5 ms·

Good summary. Who are you?

by DaniFong 12y ago

MPSimmons 12y ago
My thoughts exactly.
- Gravityloss 12y ago
  I'm just a rocket enthusiast, my day job (or jobs) are unrelated to the field. I've been following and participating in the Newspace movement for about ten years. The scene was really vibrant around 2004-2010 with multiple vertical hovering rocket companies / teams. I've learned a lot about discussions on various lists, newsgroups and forums. Besides of course just knowing the basic physics from college. There have been lots of old space enthusiasts and professionals who have been patiently teaching others. You can get a small taste here: http://yarchive.net/space/index.html http://yarchive.net/space/index.html If you corrected Henry Spencer on a technical matter, rumor is you got a T-shirt. Unfortunately those small companies did not scale up as envisioned, at least have not so far. Masten Space flew their Xaero vehicle 110 times, always landing vertically, before it crashed on the 111th flight. They know their stuff. (They continue flying other vehicles and are building new ones.) It's just hard to make money with that. But then SpaceX took the torch and started taking reusability seriously (at the start they were talking about recovering and refurbishing stages from the ocean, not a good strategy), and we might finally see some real VTVL first stages on orbital rockets. It's at least one dream come true. Rockets landing on their tail, on a pillar of flames, "like God and Heinlein intended". Danielle: I'm reminded by your quote that went roughly as follows: what Lightsail is trying to do with energy storage could have been done hundreds of years ago as the technology is not that complicated. It feels like that with rocketry as well. There are no fundamental physical barriers to cheaper reusable rockets, as the components have existed since the late sixties. It's just that there have been no coherent, funded, methodical attempts. Until now. It is of course vastly easier now than in the seventies, because of carbon fiber, GPS, fiber gyros, computers, CFD and CNC. There's a need for a SpaceX competitor. And there's probably room in the market. The DC-8 to the 707. And just in case something happens. It looks like the old players, "Dinospace", (ULA, Arianespace, Russian companies, China, Japan, India) are not even trying. The Newspace scene has had very coherent visions and great spirit. Move fast and break things. Lots of iterations, at small scale. Competitors sharing knowledge. Many of those people have moved on from rocket building to consulting, to satellites, government work for future asteroid missions, or to completely other sectors. I hope they can influence the space sector in their part. I am very hopeful that NASA can adjust and reach new heights if the space launch prices drop a lot. Their deputy administrator Lori Garver "gets" Newspace. If there's something great that you can get off the shelf cheaply - use it!
  - DaniFong 12y ago
    I care about these things as well, and have dedicated a few cycles to new concepts in propulsion. If you are ever around the bay area, it would be good to chat. I could give you a tour of LightSail and we could get tea.
  - avmich 12y ago
    > Their deputy administrator Lori Garver "gets" Newspace. Unfortunately, Lori Garver left NASA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lori_Garver https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lori_Garver

Good summary. Who are you?

MPSimmons 12y ago

My thoughts exactly.

Gravityloss 12y ago
I'm just a rocket enthusiast, my day job (or jobs) are unrelated to the field. I've been following and participating in the Newspace movement for about ten years. The scene was really vibrant around 2004-2010 with multiple vertical hovering rocket companies / teams. I've learned a lot about discussions on various lists, newsgroups and forums. Besides of course just knowing the basic physics from college. There have been lots of old space enthusiasts and professionals who have been patiently teaching others. You can get a small taste here: http://yarchive.net/space/index.html http://yarchive.net/space/index.html If you corrected Henry Spencer on a technical matter, rumor is you got a T-shirt. Unfortunately those small companies did not scale up as envisioned, at least have not so far. Masten Space flew their Xaero vehicle 110 times, always landing vertically, before it crashed on the 111th flight. They know their stuff. (They continue flying other vehicles and are building new ones.) It's just hard to make money with that. But then SpaceX took the torch and started taking reusability seriously (at the start they were talking about recovering and refurbishing stages from the ocean, not a good strategy), and we might finally see some real VTVL first stages on orbital rockets. It's at least one dream come true. Rockets landing on their tail, on a pillar of flames, "like God and Heinlein intended". Danielle: I'm reminded by your quote that went roughly as follows: what Lightsail is trying to do with energy storage could have been done hundreds of years ago as the technology is not that complicated. It feels like that with rocketry as well. There are no fundamental physical barriers to cheaper reusable rockets, as the components have existed since the late sixties. It's just that there have been no coherent, funded, methodical attempts. Until now. It is of course vastly easier now than in the seventies, because of carbon fiber, GPS, fiber gyros, computers, CFD and CNC. There's a need for a SpaceX competitor. And there's probably room in the market. The DC-8 to the 707. And just in case something happens. It looks like the old players, "Dinospace", (ULA, Arianespace, Russian companies, China, Japan, India) are not even trying. The Newspace scene has had very coherent visions and great spirit. Move fast and break things. Lots of iterations, at small scale. Competitors sharing knowledge. Many of those people have moved on from rocket building to consulting, to satellites, government work for future asteroid missions, or to completely other sectors. I hope they can influence the space sector in their part. I am very hopeful that NASA can adjust and reach new heights if the space launch prices drop a lot. Their deputy administrator Lori Garver "gets" Newspace. If there's something great that you can get off the shelf cheaply - use it!
- DaniFong 12y ago
  I care about these things as well, and have dedicated a few cycles to new concepts in propulsion. If you are ever around the bay area, it would be good to chat. I could give you a tour of LightSail and we could get tea.
- avmich 12y ago
  > Their deputy administrator Lori Garver "gets" Newspace. Unfortunately, Lori Garver left NASA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lori_Garver https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lori_Garver