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BEAM expansion and SpaceX launch tomorrow



 
 
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  #1  
Old May 25th 16, 11:56 PM posted to sci.space.policy
Jeff Findley[_6_]
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Default BEAM expansion and SpaceX launch tomorrow

Tomorrow should be an exciting day. BEAM is set to be expanded in the
a.m. (EST) and SpaceX is scheduled to launch another comsat (and attempt
another high energy barge landing) in the p.m.

Jeff
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  #2  
Old May 27th 16, 12:00 PM posted to sci.space.policy
Greg \(Strider\) Moore
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Default BEAM expansion and SpaceX launch tomorrow

"Jeff Findley" wrote in message
...

Tomorrow should be an exciting day. BEAM is set to be expanded in the
a.m. (EST) and SpaceX is scheduled to launch another comsat (and attempt
another high energy barge landing) in the p.m.

Jeff



Yeah, apparently, neither went so well.

Hoping for a better day today.
--
Greg D. Moore http://greenmountainsoftware.wordpress.com/
CEO QuiCR: Quick, Crowdsourced Responses. http://www.quicr.net

  #3  
Old May 27th 16, 01:45 PM posted to sci.space.policy
Jeff Findley[_6_]
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Default BEAM expansion and SpaceX launch tomorrow

In article ,
says...

"Jeff Findley" wrote in message
...

Tomorrow should be an exciting day. BEAM is set to be expanded in the
a.m. (EST) and SpaceX is scheduled to launch another comsat (and attempt
another high energy barge landing) in the p.m.


Yeah, apparently, neither went so well.


We test to find problems, so with BEAM this is definitely not
unexpected. As for SpaceX, they don't have *that* many launches under
their belt, so problems will crop up. Even ULA had an "anomaly" on
their last Atlas V flight, despite their quite impressive launch record.

Hoping for a better day today.


As for BEAM, the pictures seem to visually confirm that the pyros
holding the "packing straps" in place did fire. That said, the material
sticking to itself, especially in vacuum, seems quite likely. This
would mean a bit more air pressure might be needed to insure deployment.
But since this is attached to ISS, I'm guessing NASA will take some kind
of very conservative approach to solving this issue.

I talked with a former Harris employee who used to work on designing
space structures, and he said material sticking to itself in vacuum is
common in "cloth like" materials which are tightly packed for launch.
This needs to be accounted for during deployments (in the case of BEAM,
"expansion"). Of course, he could not provide any details, just these
sweeping generalizations. ;-)

Jeff
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  #4  
Old May 27th 16, 03:01 PM posted to sci.space.policy
Greg \(Strider\) Moore
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Posts: 752
Default BEAM expansion and SpaceX launch tomorrow

"Jeff Findley" wrote in message
...

In article ,
says...

"Jeff Findley" wrote in message
...

Tomorrow should be an exciting day. BEAM is set to be expanded in the
a.m. (EST) and SpaceX is scheduled to launch another comsat (and attempt
another high energy barge landing) in the p.m.


Yeah, apparently, neither went so well.


We test to find problems, so with BEAM this is definitely not
unexpected.


Perhaps. I'd be interested in seeing how the previous Bigelow items faired.
Of course they weren't docked to an active space station so they could take
fewer precautions.

As for SpaceX, they don't have *that* many launches under
their belt, so problems will crop up. Even ULA had an "anomaly" on
their last Atlas V flight, despite their quite impressive launch record.


Agreed.

Hoping for a better day today.


As for BEAM, the pictures seem to visually confirm that the pyros
holding the "packing straps" in place did fire. That said, the material
sticking to itself, especially in vacuum, seems quite likely. This
would mean a bit more air pressure might be needed to insure deployment.
But since this is attached to ISS, I'm guessing NASA will take some kind
of very conservative approach to solving this issue.


Yeah. Worst case, is you pop it up explosively and start to lose air through
your valve being used to expand it.
That said, I highly doubt that'll be an issue. I suspect they'll figure
some max pressure they will tolerate and slowly ramp up to that.


I talked with a former Harris employee who used to work on designing
space structures, and he said material sticking to itself in vacuum is
common in "cloth like" materials which are tightly packed for launch.
This needs to be accounted for during deployments (in the case of BEAM,
"expansion"). Of course, he could not provide any details, just these
sweeping generalizations. ;-)


Of course. :-)


Jeff


--
Greg D. Moore http://greenmountainsoftware.wordpress.com/
CEO QuiCR: Quick, Crowdsourced Responses. http://www.quicr.net

  #6  
Old May 27th 16, 11:59 PM posted to sci.space.policy
Vaughn Simon
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Posts: 55
Default BEAM expansion and SpaceX launch tomorrow

On 5/27/2016 5:56 PM, Jeff Findley wrote:
The
barge is looking like it's doing just fine at its job.

That barge won't look so good in a high sea state. Inevitably Space X
will sometimes have to make decisions when that happens; delay launch vs
sacrifice booster.

That said, you may color me damn impressed with their string of
successful recoveries.

Getting back to the thread subject, they have decided to take a second
try at BEAM tomorrow.
  #8  
Old May 28th 16, 01:41 AM posted to sci.space.policy
Jeff Findley[_6_]
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Posts: 2,307
Default BEAM expansion and SpaceX launch tomorrow

In article ,
says...

In article ,
says...

In article ,
says...

"Jeff Findley" wrote in message
...

Tomorrow should be an exciting day. BEAM is set to be expanded in the
a.m. (EST) and SpaceX is scheduled to launch another comsat (and attempt
another high energy barge landing) in the p.m.

Yeah, apparently, neither went so well.


SpaceX launch appears to be going well. Another successful high energy,
three engine, hover slam landing for the first stage. The payload is
now coasting, waiting for the 2nd burn of the 2nd stage.

First stage landing was very close to the center of the "X" on the
barge. It's looking like they really don't need a bigger barge, or a
converted oil platform, or other expensive offshore platforms. The
barge is looking like it's doing just fine at its job.


From what I understand, the 2nd burn was successful and the satellite
was successfully released. Good job SpaceX.

Jeff

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  #9  
Old May 28th 16, 03:21 AM posted to sci.space.policy
Greg \(Strider\) Moore
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Posts: 752
Default BEAM expansion and SpaceX launch tomorrow

"Vaughn Simon" wrote in message ...

On 5/27/2016 5:56 PM, Jeff Findley wrote:
The
barge is looking like it's doing just fine at its job.

That barge won't look so good in a high sea state. Inevitably Space X
will sometimes have to make decisions when that happens; delay launch vs
sacrifice booster.

That said, you may color me damn impressed with their string of
successful recoveries.


Yeah, 3 in a row. Pretty impressive.



Getting back to the thread subject, they have decided to take a second
try at BEAM tomorrow.



--
Greg D. Moore http://greenmountainsoftware.wordpress.com/
CEO QuiCR: Quick, Crowdsourced Responses. http://www.quicr.net
  #10  
Old May 28th 16, 02:05 PM posted to sci.space.policy
Jeff Findley[_6_]
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Posts: 2,307
Default BEAM expansion and SpaceX launch tomorrow

In article ,
says...

"Vaughn Simon" wrote in message ...

On 5/27/2016 5:56 PM, Jeff Findley wrote:
The
barge is looking like it's doing just fine at its job.

That barge won't look so good in a high sea state. Inevitably Space X
will sometimes have to make decisions when that happens; delay launch vs
sacrifice booster.

That said, you may color me damn impressed with their string of
successful recoveries.


Yeah, 3 in a row. Pretty impressive.


Henry Spencer use to say (paraphrasing here) that we didn't have truly
reusable vehicles yet because no one yet had actually tried. He was
right.

It's not like Musk is doing this single handedly. He hired engineers
from NASA and the very government contractors who had failed in the past
to produce meaningful progress on affordable reusable vehicles. The
"big leap" projects had all failed, in part, because it was thought that
some new bleeding edge technology would be needed because the mass
fractions required were so tight. This simply isn't true, especially
for a reusable first stage.

Instead, a vehicle based on existing tech is proving that reuse is
possible, by simply trading a bit of performance for reusability (fuel,
oxidizer, and some extra hardware like landing legs and grid fins).
Ditching the "performance uber alles" attitude of the missile designers
is one of the keys.

Instead of grasping for the ring of bleeding edge technology, doing what
you can with existing tech is proving to cost far less and is producing
results far faster than many engineers would have imagined (especially
after the expensive failure of X-33 and similar projects).

Jeff
--
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These posts do not reflect the opinions of my family, friends,
employer, or any organization that I am a member of.

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