. Because there is a brand new space laun...   Apr 6 2011, 05:37 AM
|- - SFJCody   I wonder what could be done with a little New Hori...   Apr 6 2011, 01:08 PM
|- - AndyG   ~12 tonnes in low Mars orbit would be rather enter...   Apr 6 2011, 01:44 PM
|- - ugordan   QUOTE (AndyG @ Apr 6 2011, 03:44 PM) ~12 ...   Apr 6 2011, 04:34 PM
|- - AndyG   QUOTE (ugordan @ Apr 6 2011, 05:34 PM) 12...   Apr 6 2011, 06:46 PM
|- - ugordan   I wouldn't count on Falcon Heavy having anythi...   Apr 6 2011, 07:09 PM
|- - stevesliva   QUOTE (ugordan @ Apr 6 2011, 03:09 PM) I ...   Apr 6 2011, 09:37 PM
||- - ugordan   QUOTE (stevesliva @ Apr 6 2011, 11:37 PM)...   Apr 6 2011, 10:09 PM
|- - ElkGroveDan   QUOTE (ugordan @ Apr 6 2011, 11:09 AM) Ta...   Apr 6 2011, 10:04 PM
- - algorimancer   Launch costs of <$1000/lb. encourage the n...   Apr 7 2011, 03:31 PM
|- - djellison   QUOTE (algorimancer @ Apr 7 2011, 08:31 A...   Apr 7 2011, 03:48 PM
|- - Syrinx   You know the old saying. In for $1000, in fo...   Apr 7 2011, 06:28 PM
|- - algorimancer   QUOTE (Syrinx @ Apr 7 2011, 01:28 PM) ......   Apr 11 2011, 12:45 PM
- - djellison   I repeat - you are catastrophically underestimatin...   Apr 11 2011, 01:56 PM
- - algorimancer   As I see it, you're prematurely squelching a (...   Apr 11 2011, 05:11 PM
|- - djellison   QUOTE (algorimancer @ Apr 11 2011, 10:11 ...   Apr 11 2011, 08:27 PM
- - Greg Hullender   Something I've always liked about UMSF is that...   Apr 13 2011, 01:38 AM


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