Falcon Heavy: Elon Musk's giant SpaceX rocket makes triumphant launch

[asianobserve]

What Musk is doing us nothing new and is know to failure in the future like the space shuttle. Due to the extreme conditions and fatigue, there will be structural problems.

Reusable is the future of space transport. Materials, manufacturing process, modeling and diagnostics are becoming better. Space shuttle was 70's technology. And the space shuttle crashes were more a bureaucratic failures than technical ones. In both the space shuttle accidents there were clear signs of possible technical problems which became known to engineers prior to the fatal accidents. It was the upper managers of the shuttle program that failed by not acting on the engineers' concerns. SpaceX is more nimble than NASA.

 

[Bahamut]

Reusable is the future of space transport. Materials, manufacturing process, modeling and diagnostics are becoming better. Space shuttle was 70's technology. And the space shuttle crashes were more a bureaucratic failures than technical ones. In both the space shuttle accidents there were clear signs of possible technical problems which became known to engineers prior to the fatal accidents. It was the upper managers of the shuttle program that failed by not acting on the engineers' concerns. SpaceX is more nimble than NASA.

True spacex is more nimble than NASA but after a certain no of launches the main structure cannot be repaired. Similarly to how aircraft carrier landing leads to permanent damage to structure of aircraft but only faster. NASA ended up spending billion just repair shuttle when they could simply build new ones

 

[asianobserve]

True spacex is more nimble than NASA but after a certain no of launches the main structure cannot be repaired. Similarly to how aircraft carrier landing leads to permanent damage to structure of aircraft but only faster. NASA ended up spending billion just repair shuttle when they could simply build new ones

According to Musk the heat shield and some other high stress parts can be reused for at least 10 times while all other parts of the Falcon rocket can be reused over 100 times.

 

[jadoogar]

What Musk is doing us nothing new and is know to failure in the future like the space shuttle. Due to the extreme conditions and fatigue, there will be structural problems.

Indeed. Probably recovery of the first stage destroys value - have not seen one up close or seen drawings but I expect it is just a steel tube, maybe two additional steel tanks for oxidizer and fuel, fuel lines, control valves, combustion nozzle and perhaps signal and power lines from the capsule if that is where the controller is located. Also in addition to extreme conditions and fatigue that you noted, the cost to test and refurbish the recovered first stage will exceed the cost of just using a new one, especially since the design phase is over and it is just assembly from off the shelf components (what SpaceX uses). And according to Wikipedia SpaceX does charge More for the reusable Falcon 9.xxxx AND offers a lower payload for that privilege.

The total weight of steel in stage 1 - my guess 25-50 tonnes. The United States alone has permanently buried greater than 100 million tonnes of very high quality steel pipe in their oil and gas wells. There are over a million oil and gas wells in service in the continental US right now, many more are retired. Especially horizontal wells are 1 mile to several miles long. So to save 50 tonnes of steel on 6 launches per year is idiotic.

According to wiki SpaceX thanks NASA for a lot of technical help which Musk says was critical for development of their delivery vehicles.

Too much hype for a rocket that did not have a precise destination and ended up not even pointing in the direction it was supposed to go - i.e. the planet Mars. But hey the entire media says that it is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

 

[Bahamut]

According to Musk the heat shield and some other high stress parts can be reused for at least 10 times while all other parts of the Falcon rocket can be reused over 100 times.

What material are they using. I donot know any material that can take this fatigue

 

[asianobserve]

What material are they using. I donot know any material that can take this fatigue

New aluminum lithium alloys were developed for lining of the tanks. New carbon aluminum composite structure were developed for the casing. New fuel composition were developed.

I also read articles about SpaceX's effort to develop self-healing materials. If Musk is so confident about the reusability of his rockeys then I would assume that this kind of materials are incorporated into his rockets.

Re components and structural fatigue i think there are diagnostic programs as well as inspections to discover it.

 

[Bahamut]

New aluminum lithium alloys were developed for lining of the tanks. New carbon aluminum composite structure were developed for the casing. New fuel composition were developed.

Although Aluminum-Lithium alloys are generally superior to Aluminum-Copper or Aluminum-Zinc alloys in ultimate strength to weight ratio, their poor fatigue strength under compression remains a problem which is only partially solved as of 2016.[9][10] Also, high costs (around 3 times or more conventional Aluminum alloys), poor corrosion resistance and strong anisotropy of mechanical properties of rolled Aluminum-Lithium products has resulted in the paucity of the applications.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium-lithium_alloy

 

[Tactical Frog]

https://www.popularmechanics.com/sp...-rocket-design-mars-moon-earth-flights-plane/

Elon Musk has bigger rockets projected than Falcon Heavy. Perhaps Japan, India, Europe should work together on similar plans ?

 

[HariPrasad-1]

ISRO's PSLV-C37 rocket:
Payload to LEO - 1,378 kgms
Launch cost - $15M
Launch cost per kilogram - $10,900

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket:
Payload to LEO - 63,800 kgms
Launch cost - $90M
Launch cost per kilogram - $1,410

Correction. PSLV Leo payload is not 1378 kg. please check.

That does not happen that way. ISRO can put 100+ nano satellite with its launcher, To do same by Space, 6 times more money is required. It will only be economical in case you have such heavy payload to put in orbit.

 

[asianobserve]

Correction. PSLV Leo payload is not 1378 kg. please check.

That does not happen that way. ISRO can put 100+ nano satellite with its launcher, To do same by Space, 6 times more money is required. It will only be economical in case you have such heavy payload to put in orbit.

For smaller payloads SpaceX has Falcon rocket @ $60M per flight at 22,800 kgms payload or a cost pet kilo of $2,631.

My bad re PSLV's load, it's 3,800 kgms. So that give it a cost per kilogram to LEO at $3,940.