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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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djellison
post Apr 11 2011, 01:56 PM
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I repeat - you are catastrophically underestimating the costs, complexity and challenges involved.

The very very smallest and simplest spacecraft you can possibly put together is a 1U cubesat - which is a $50-100,000 investment. Moreover, getting it off the ground is about the same. And that has no payload, no ground stations, no actual 'use'.

A literal build-to-print 3U cubesat is $250k. ( google 'Cubesat Kit' for an actual price list ) Plus - the international nature of UMSF renders ITAR a significant hurdle that would almost certainly bring things to a halt if money were no object.

DSN time? It's tens of thousands of dollars..PER HOUR. An Ion engine? Hundreds of thousands, if not millions. Pulsed laser communications? You're now talking about a large and powerfull 3-axis stabilised spacecraft with significant power ( 10's of millions ) and multiple large apature ground stations ( 10's of millions )

If you want to have some sort of involvement in an actual spacecraft or spacecraft analogous project.... then these are actual options

Contribute to the Planetary Society Lightsail project ( https://planetary.org/join/donate/K09ls1w )
Find a local university that's conducting a CubeSat project, and offer your talents, time and expertise.
Get involved in a high-altitude balloon flight. I don't thing there's a country in the western world where some radio-hams or soldering-iron wielding tech heads are not building them and launching them monthly.
Heck - my latest solo project is a small R/C plane with an autopilot and I'm having great fun.

We're not building a spacecraft here. I'm serious.

Syrinx, algorimancer.... I'm telling you as a UMSF regular...and now as an Admin.... you're talking fiction, stop it.
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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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