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Great, this will build confidence on FH for non-military hopefully. I've heard that FH will not only make larger research satellite possible but also more compl
by itchyjunk 8y ago
Great, this will build confidence on FH for non-military hopefully. I've heard that FH will not only make larger research satellite possible but also more complicated ones. (Something about folding the wings limiting satellite capabilities for smaller launch vehicles that I read). I wonder if this also means more and cheaper cubesats making it to space.
Some people might be concerned with the morality of all this . But I still see this as overall progress of humanity in their space venture.
- ceejayoz 8y agoIIRC, the FH's largest fairing is about the same as a Delta IV Heavy's. Maybe you're thinking of the BFR? Folding is indeed an issue - it's part of why the James Webb telescope has been a) delayed and b) mega-expensive - but the FH doesn't solve it.
- CarVac 8y agoCurrently, ULA has much bigger fairings available than SpaceX. https://twitter.com/wingod/status/966728779992150017 https://twitter.com/wingod/status/966728779992150017
- ceejayoz 8y agoI could be mistaken, but my understanding is that fairing width is more important here than fairing length. The FH is presumably capable of a longer/larger fairing than F9; that graphic also states it's not including F9v5.
- hwc 8y agoI'm hoping it means NASA can launch lots of deep-space probes.
- mabbo 8y agoHarder to do. As one commenter on Reddit pointed out, the problem is that you need nuclear power of some kind beyond Jupiter. Falcon heavy isn't nuke-rated and it may be a challenge to get it there. So that leaves F9's, which are probably more likely to get nuke-rated eventually, or sending up your deep probe on a FH and rendezvous with a separately launched nuke-generator.
- Pica_soO 8y agoNobody mentioning the biggest hope for basically having ventures bundling abundant energy in space and sending it to earth? Carbon free with nearly no infrastructure costs beside some huge foilmirrors and heat collecting powerstations? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-based_solar_power https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-based_solar_power
- sremani 8y agoGeorge Friedman does :) https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/george-friedman-spacexs-significance-agenda https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/george-friedman-space...
- hughes 8y agoIs there some kind of sunlight shortage on Earth? Why would this be necessary?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- Pica_soO 8y agoBuilding structures on earth to collect sunlight is expensive due to need for maintenance, inefficient due to weather and day/night cycles and the transportproblem (no line of sight/ cables) and needs lots of land. Spacebased power generation can get around that.
- ceejayoz 8y agoSpace stations are expensive to maintain, experience a day/night cycle in the sort of orbits you'd have to use, and can't have cables either...
- Symmetry 8y agoA solar panel in space can be in direct sunlight almost 24/7 without worrying about night or weather, is the big benefit.
- 8y ago
- Rebelgecko 8y agoFH uses the same fairing as the F9, which isn't particularly large.
- nickik 8y agoIf demand existed SpaceX said they would make larger fairings.
- branchan 8y agoI would question the double standard-ness of anyone objecting to military space launches. GPS, for example, is a DoD program, operated by the USAF. Are they going to stop using GPS in protest?
- craftyguy 8y agoYou're wrongly assuming that the military is the only organization that could have implemented GPS, when in fact any organization (e.g. NASA) could have if they had the same ridiculously high funding as the US military.
- branchan 8y agoYou're wrongfully assuming that any other organization would've had the foresight to develop such a program back in the late 1950s, if they were given the budget. NASA wasn't established until 1958.
- crshstsh 8y agoWho cares if it was a few years earlier? With technological progress we are able to innovate at an exponential rate. If imagine where we'd be if NASA was funded an amount as absurd as the military industrial complex.