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#26 2021-05-01 18:32:45

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

Re: SpaceX Moon lander

If  new version of the starship then its not coming back to earth due to the solar panels...
LeadImage-1170x702.jpg

other requirements
docking.jpg
which means the nose of the starship needs to have the dragon crewed cone capability to work....

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#27 2021-05-28 12:57:13

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

Re: SpaceX Moon lander

Mars_B4_Moon wrote:

Elon Musk Is Maybe, Actually, Strangely, Going to Do This Mars Thing
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/arc … ch/618781/

The Profound Potential Of Elon Musk’s New Rocket
https://awaken.com/2021/05/the-profound … ew-rocket/

Thanks for the post as they give some more details....

The changing of the game could also be the Bernie if you want to fly go fly response....

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#28 2021-07-28 19:27:02

SpaceNut
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From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

Re: SpaceX Moon lander

Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin filed a protest against NASA's decision to award Elon Musk's SpaceX a $2.9 billion award to develop a human-lander,
I am not sure if there has been any word to the challenge for the lunar contracts but in an attempt to keep an oar in the water. Jeff Bezos offers to cover $2 billion in NASA costs for lunar lander contract

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Moon_(spacecraft)

Blue Moon is a robotic space cargo carrier and lander design concept

https://www.blueorigin.com/blue-moon

The next chip of one up manship would be for space x to give money back on its contract.....

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#29 2021-07-30 11:42:49

Oldfart1939
Member
Registered: 2016-11-26
Posts: 2,366

Re: SpaceX Moon lander

In a recent note published on Reddit, the GAO has denied the Blue Origin and Dynetics protests.

https://spacenews.com/gao-denies-blue-o … -contract/

Last edited by Oldfart1939 (2021-07-30 17:24:14)

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#30 2021-07-30 19:45:42

SpaceNut
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From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

Re: SpaceX Moon lander

All I would say to Bezos is build it and show how it will be able to perform the expectations for less. Some one will buy it even if Nasa does not initially.

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#31 2021-08-01 04:56:48

Calliban
Member
From: Northern England, UK
Registered: 2019-08-18
Posts: 3,352

Re: SpaceX Moon lander

Bezos appears to lack the drive and vision that Musk provides in such ample abundance.  Musk has driven SpaceX to achieve some very great things in no small measure through his own force of character and work ethic.  Bezos Blue Origin appears to be a long way behind SpaceX in its development.  Competition is healthy, so long as it rests on the merits of technology and doesn't resort to sabotage through the Washington political machine.


"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."

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#32 2021-08-01 09:44:42

Oldfart1939
Member
Registered: 2016-11-26
Posts: 2,366

Re: SpaceX Moon lander

I'm sure that this GAO decision will spur Musk to even stronger efforts and accelerate his Dear Moon project for the Japanese Billionaire even further.
All that's needed now is completion of his offshore oil rig launch facility.

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#33 2021-08-03 20:37:34

kbd512
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Registered: 2015-01-02
Posts: 7,361

Re: SpaceX Moon lander

Blue Origin needs to put at least one rocket into orbit before they think about going to the moon.  That's generally a good first step to prove that you're serious about landing on the moon.

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#34 2021-08-04 09:37:11

Oldfart1939
Member
Registered: 2016-11-26
Posts: 2,366

Re: SpaceX Moon lander

BO is awfully secretive about their plans. Have no idea about the BE-4 engine and when it will become available for flight testing.

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#35 2021-08-04 09:48:04

kbd512
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Registered: 2015-01-02
Posts: 7,361

Re: SpaceX Moon lander

Oldfart1939,

Blue Origin could have a better LOX/LCH4 engine than anyone else, but we'd never know it because they refuse to showcase BE-4 in a flight vehicle.  Anyway, SpaceX needs a true competitor, so Blue Origin either needs to step up to the plate and take a swing or vacate the batter's box and let someone else try.

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#36 2021-08-04 10:56:20

Oldfart1939
Member
Registered: 2016-11-26
Posts: 2,366

Re: SpaceX Moon lander

The entire ULA Vulcan project depends upon the BO BE-4 engine becoming flight worthy.

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#37 2021-08-04 14:33:38

RobertDyck
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From: Winnipeg, Canada
Registered: 2002-08-20
Posts: 7,781
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Re: SpaceX Moon lander

Was my read that BO did give SpaceX some competition. They successfully test flew and landed their suborbital rocket before SpaceX successfully landed. So SpaceX landed on land at Cape Canaveral. They stuck their landing on barges after. And BO built a facility just outside Canaveral to build New Glenn, their big orbital rocket. That facility was just down the road from the one by SpaceX. So SpaceX started work on Starship. But yea, it looks like BO is having difficulty keeping up with the pace of SpaceX.

New Glenn is designed to lift about twice the payload of Falcon 9, or roughly 2/3 that of Falcon Heavy. I could post exact numbers, but you get the idea.

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#38 2021-11-23 19:11:10

SpaceNut
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From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

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#39 2022-08-06 03:24:49

Mars_B4_Moon
Member
Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 8,892

Re: SpaceX Moon lander

South Korea's first lunar orbiter launched by SpaceX

https://www.moondaily.com/reports/South … X_999.html

South Korea's first lunar orbiter successfully launched on a year-long mission to observe the Moon, Seoul said Friday, with the payload including a new disruption-tolerant network for sending data from space.

Danuri -- a portmanteau of the Korean words for "Moon" and "enjoy" -- was on a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida by Elon Musk's aerospace company SpaceX. It aims to reach the Moon by mid-December.

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#40 2022-08-29 10:46:40

Mars_B4_Moon
Member
Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 8,892

Re: SpaceX Moon lander

Starship uncrewed lunar lander test a “skeleton” of crewed lander

https://spacenews.com/starship-uncrewed … ed-lander/

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#41 2022-09-12 18:42:56

SpaceNut
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From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

Re: SpaceX Moon lander

Mars_b4_moon link source
https://www.humanmars.net/2022/09/artem … -will.html

The going to the moon for starship is going to take qty 4 starship tankers, qty 1 starship taxi and qty 1 starship lunar lander. Sure, fuel amount from earth orbit to the moon is by far less than going to mars for the lunar lander but it's still going to take a lot of them even for 1 trip. Crew vehicle exchange is done while in earth orbit for both directions.

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#42 2022-11-24 17:46:38

SpaceNut
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From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

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