SpaceX Interplanetary Transport System (updates)


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Musk said something about this before the Texas legislature in the run-up to Boca Chica being selected. He also hinted at a factory in Brownsville.

 

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/premium/article_b76191f0-851f-11e6-86ff-7fa4f7045d46.html

 

SpaceX’s Boca Chica launch site may some day be a departure point for flights to Mars, according to the company’s founder, Elon Musk, in a presentation Tuesday at the International Aeronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico...



Musk said the initial Mars missions would launch from Cape Canaveral’s 39a launch pad (think Apollo), though more launch sites would eventually be required.

“In the future we expect to add additional launch locations,” he said. “We’re probably adding one on the south coast of Texas.”

That seems vague, though a source familiar with SpaceX’s plans said no other launch location in Texas is under consideration for Mars flights. If SpaceX does ultimately decide to launch Mars missions from Texas, it will be from the Boca Chica site currently under construction, said the source.

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Tim Urban of Wait But Why? has a habit of getting interviews with Musk and breaking new info.

 

His latest is that while the current spaceship desogn would deliver 450-500t of cargo to Mars (one way), there's an evolution path laid out to a goal of delivering 1,000t of cargo in one pop.

 

Yeah, you read that right.

 

One can assume a large part of this would be due to Raptor engine evolition, much as the output of the Merlin has more than doubled Falcon 9's payload to orbit. A vehicle size increase also seems likely.

 

http://waitbutwhy.com/2016/09/spacexs-big-fking-rocket-the-full-story.html

 

Quote

 

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For comparison, SpaceX’s badass Falcon 9rocket will be able to take about 4 tons of payload to Mars, and the Falcon Heavy—which is about to be today’s most powerful rocket—will be able to take about 13 tons to Mars. Elon believes the BFR will be able to take a few hundred tons of payload to Mars at first and eventually be able to take 1,000 tons. The absurdity of that statistic—that the behemoth Falcon Heavy can only manage a little over 1% of the BFR’s ultimate Mars payload—is pretty hard to absorb.

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The problem with this comparison, is that the BFR will not be sending 1000 tons to Mars, it will be sending 1000 tons to LEO then sending a few refueling tugs up, then the BFS will take 1000 tons to Mars. If FH did the same thing the number would be much higher. 

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Higher than FH's 13+ tonnes yes, and that too could happen if the Raptor upper stage happens and has tanker capabilities.

 

If I were them If pull the trigger on it, both to try S2 reusability and practice tanker ops.

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The one comment that caught me off guard, was ITS launching from 39A.

 

 I realize that the pad was designed for Saturn and beefed up with a little bit of engineering overkill, but ITS is a monster in it's own right.

 

After thinking about this, my assumption of 39A being planned for Saturn 5 may have been wrong. The pad at 39A may have been designed for Saturn C-8, which was cancelled in favor of Saturn 1, 1B and 5. Saturn C-8 thrust was 13,921,000 pounds-force (61,925 kN) but never built.

 

Thoughts?

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I missed the big presentation. :( I was in the hospital fighting for my life by late morning Tuesday ... had emergency surgery today and I'm home recovering now, so this is all new to me.

 

28+ million lbs thrust?! Good GRIEF. That's 10 million over our previous estimates.

 

And that design ... holy crap!

 

Just ... just ... everything about the reveal is blowing my mind. And that's not hard to do with all these pain meds. I need to watch the Presentation itself, so thanks for linking to it folks.

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13 minutes ago, Unobscured Vision said:

I missed the big presentation. :( I was in the hospital fighting for my life by late morning Tuesday ... had emergency surgery today and I'm home recovering now, so this is all new to me.

 

28+ million lbs thrust?! Good GRIEF. That's 10 million over our previous estimates.

 

And that design ... holy crap!

 

Just ... just ... everything about the reveal is blowing my mind. And that's not hard to do with all these pain meds. I need to watch the Presentation itself, so thanks for linking to it folks.

Get well and take your time. We'll be going over this stuff for quite some time.  :)

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Yeah...follow Drs orders, take your meds, eat well and REST!!

 

In case you don't have it, here are the slides right down to how much the vehicles should cost to manufacture.

 

http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/mars_presentation.pdf

 

BFR booster: $230m
Tanker/cargo: $130m
Heart of Gold-class spaceship: $200m

Edited by DocM
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2 hours ago, Unobscured Vision said:

I missed the big presentation. :( I was in the hospital fighting for my life by late morning Tuesday ... had emergency surgery today and I'm home recovering now, so this is all new to me.

Yikes! Glad you're feeling better, bud! Be well, okay? :)

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Thanks all. :) I'm still catching up with stuff. Didn't watch Elon's Presentation yet. Had to catch up on Classwork last night, and I was pretty wiped out after that. Had appointments to do today. Not sure if I'm gonna be up for reporting back to work tomorrow or not, we'll see how I feel. I'm not bouncing back quite like I'd hoped.

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Assimilation of information complete. :yes: Mind blown.

 

It's the mountain to climb in our lifetime, folks. Like what NASA and USSR-Cosmos (equivalent) was in our Grandparents' Generation on to the Moon Landings and then Salyut and Skylab; to Voyager, Venera, Mir, the Shuttles, Soyuz, HST and ISS and how it was for my Parents' Generation ... this is the mountain for mine and my kids' Generations to climb.

 

We've never had a time like this ... when we actually are in a position to be able to reach out like this into the Solar System.

 

It's going to take all of us, working together. 

 

Let's end the strife and sabotage. Let's end all of the mistrust and hostility. Let's put all of our differences aside.

 

We can do this together. :yes: 

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16 hours ago, Draggendrop said:

 

:woot:

Even though it might not be the right place, I think the question about sanitation and waste recycling is quite interesting, but perhaps that is just because I just finished the Martian for the second time :-P

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