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I believe there is also an "Ocelot Recovery Plan" included, required for an area which hasn't had an ocelot sighting in YEARS!
Does anyone here have an estimate of the total we launched on a 95% throwaway mission? $23 Billion for the SLS, and anther not so large sum on the Orion capsule itself--which IS recoverable.
Things aren't looking very promising for the Senate Launch System at the moment. Due to Hurricane Ian, the launch vehicle has again rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) as a precautionary measure. Since it's inside and again in a position for some maintenance, the batteries for the launch abort or flight termination system will be recharged/replaced. The next problem is the stacking date expiration for the 2 SRBs. I'm sure that GW is a better commenter on this problem than I, so I'm just mentioning it in passing. The most optimistic launch date is now mid October--if nothing else goes wrong.
We will soon see how effective the new extravehicular activity space suit that SpaceX has constructed will work on Jared Isaacman in the next Polaris mission. HIs spacewalk should leave NASA engineers with their heads hung in shame. SpaceX has an "outside the box" mental attitude, and one that focuses clearly on problem solving. The latest NASA suit is a hideous nightmare, and is clearly not as good as the Apollo Era suits for mobility and ease of getting around.
SpaceNut-
The Falcon heavy could have served as the basis for an intermediary rocket with a larger diameter central core of perhaps 5 to 7 meters diameter and as a test vehicle for the Raptor motors? This would have been perfect for my previously suggested 17 person crewed expedition to the Red Planet, especially if 2 such vehicles were sent in successive Hohmann Transfer windows; the first as a proof of concept with only a 3 year supply if consumables and construction equipment as payload. A pair of ships could have been sent in the second transfer window with more food and building supplies in a freighter version.
A lot is hanging in the balance with the hoped-for success of Starship. In my opinion--FWIW--Elon planned a bit TOO BIG with Starship and super heavy booster. Something smaller would have not incurred the resistance to FAA testing obstacles incurred by firing a super heavy booster with 33 engines and gobs of fuel. But--I've been wrong before, and if the first orbital flight goes without a hitch--I will tip my hat to Elon! The smaller size would have allowed the first exploratory mission to occur sooner and be a pathfinder for the Starship.
If we want beer--then wheat and barley. Wheat for wheat beer, barley for normal "hopped" beer. The hops will need to be imported from Earth, though.
Well, Thomas. There is very good news for SpaceX, as the FAA has approved the PEA that will allow for launches of Starship from Texas and the Starbase site at Boca Chica.
Quaoar-
Even Elon Musk has criticized the war on fossil fuels--in spite of his financial interests in electric cars. For the average person, an electric car is simply unaffordable at this point in time.
We need to take a more eclectic approach and use petroleum to power our economies until we come to our senses and start using more nuclear energy. Solar only works when the sun is shining. Wind power is only good when the winds are blowing. It's those who are looking through their "green" glasses who simply cannot comprehend what the average "Joe Sixpack" is going through financially these days.
This is actually a series of 3 videos (so far) conducted by Elon Musk for Tim Dodd (The Everyday Astronaut). Tim is an excellent foil to ask questions of Elon.
Here's a link to the YouTube tour, part 3:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP5k3ZzPf_0
Great quote from Elon: "At SpaceX we specialize in converting things from impossible to late."
kbd512-
Once again I wish we had emojis to give you about 10 "thumbs up" for your post #24. Perfectly reasoned and nicely stated.
It appears that the Starliner has performed adequately so far...
I watched the online launch aboard the Atlas V, which appeared flawless--as usual for this fine launcher.
We will be able to watch the approach to ISS and docking later this early afternoon around 1:00 PM EDT.
So far, so good.
Expiration dates are usually a way for retailers to control the aging of their inventories, and are a sneaky way for manufacturers to sell more products. Most dietary supplements have an almost indefinite shelf life and effectiveness. Only certain antibiotics actually deteriorate, especially tetracycline drugs, which undergo slow decomposition to some toxic by products.
The Norwegian Cod Liver Oil is in 1000 mg capsules and is tasteless. Two of them provide 110% of the daily Vitamin A, and Vitamin D requirements, as well as the Vitamin E requirement in addition to a substantial portion of the Omega-3 fatty acids required for excellent health.
In addition to dried, refrigerated, canned, and frozen food, we will need dietary supplements to make up for the shortfall in these foods we're bringing along.
Here's a list of the ones that I consider extremely important, and that I take on a daily basis:
Calcium, Magnesium, Zinc mineral supplement. Various ways to get these, but these are essential minerals for good health.
Multivitamin tablets.
Krill oil capsules
Norwegian cod liver oil capsules (a source of omega 3 fatty acids, vitamin D, and vitamin A )
Acetyl Carnitine ( the "missing" B vitamin from all standard Vitamin pills)
Coenzyme Q-10
Selenium
B-100 vitamin mixture
B-12
Vitamin C chewables.
I just noticed this thread after having been a forum member for about 6 years.
To answer one of the original questions posed by the originator of this topic as to whether or not to concentrate the different product lines in one place or not, is pretty simple for a chemist to address.
I am by profession, a retired chemist with a wide range of experience in the industry. Concentration of the efforts is almost mandatory , due to the need for specialized infrastructure and process equipment. Some segregation is needed between manufacture of foodstuff and pharmaceuticals from polymers and mining related products, simply for ensuring the health of the colonists from contamination and poisoning accidents.
Chemical process equipment tends to be (1) very pricey, and (2) heavy. So having equipment in the plant serve multiple product lines will be mandatory, as it will need to be imported from Mother Earth. Building steel jacketed, glass lined reactors is a highly specialized industry here at home, and will be out of the question to manufacture in a growing early colony.
One skill set we've tended to overlook , is that of COOK! If we're going to be doing hard physical tasks, having good meals will keep morale at a proper level.
I recall being on a 10 day field exercise at Fort Carson, Colorado in 1961. There was snow on the ground, we were bivouacked in 2 man pup tents, and everyone was cold and bitching about conditions. We were there during Thanksgiving, but we all had the Thanksgiving Turkey Dinner with mashed potatoes and green beans brought out to us and served piping hot. The Commanding General of the post was there to supervise that we all received a good, hot meal. That improved everyone's attitude and morale.
But food and sanitation go a long way towards keeping everyone functional. Adequate and well-prepared meals, coupled with hot showers, will help maintain peak effectiveness of all involved.
Thomas-
Dried foods are the answer to long term survival and well-being. The colonists/explorers will undoubtedly fart a lot from eating legumes! Beans and split peas, as well as lentils, last for over 20 years in storage under dry Nitrogen conditions or under Argon. They are also high in protein and have significant carbohydrates for energy.
The hardest to provide in long term survival are fats and oils, as they tend to become rancid even under favorable storage conditions.
Having adequate supplements to provide a proper vitamin and mineral intake will be a HUGE consideration.
As I have remarked elsewhere, mammals generally require 2% o 3% of their body weight in edible food. This is well known in the veterinary profession, and is the basis of livestock management programs.
The Boca Chica site has advantages of being more southerly than Florida. This helps with lower orbital inclinations and has a slight velocity gain benefit.
I believe that SpaceX has a significant lease (or multiple leases) at Cape Canaveral.
Understood, but SpaceX has come a long way since that time--in technical knowledge and practical terms. There seems to be more concern about shore birds and sea turtles than worries about the explosive potential of a fully fueled Starship and Super Heavy. An accident wouldn't really have the near nuclear explosion, but would create a pretty big fireball. It wouldn't be a nice event to happen near Brownsville, but wouldn't do more than break a large number of windows.
The first step in the process will be having the FAA simply stop preventing the necessary test flights of Starship! The Artemis lander construction should immediately go into the lead as much of the technology required for that mission will also serve for the significantly longer flights to Mars.
Musk is a true visionary, and sometimes allows his enthusiasm for something distorts his timeline, but I don't think he's wrong about 2029. The regulators need to get the H** out of the way and allow the engineers and scientists to proceed.
My focus, when starting this thread, was finding evidence for life--either past or present--on the Red Planet
I'm not suggesting a robotic pre-human landing as experiments that are medically oriented.
Humans are needed to do the sort of work that I'm suggesting, and that includes finding suitable samples collected by a geologist-biologist team walking on foot through regions of high probability of life.
I'm glad to see this topic resurrected and discussed in the new world of possibilities brought about by the Starship.
My choice after Mars would be Callisto, since it does have a tenuous atmosphere of CO2, and is far enough from the Jovian radiation belts analogous to our own Van Allen belts to be safe for above ground activities--most of the time. Robert Zubrin discusses the issue of occasionally passing through a radiation plume of high energy at certain orbital points in it's passage around the parent planet.
I find that Titan habitation to be pretty fanciful at this stage, due to the fantastically low surface temperatures involved.
Everyone seems to have overlooked my thread "Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Module," which was suggested for Starship, but would be even more applicable to the larger ships.
It's simply a deep space Nuclear Thermal propulsion module and is simply a matter of scale-up.
SpaceX has announced a series of up to 3 Polaris Dawn missions by private astronauts.
Led by Jared Isaacman and Scott Poteet, this mission will use the maximum capabilities of the Falcon9 to achieve the highest orbit for manned spacecraft yet attained and will be used to conduct research on long term survival in space with 5 day missions. There will be attempts at the first Private Spacewalks. There will also be 2 SpaceX employees along to assist in the various research projes that will be carried out.
https://www.spacex.com/updates/index.html
As a PS, added in edit--there shouldn't be any question about the awarding of Astronaut Wings to these crews, as they aren't going on "Billionaire Joy Rides."