Space Travel & Exploration

[Osmeric]

You can hate SLS all you want, Starship isn't lifting humans off of Earth for years so SLS is what we have now.

You seem to have ignored the stated fact that SLS is useless even if Starship never flies.

I find it truly incredible that you could consider SLS a worthy program. How can you possibly justify believing that?

[PACOX]

You seem to have ignored the stated fact that SLS is useless even if Starship never flies.

I find it truly incredible that you could consider SLS a worthy program. How can you possibly justify believing that?

The objective is to get to the Moon.

One just needs a lander. The other is years from even being allowed to have humans on board.

Its not a matter of which is better. Starship will be much better. I've said it multiple times in this thread. SLS is what we have now and much closer to meeting its objectives than Starship. Theres is no 'one is better than the other' when Artemis relies on both.

[Osmeric]

The objective is to get to the Moon.

One just needs a lander. The other is years from even being allowed to have humans on board.

Its not a matter of which is better. Starship will be much better. I've said it multiple times in this thread. SLS is what we have now and much closer to meeting its objectives than Starship. Theres is no 'one is better than the other' when Artemis relies on both.

Getting to the moon with someone as expensive as SLS is useless. It's Apollo all over again, an unsustainable dead end. It is not worth doing.

Space makes sense as a human activity only if its on a path to get much cheaper, so practically useful things can occur there. One doesn't need Starship for that; Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy would allow return to the moon much more cheaply than anything based on SLS would. In particular, they would have been enabled by in-space propellant transfer, so any landing (or other) vehicles could be launched empty and fueled in orbit by multiple launches of cheap launchers. The senate porkmeisters explicitly killed NASA efforts to mature propellant depots because they knew it would destroy any remaining case for launchers like SLS.

[PACOX]

Getting to the moon with someone as expensive as SLS is useless. It's Apollo all over again, an unsustainable dead end. It is not worth doing.

Space makes sense as a human activity only if its on a path to get much cheaper, so practically useful things can occur there. One doesn't need Starship for that; Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy would allow return to the moon much more cheaply than anything based on SLS would. In particular, they would have been enabled by in-space propellant transfer, so any landing (or other) vehicles could be launched empty and fueled in orbit by multiple launches of cheap launchers. The senate porkmeisters explicitly killed NASA efforts to mature propellant depots because they knew it would destroy any remaining case for launchers like SLS.

A Falcon 9 to launch a non-existent lunar Dragon capsule that you would then transfer the capsule to a Falcon Heavy? Come on now

SpaceX does not have a deep space capsule. Propellant is still an R&D project so you can't just throw that in as a solution. Falcon Heavy is not human rated for several reasons.

Im not sure why you keep arguing that SLS is efficient because no one has made that claim. Either way no first step is cheap or efficient and of course later projects will be cheaper, faster. Artemis is not about being cheap, fast, efficient, that's the role of the projects that come after...thats how spaceflight...science general works. Right now the goal is a proof of concept and the back of proven technology to prepare spaceflight beyond the Moon. SpaceX is cheap and efficient because they had decades of data from others at their disposal. Even then they 'wasted' millions getting to where they are the same way you see SLS as a 'waste'. You have to progress through the rough processes to get to the fun stuff.

SLS is how we get to the Moon. Full stop. Doesn't matter if someone has been plans on some table, any and all alternatives are years out. Starship is the closest alternative and it still has many milestones to get through. Right now both rockets need each other, it is what it is.

[Tuor]

For those wondering the cause of the spikes in the JWST...

[cubby]

The Artimus wet dress rehearsal has been postponed.

Operations were stopped on Sunday before loading propellants into the core stage of the rocket "due to loss of ability to pressurize the mobile launcher," according to an update shared by the agency.
Prime and redundant supply fans for the mobile launcher weren't working properly.

For those in the know, what do the mentioned reasons for the delay actually mean? If it's possible to surmise from the limited information.

[PACOX]

The Artimus wet dress rehearsal has been postponed.

For those in the know, what do the mentioned reasons for the delay actually mean? If it's possible to surmise from the limited information.

Simply answer:

The structure/vehicle that the rocket is sitting on broke.

[cubby]

Simply answer:

The structure/vehicle that the rocket is sitting on broke.

Crap - long turnaround or just "change a tire and we're good" in space launch lingo?

[PACOX]

Crap - long turnaround or just "change a tire and we're good" in space launch lingo?

They tried again today but there was another issue with the launcher. They might just take a breather, the combination of weather and the tests takes a toll on the crews. Down the road NASA and SpaceX have also been trying to get another mission launched. Read an article that said NASA might just postpone the SLS tests until next week so they can at least focus on the mission that actually has to launch - and they want to get that one up ASAP because there's another launch scheduled right behind it.

So considering SLS can wait, they might just pull it back and reschedule the whole tests. The issues they have faced are not really uncommon, their 'launch window' (it's just a simulated launch but they are treating it like it is real) is very small though. Best case, everything works on Tuesday. Worst case, NASA decides it was to do a full review of the mobile launcher, pushing a real launch back to who knows.

[PACOX]

NASA is kind of struggling from success. The SLS wet dress rehearsal is postponed again to make room for other rockets. Working through kinks during a wet dress, even a normal countdown, is normal. What would normally be fixed on the pad throughout the week has to done on a day or wait a whole week so another rocket can launch.


The good thing is that a lot of logistics/procedural problems are being addressed and everyone is learning how to work with a very busy spaceport.


Pretty sure they are doing real world testing one how much stress they can put the rocket through. Apparently a lot. May is very light on number of launches taking place. We not see the rehearsals resume until then so they can work uninterrupted.

[cubby]

NASA is kind of struggling from success. The SLS wet dress rehearsal is postponed again to make room for other rockets. Working through kinks during a wet dress, even a normal countdown, is normal. What would normally be fixed on the pad throughout the week has to done on a day or wait a whole week so another rocket can launch.


The good thing is that a lot of logistics/procedural problems are being addressed and everyone is learning how to work with a very busy spaceport.


Pretty sure they are doing real world testing one how much stress they can put the rocket through. Apparently a lot. May is very light on number of launches taking place. We not see the rehearsals resume until then so they can work uninterrupted.

That seems like a good thing overall, even if it pushes the SLS launch back a few weeks. And those issues are just the normal "stuff" that comes up with wet dress rehearsals, right? Nothing to worry about overall if I'm reading the updates correctly.

[plz delete account]

The Artimus wet dress rehearsal has been postponed.

For those in the know, what do the mentioned reasons for the delay actually mean? If it's possible to surmise from the limited information.

Launcher borked, needs fixing

[jonnysensible]

is this the aliens thread

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/0...tagon-00029315

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...mental-testing

[cubby]

is this the aliens thread

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/0...tagon-00029315

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...mental-testing

It would be really, REALLY interesting, if all the bullshit conspiracy theories and whack-job stories from/about Area-51 were true.

[Tuor]

[Tuor]

The dust problem on solar pannels in Mars attacks again, this one time the victim was the tiny Ingenuity helicopter that is part of the Perserverence mission.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDEp0iSdit4

- - - Updated - - -

Magnitude 5 Marsquake detected bi Insight probe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27br7remzx0

[Ripster42]

The dust problem on solar pannels in Mars attacks again, this one time the victim was the tiny Ingenuity helicopter that is part of the Perserverence mission.

It'll be interesting to see if the increased weight allowances provided by new launch capabilities will lead to some sort of allocation for automated cleaning of the panels, or if it's the microfines actually causing abrasions that would permanently degrade them.

[Corvus]

For the first time, pictures have been taken of the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way.

[Tuor]

[plz delete account]

Time to roll Artemis 1 back out to the pad and do more WDRS then SpaceX has done in about a year