4 ms·

SpaceX will boost Hubble's orbit for free to extend its operations

34 points by SergeAx 4y ago

melling 4y ago
Hopefully Optimus, or some other robot, will be able to repair Hubble, when needed, and we can extend its lifetime by a century. https://www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/tesla-ai-day-2022-elon-musks-optimus-robot-how-to-watch-and-more/ https://www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/tesla-ai-day-2022-elon-...
- ncmncm 4y ago
  By how many times has the money expended on missions to fix Hubble already exceeded the cost of building and launching a new and incrementally better Hubble? Development cost for additional Hubbles would be close to nil, so cost would be only reproducing it. Presumably we don't need very many functional Hubbles, although competition for time on it probably is not slacking any.
biomcgary 4y ago
Short-term, this is a great way for SpaceX to play nice with astronomers who have been pissed about Starlink satellites photo bombing their shots. Long-term, astronomy is really going to benefit from increased access to space! As launch costs approach zero, distributed space telescopes with unique properties become viable, not just monsters like JWST. I couldn't find an estimate of just JWST's launch cost. Bundled with a couple other parts of the project, it was 700 million euros (https://www.planetary.org/articles/cost-of-the-jwst https://www.planetary.org/articles/cost-of-the-jwst).
- jve 4y ago
  JWST launch cost was 0 for NASA for european access to the instrument. https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/jwst-is-ready-for-launch-but-the-weather-not-so-much/ https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/jwst-is-ready-for-launch-...
notRobot 4y ago
Editorialised submission title is false. At this time they're 'just' conducting a study exploring the possibility. > NASA and SpaceX signed an unfunded Space Act Agreement Thursday, Sept. 22, to study the feasibility of a SpaceX and Polaris Program idea to boost the agency’s Hubble Space Telescope into a higher orbit with the Dragon spacecraft, at no cost to the government. > There are no plans for NASA to conduct or fund a servicing mission or compete this opportunity; the study is designed to help the agency understand the commercial possibilities. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/nasa-spacex-to-study-hubble-telescope-reboost-possibility/ https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/nasa-spacex-to-stu... (Submission title is: SpaceX will boost Hubble's orbit for free to extend its operations)
tayo42 4y ago
does spacex actually do things cheaply? or do they do things at a loss because they can and say its cheap? is it possible to even know. cant help but be suspicious lol
- yreg 4y ago
  Well fuel, staff, etc. is relatively cheap compared to the cost of the rocket and we know for a fact that they can easily refly boosters many times. So unless their rockets cost an order of magnitude more to build then the competitors' they should be able to launch with low costs to themselves.
  - ncmncm 4y ago
    They spend on fuel, expended upper-stage rocket, and maybe fairings? Do they retrieve fairings? I know they had a boat to chase and catch them, and gave that up. They could make them float, with a beacon, and drive out and get them, and wash the salt off. I would think so, but back when they still chased them, I was viciously downvoted for suggesting that would be cheaper.
    - mwint 4y ago
      Yes, they’re regularly using recovered fairings. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_fairing_recovery_program https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_fairing_recovery_prog...
- panick21_ 4y ago
  Where is that money comming from? If you look at their history ad raises its simple not possible for them to lose money on everything. They raised a lot of money but that is not that much considering the mega projects of Starlink and Starship. The idea that they could also lose money on everything else just doesnt add up. Also investors have insight into financials, what sane investors would give them money for Starship if the were losing money on Flacon flights.
  - 4y ago

34 points by SergeAx 4y ago

Hopefully Optimus, or some other robot, will be able to repair Hubble, when needed, and we can extend its lifetime by a century. https://www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/tesla-ai-day-2022-elon-musks-optimus-robot-how-to-watch-and-more/ https://www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/tesla-ai-day-2022-elon-...

ncmncm 4y ago
By how many times has the money expended on missions to fix Hubble already exceeded the cost of building and launching a new and incrementally better Hubble? Development cost for additional Hubbles would be close to nil, so cost would be only reproducing it. Presumably we don't need very many functional Hubbles, although competition for time on it probably is not slacking any.

biomcgary 4y ago

Short-term, this is a great way for SpaceX to play nice with astronomers who have been pissed about Starlink satellites photo bombing their shots. Long-term, astronomy is really going to benefit from increased access to space! As launch costs approach zero, distributed space telescopes with unique properties become viable, not just monsters like JWST. I couldn't find an estimate of just JWST's launch cost. Bundled with a couple other parts of the project, it was 700 million euros (https://www.planetary.org/articles/cost-of-the-jwst https://www.planetary.org/articles/cost-of-the-jwst).

jve 4y ago
JWST launch cost was 0 for NASA for european access to the instrument. https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/jwst-is-ready-for-launch-but-the-weather-not-so-much/ https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/jwst-is-ready-for-launch-...

notRobot 4y ago

Editorialised submission title is false. At this time they're 'just' conducting a study exploring the possibility. > NASA and SpaceX signed an unfunded Space Act Agreement Thursday, Sept. 22, to study the feasibility of a SpaceX and Polaris Program idea to boost the agency’s Hubble Space Telescope into a higher orbit with the Dragon spacecraft, at no cost to the government. > There are no plans for NASA to conduct or fund a servicing mission or compete this opportunity; the study is designed to help the agency understand the commercial possibilities. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/nasa-spacex-to-study-hubble-telescope-reboost-possibility/ https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/nasa-spacex-to-stu... (Submission title is: SpaceX will boost Hubble's orbit for free to extend its operations)

tayo42 4y ago

does spacex actually do things cheaply? or do they do things at a loss because they can and say its cheap? is it possible to even know. cant help but be suspicious lol

yreg 4y ago
Well fuel, staff, etc. is relatively cheap compared to the cost of the rocket and we know for a fact that they can easily refly boosters many times. So unless their rockets cost an order of magnitude more to build then the competitors' they should be able to launch with low costs to themselves.
- ncmncm 4y ago
  They spend on fuel, expended upper-stage rocket, and maybe fairings? Do they retrieve fairings? I know they had a boat to chase and catch them, and gave that up. They could make them float, with a beacon, and drive out and get them, and wash the salt off. I would think so, but back when they still chased them, I was viciously downvoted for suggesting that would be cheaper.
  - mwint 4y ago
    Yes, they’re regularly using recovered fairings. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_fairing_recovery_program https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_fairing_recovery_prog...
panick21_ 4y ago
Where is that money comming from? If you look at their history ad raises its simple not possible for them to lose money on everything. They raised a lot of money but that is not that much considering the mega projects of Starlink and Starship. The idea that they could also lose money on everything else just doesnt add up. Also investors have insight into financials, what sane investors would give them money for Starship if the were losing money on Flacon flights.
- 4y ago