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Oldfart1939

Member

Registered: 2016-11-26

Posts: 2,451

Re: SpaceX 2018 Lunar Flyby

Thankfully, at SpaceX there's only one person to "consult," and Elon seems to be an exceptionally bright and globally gifted decision maker. As he revealed 2 weeks ago, they tried 3 times to cancel Falcon Heavy. Would really like to know the other side of THAT story!

Seems many of us are onboard with conversion of the Dragon trunk into a service module capable of life support during longer missions. Great minds think alike. My extension of that concept was my "modular approach," where a "power module" could be mated to the base for TLI and return. Simply mating an NTO/UDMH fueled motor with plenty of gas directional control thrusters to the base of the habitat (modified trunk) module and away we go to Luna!

Last edited by Oldfart1939 (2018-03-05 10:19:23)

elderflower

Member

Registered: 2016-06-19

Posts: 1,262

Re: SpaceX 2018 Lunar Flyby

I've known a number of wooden headed people at some risk of Dutch Elm Disease, if not of Death Watch Beetle!

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,431

Re: SpaceX 2018 Lunar Flyby

For a free return flyby all we need after life support for the dragon with TLI fuel would be a cynus to supply the crew with the duration of consumables to make it enjoyable. The cygnus could be recycled into larger and longer living space with each mission.

Mars_B4_Moon

Member

Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,776

Re: SpaceX 2018 Lunar Flyby

Musk is know for his strange tweets and sometimes hype or cryptic 'out there' statements he puts online. Moon Express or MoonEx talked about private missions to mine the Moon but maybe using robots, Hakuto or formerly White Label Space is a Japanese company named after a mythical WhiteRabbit, the car Company Toyota is also looking at Lunar exploration.  Starship's 'Dear Moon' crewed flight will not take place until after Starship is thoroughly tested and after an uncrewed circumlunar test flight. If it works it adds to SpaceX's further plans to colonize Mars.

Elon Musk reveals NEW prediction for when humans will land on Mars using his Starship rocket
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/17982770/ … sion-date/

Social media talk

Nelson: "NASA's return to the moon and the agency's success in establishing a lunar economy is going to require competition."
NASA leadership is "committed to having competition" on HLS. Didn't have enough money for first landing, but intend for LSTS to award future contracts.
https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/sta … 8838341638

Nelson, describing the Artemis III crewed mission, says that NASA astronauts will be delivered to the surface by "the SpaceX lander Starliner."
https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/sta … 3147108353

While the SLS is only confirmed for use on the first few Artemis missions, many other proposed NASA missions intend to launch on the SLS, such as: Neptune Odyssey, Europa mission, Persephone, HabEx, Origins Space Telescope, LUVOIR, Lynx, and Interstellar probe.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti … t-a-time1/

Nasa's giant new SLS Moon rocket makes its debut
https://news.yahoo.com/nasas-giant-sls- … 22596.html

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2022-03-21 10:50:34)

Mars_B4_Moon

Member

Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,776

Re: SpaceX 2018 Lunar Flyby

NASA, SpaceX adjust Crew-5 launch date

https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/NASA … e_999.html

Crew-5 will carry two NASA astronauts Mission Commander Nicole Mann and Pilot Josh Cassada, along with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina, who will serve as mission specialists.

Mars_B4_Moon

Member

Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,776

Re: SpaceX 2018 Lunar Flyby

Sensitive tweets?

https://twitter.com/yousuck2020/status/ … 6085413889

Crash of Hakuto, the private Japanese moon lander, blamed on software and a last-minute location switch

https://apnews.com/article/moon-lunar-l … 9ed7d6ed4c

Hakuto-R Mission 1 was launched on a Falcon 9 rocket.

The dearMoon project is a lunar tourism mission and art project conceived and financed by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa. It will make use of a SpaceX Starship spacecraft on a private spaceflight flying a single circumlunar trajectory around the Moon.

Crew size 10, Members    Yusaku Maezawa, Steve Aoki, Choi Seung Hyun, Yemi A.D., Rhiannon Adam, Tim Dodd, Karim Iliya, Brendan Hall, Dev Joshi. The back up crew are  Kaitlyn Farrington an Olympic snowboarder and a Japanese person named 'Miyu'.

Yusaku Maezawa is divorced, with one child, and lives in Chiba, Japan

he uses the handle name 'YouSuck' on twitter

Moon missions
https://twitter.com/name6less9/status/1 … 4748129282

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2023-05-27 05:29:30)

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,431

Re: SpaceX 2018 Lunar Flyby

Wanting to claim 15 minutes of fame is the billionaire...

Mars_B4_Moon

Member

Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,776

Re: SpaceX 2018 Lunar Flyby

'already pushed into the 2030s.'

https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace/status/ … 2881525096

'elonmusk is no longer following yousuck2020'

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,431

Re: SpaceX 2018 Lunar Flyby

I believe that the Japanese billionaire Maezawa cancels moon flyby mission

Oldfart1939

Member

Registered: 2016-11-26

Posts: 2,451

Re: SpaceX 2018 Lunar Flyby

This seems to be another good business decision I think that this flyby mission is at least 4 years away--mostly due to the FAA slow-walking the launch licenses. This is pretty discouraging to Tim Dodd (Everyday Astronaut), though.

Mars_B4_Moon

Member

Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,776

Re: SpaceX 2018 Lunar Flyby

Japan's billionaire has been losing money, he bought a product which has not yet been ready

there was a Space Tourism discussion thread a Soyuz built Lunar mission discussion, not happening with sanctions after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Here’s why a Japanese billionaire just canceled his lunar flight on Starship
https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/06/h … -starship/
"I feel terrible making the crew members wait longer."

Changing fortunes

In the meantime, Maezawa's priorities also likely changed. According to Forbes, when the plan was announced in 2018, the entrepreneur had a net worth of about $3 billion. Today he is estimated to be worth only half of that. Additionally, he scratched his itch to go to space in 2021, flying aboard a Russian Soyuz vehicle for a 12-day trip to the International Space Station.

The writing has been on the wall for a while about Maezawa, since SpaceX founder Elon Musk unfollowed the Japanese entrepreneur on X earlier this year. (This is a sure sign of his disfavor. Musk has unfollowed me twice on Twitter/X after stories or interactions he did not like.) It is probable that the combination of developmental delays and Maezawa's personal fortunes led the parties to disband the project.

This all leaves a clearer road ahead for Starship: Become operational, start flying Starlink satellites, and begin ticking off the technical challenges for Artemis. Then, several years from now, the company will turn its attention toward the challenging prospect of launching humans inside Starship from Earth, and then landing back on the planet. The first of these people will be another billionaire, Jared Isaacman, who has already flown on Crew Dragon and plans at least two more such flights before the pioneering Starship mission.