February 08, 2018

I Could Watch This All Day



That may seem like a sub-optimal utilization of resources, but it makes perfect sense for two reasons. 

First; it's a free country and it's Mr. Musk's rocket so if one has an issue with this exercise, one can go pound sand. 

Second; it was the first launch of Space X's Falcon Heavy rocket. No one was going to risk a scientific or commercial payload on a totally new rocket so an inert test payload was substituted, in this case Elon Musk's car. 

The rocket, while having only about half the power of the old Saturn 5 Moon rocket, this is the most powerful rocket in the world right now, its payload capacity exceeding even the massive Russian Proton-M launcher by a considerable margin, it can, for instance send 7,000 pounds of payload to Pluto. 

 This rocket is an entirely new class of launcher and promises to vastly lower launch costs, which, in turn will open the solar system to a far greater number of people and allow for an economical return to the moon, prospecting asteroids and potentially lower cost and more numerous scientific probes. This is a very big deal. 

Musk did this as a private venture and rented the launch pad at Cape Canaveral. This is in stark contrast to NASA's  still unlaunched and non-reuseable rocket that was supposed to have launched in 2016 but instead has burned up 20 billion dollars of taxpayer money

"Well Space-X didn't waste brain cells on any liberative pedagoggies, 'cause they're not asshats!"

 
Doug Plata, over at Space Review makes a good case that the SLS should be canceled with prejudice and simply place a bulk order for the vastly cheaper (and reuseable) Falcon Heavy, which is quite capable of manned lunar missions (albeit with multiple launches).

It would probably be money well spent.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:50 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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