Thetownend.com

Anyone interested, this will be taking off around 5 mins time. Thread already running.

http://www.spacex.com/webcast (http://www.spacex.com/webcast)

That was many times more awesome than being 1-0 down vs Accrington.

yup, good launch!

Wouldn’t work for me.

That was nuts. The way those boosters landed was full on star wars type stuff. It seems we're just a couple of generations or so away from a period of serious space exploration.

What a great time to be alive or, at least, it will be for our grand/great grandchildren.

That was fucking amazing. Not so much the launch but the return of the side boosters. Phenomenal science and engineering. Just the core booster to be confirmed too. Should be proud, 27 merlin engines too. My grandad would've loved this.

Awesome, thanks for sharing. Like the 'Don't Panic' on the dashboard.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DVYVUaUX0AEMCMQ.jpg)

 
I new the real "Stig" would go on to much greater things...   :pint:

Nice nod to Douglas Adams and HGTTG  :)

If anyone missed it or just wants to watch it again. You can watch at the address posted or via this link;

https://youtu.be/wbSwFU6tY1c (https://youtu.be/wbSwFU6tY1c)

The world, well not technically the world in the instance, is changing but I’m a NASA fanboy so will take me time to get excited by the commercialisation of space travel

NASA is dead as far as rockets go, it's cheaper for them to piggyback their payloads on third party vehicles. The only way we'll see real progress is through the commercial space programmes.

The live stream is pretty awesome

Apparently, the falcon heavy costs about 1/3rd the amount to launch than the shuttle did. It will still cost several million, but it'll make it more feasible for commercial ventures.

I read somewhere that your average asteroid will bear rare materials to the value of around 20 trillion dollars. What mining these could do for the planet's economy will be extraordinary. It'll happen. Maybe not in our lifetime but, if we don't kill everybody until then, it will happen.

I remember the space race vividly, it was so exciting when the Soviets launched Sputnik, Yuri Gagarin and then Valentina Tereshkova were heroes of mine.

Then the Yanks got involved, and to be fair they did seem to have sexier kit, I suppose the advantages of getting Werner Von Braun and his Nazi chums on board.

We also had a 50's, 60's space program, more British, but our early 70's economic demise which saw the Tories move to join the incipient EU, put paid to it.  Some of our stuff is in store up at Wroughton....

I recently had a decent debate with a couple of youngish lads, about whether the whole US moon landing campaign was faked, a conspiracy.  I was sufficiently impressed by their case to move to major scepticism... knowing now of how America's political/industrial/military complex works adds fuel to that fire.  What say you Flasher  :hmmm:

The mother of all conspiracy theories? Oh marvellous!

I have yet to see a shred of evidence supporting said theories that I find to be even remotely convincing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6MOnehCOUw

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Where’s Dosser these days, he loved a good conspiracy theory. 9/11 being a completely ludicrous example I seem to remember

Dosser's probably been picked up by the Illuminati by now.

 :)

One of their best.

They should chat to Buzz Aldrin about that.

https://youtu.be/BbZlf4KDnGA

Funny how this experiment (which is hinged on equipment that was placed on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission) came online at exactly the time the astronauts were supposed to be there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Laser_Ranging_experiment

Not forgetting heroic Laika as well.
Or "Muttnik" as labelled by the Yanks.

So a Tesla car is launched into space, using fuel derived from.... oil.

Rocket fuel is hydrogen and oxygen

The Soviets put up similar kit by robot... the French bounced a laser off their > 40 year old Lunokhod rover just a few years back.

Falcon Heavy and Falcon 9 use RP-1 Fuel (chilled kerosene and burned with Subcooled LOX or Liquid Oxygen).

Suggest you research a little John.

Yep. Kerosene. Which is derived from oil.

Any excuse to listen to this......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHIo6qwJarI

Yeh...I never questioned that it wasn't. There are similar tripropellant mixes that use Kerosene and LH2, there is also HTP (High Test Peroxide) which many of you will know was used in WWII mainly by the Germans but it is much used by military today. It was also used in the fatal Kursk Sub and another rocket that killed over 160 people. H2O2 is one of the most effective fuels but it's so unstable with many catalysts it is difficult to know if it could ever be hazard free (in rocket terms). We also have workings on Methane based propellants too or MethaLOX, however that does have to burn fuel rich. Both MethaLOX and KeraLOX are being considered for all future reusable boosters. Also consider Mars when thinking about Methane uses.

Generally LH2 is used for shorter missions but LOX can last for years in orbital space, and has high density, hence smaller fuel tanks so is the preferred choice for many space missions. That is not to say LH2 is worthless, it has a higher lps and obviously creates a bi product effluent similar to nuclear power - water. In general LH2/LOX is better for high energy upper stages, whereas RP-1/LOX is better for the first stage.

LH2 is more efficient, but is not very dense, hence requires big fuel tanks. I'm not sure if Falcon Heavy used LH2/LOX for the upper stages, after it passed through the Van Allen Belts, to boost it onto it's path of Mars Orbit but it would seem the likely choice. If successful, it should catch up with Mars around mid October/early November.

Sorry i've gone into a bloody waffle. Was only meant to write the first sentence  :D