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#1
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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 -- All opinions posted by me on Usenet News are mine, and mine alone. These posts do not reflect the opinions of my family, friends, employer, or any organization that I am a member of. --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus |
#2
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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 |
#4
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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 |
#5
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BEAM expansion and SpaceX launch tomorrow
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. Jeff -- All opinions posted by me on Usenet News are mine, and mine alone. These posts do not reflect the opinions of my family, friends, employer, or any organization that I am a member of. --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus |
#6
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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. |
#7
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BEAM expansion and SpaceX launch tomorrow
In article ,
says... JF Mezei wrote: On 2016-05-27 08:45, Jeff Findley wrote: 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. Would extreme heat under direct sunlight cause some "melting" that causes the straps to bond to each other ? Look up 'vacuum welding'. It doesn't just happen with 'cloth like' materials. Stuff tends to stick to other stuff when you take all the gas out from between the stuff. True. The consequence of this can be higher than predicted deployment forces. Especially if you're predicting based on storage and ground tests on the ground, in the ambient atmosphere. Jeff -- All opinions posted by me on Usenet News are mine, and mine alone. These posts do not reflect the opinions of my family, friends, employer, or any organization that I am a member of. --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus |
#8
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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 -- All opinions posted by me on Usenet News are mine, and mine alone. These posts do not reflect the opinions of my family, friends, employer, or any organization that I am a member of. --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus |
#9
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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
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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 -- All opinions posted by me on Usenet News are mine, and mine alone. These posts do not reflect the opinions of my family, friends, employer, or any organization that I am a member of. --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus |
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