The Conservative Cave
Current Events => The DUmpster => Topic started by: BannedFromDU on June 28, 2015, 11:47:28 PM
-
Star Member TexasTowelie (16,246 posts)
Here’s why the loss of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is a big deal for NASA
The loss of today’s Falcon 9 rocket is a critical one for NASA.
The vehicle carried 4,000 pounds in supplies, from food and water to about 70 scientific experiments to hardware for the space station itself.
Among that hardware was the first of two International Docking Adapters, designed to make it possible for commercial crew vehicles being developed by SpaceX and Boeing to dock to the space station.
This 1,000-pound adapter was due to be installed during a future spacewalk to allow SpaceX’s Dragon and Boeing’s CST-100 to begin docking as early as late 2016 or early 2017. So not only did one of NASA’s commercial crew providers experience a serious problem today, the agency lost a critical piece of commercial crew hardware.
Read more: http://blog.chron.com/sciguy/2015/06/heres-why-the-loss-of-spacexs-falcon-9-rocket-is-a-big-deal-for-nasa/#22787101=0
Any thread now about space travel and exploration is met with the same snide bullshit, viz., that the space program is all "outsourced" now and any and all ****ups are due to that privatization. Because, you see, the Big Thinkers at DU (you know, LFR, Randys1, kelliekat, kpete, Dorkio, malaise, Pam, and so on) imagine that all of these happy government workers manufactured all of these perfect rocket and propulsion systems that got us to the Moon a few times. (http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026919192)
Setting the table:
Cal Carpenter (3,239 posts)
1. Privatizing infrastructure never ends well
whether you are a bridge in Minnesota or a space station out in ****ing space.
Which is the canonical DUmmy response to any imperfections in, you know, sending man and equipment from our spinning cinder into outer space.
So I have to wonder how a DUmmy would react to the actual knowledge that, you know, not only does the government outsource stuff, but the most critical stuff for Apollo 11 was, in fact, built by a CORPORATION:
Oh, the horror. We got to the moon using PRIVATE know-how and equipment! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_V)
From which:
Stages
The Saturn V consisted of three stages—the S-IC first stage, S-II second stage and the S-IVB third stage—and the instrument unit. All three stages used liquid oxygen (LOX) as an oxidizer. The first stage used RP-1 for fuel, while the second and third stages used liquid hydrogen (LH2). The upper stages also used small solid-fueled ullage motors that helped to separate the stages during the launch, and to ensure that the liquid propellants were in a proper position to be drawn into the pumps.
S-IC first stage
The S-IC was built by The Boeing Company at the Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans (OMG! New Orleans is in the SOUTH, too!!!!!!), where the Space Shuttle External Tanks would later be built by Lockheed Martin. Most of its mass of over 4,400,000 pounds (2,000 metric tons) at launch was propellant, RP-1 fuel with liquid oxygen as oxidizer.[20] It was 138 feet (42 m) tall and 33 feet (10 m) in diameter, and provided over 7,600,000 pounds-force (34,000 kN) of thrust. The S-IC stage had a dry weight of about 289,000 pounds (131 metric tons) and fully fueled at launch had a total weight of 5,100,000 pounds (2,300 metric tons). It was powered by five Rocketdyne F-1 engines arrayed in a quincunx. The center engine was held in a fixed position, while the four outer engines could be hydraulically turned (gimballed) to steer the rocket.[20] In flight, the center engine was turned off about 26 seconds earlier than the outboard engines to limit acceleration. During launch, the S-IC fired its engines for 168 seconds (ignition occurred about 8.9 seconds before liftoff) and at engine cutoff, the vehicle was at an altitude of about 36 nautical miles (67 km), was downrange about 50 nautical miles (93 km), and was moving about 7,500 feet per second (2,300 m/s).[21]
S-II second stage
Main article: S-II
An S-II stage hoisted onto the A-2 test stand at the Mississippi Test Facility
The S-II was built by North American Aviation at Seal Beach, California. Using liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, it had five Rocketdyne J-2 engines in a similar arrangement to the S-IC, also using the outer engines for control. The S-II was 81 feet 7 inches (24.87 m) tall with a diameter of 33 feet (10 m), identical to the S-IC, and thus was the largest cryogenic stage until the launch of the STS. The S-II had a dry weight of about 80,000 pounds (36,000 kg) and fully fueled, weighed 1,060,000 pounds (480,000 kg). The second stage accelerated the Saturn V through the upper atmosphere with 1,100,000 pounds-force (4,900 kN) of thrust in vacuum. When loaded, significantly more than 90 percent of the mass of the stage was propellant; however, the ultra-lightweight design had led to two failures in structural testing. Instead of having an intertank structure to separate the two fuel tanks as was done in the S-IC, the S-II used a common bulkhead that was constructed from both the top of the LOX tank and bottom of the LH2 tank. It consisted of two aluminum sheets separated by a honeycomb structure made of phenolic resin. This bulkhead had to insulate against the 126 °F (52 °C) temperature gradient between the two tanks. The use of a common bulkhead saved 7,900 pounds (3.6 t). Like the S-IC, the S-II was transported from its manufacturing plant to the Cape by sea.
S-IVB third stage
The S-IVB was built by the Douglas Aircraft Company at Huntington Beach, California. It had one J-2 engine and used the same fuel as the S-II. The S-IVB used a common bulkhead to insulate the two tanks. It was 58 feet 7 inches (17.86 m) tall with a diameter of 21 feet 8 inches (6.604 m) and was also designed with high mass efficiency, though not quite as aggressively as the S-II. The S-IVB had a dry weight of about 23,000 pounds (10,000 kg) and, fully fueled, weighed about 262,000 pounds (119,000 kg).[22]
Gee, those bolded companies up there sure don't look owned by the government. I wonder if they made anything else that was, you know, sort of reliable and kind of damn good.
How about the F-15? Only the baddest fighter jet in the history of the world. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_F-15_Eagle)
And doesn't Boeing have something called the 737, that flies, you know, MILLIONS of air miles a year? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_737)
What incompetent boobs.
Meanwhile, SpaceX was started by Elon Musk, liberal darling who also runs a company that makes electric cars.
Gee, it sure seemed like we had more reliable space systems when EVIL defense contractors were running the show. Now we just have fancy liberal buzzword assholes screwing things up.
What about that, DUmmies?
-
:hi5: Well summed up. The Space program was ran amazingly well for it's time. Consider that we could send a man to the moon with SLIDE RULES... but we can't even get out of Earth orbit now... and we have the most advanced computers available.
-
I think it was the last thoughts of Allen Sheppard just before launch way back in the beginning of space flights, "Here I sit on the end of this thing....and it's all built by the low bidder."