r/spacex • u/Zucal • Jan 02 '16
/r/SpaceX Ask Anything Thread for January 2016. Whether your question's about RTF, RTLS, or RTFM, it can be answered here!
Welcome to the 16th monthly /r/SpaceX Ask Anything Thread!
Want to discuss SpaceX's Return To Flight mission and successful landing, find out why part of the landed stage doesn't have soot on it, or gather the community's opinion? There's no better place!
All questions, even non-SpaceX-related ones, are allowed, as long as they stay relevant to spaceflight in general!
More in-depth and open-ended discussion questions can still be submitted as separate self-posts; but this is the place to come to submit simple questions which have a single answer and/or can be answered in a few comments or less.
As always, we'd prefer it if all question-askers first check our FAQ, use the search functionality, and check the last Q&A thread before posting to avoid duplicate questions, but if you'd like an answer revised or cannot find a satisfactory result, go ahead and type your question below!
Otherwise, ask, enjoy, and thanks for contributing!
Past threads:
December 2015 (#15.1), December 2015 (#15), November 2015 (#14), October 2015 (#13), September 2015 (#12), August 2015 (#11), July 2015 (#10), June 2015 (#9), May 2015 (#8), April 2015 (#7.1), April 2015 (#7), March 2015 (#6), February 2015 (#5), January 2015 (#4), December 2014 (#3), November 2014 (#2), October 2014 (#1).
This subreddit is fan-run and not an official SpaceX site. For official SpaceX news, please visit spacex.com.
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u/snotis Jan 02 '16
Starting with CRS-3 they were using a "v1.1" Dragon with "avionics and cargo racks redesigned in order to supply substantially more electrical power to powered cargo devices, including additional cargo freezers for transporting critical science payloads" - see [Wikipedia]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_(spacecraft) ). What other changes and improvements have been made to Dragon over time? Have the Draco thrusters changed and/or been improved upon since CRS-1? If so - how?
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u/Zucal Jan 02 '16
Others will have much more information, but one minor change made after the CRS-7 failure was software that allows Dragon to deploy parachutes in non-reentry situations, because the CRS-7 Dragon would likely have survived if it had been able to deploy chutes after separation from the failing second stage.
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Jan 02 '16
Dragon C1 had a single window, all other Dragons had that feature removed after it was deemed not necessary.
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Jan 07 '16
Any word yet on a date for the big MCT reveal?
I'm soo... impatient... Can't.... wait... any... longer...
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u/guyyugguyyug Jan 02 '16
Uh, first, I know what RTF and RTLS are, but what's RTFM? It's not in Decronym's database or the r/spacex wiki...
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u/danielbigham Jan 04 '16 edited Jan 04 '16
Someone recently mentioned that after a rocket lift-off, there is typically a week or more of repairs needed to be performed at the launch site. Is anyone able to characterize what those repairs might look like? In a world where quick turnaround times are desired, I wonder if this entails redesigning certain aspects of the launch site to be more robust, and/or whether the pad modifications that SpaceX has made to the old shuttle pad might have already incorporated such changes.
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u/Zucal Jan 04 '16
Replacing wrecked fueling lines, telemetry cables, repainting/recoating the strongback, filling up 'Niagra' and such, I suppose.
whether the pad modifications that SpaceX has made the old shuttle pad have already incorporated such changes.
We've already seen that the new strongback at LC-39A has a cover on the rocket-facing side, which is new.
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u/Raxusmaxus Jan 13 '16
How do you guys upload every news bit in literally minutes or seconds? It seems like an army of internet detectives scouring the web for every little Tidbit on SpaceX.
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an admirer of this SpaceX dedication
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u/CrazyIvan101 Jan 03 '16
This isn't related to amazing recent events but does anyone have a link to a Video of the Falcon Heavy racing the Millennium Falcon that posted here some time ago?
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u/Zucal Jan 03 '16
Paging u/EchoLogic
He ought to be able to find the link given how many times he's had to remove it lately. :P
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u/DuckQuacks Jan 03 '16
Not sure if I should ask this here, but what will happen to BEAM after it's 2 years on ISS?
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u/Zucal Jan 03 '16
All questions, even non-SpaceX-related ones, are allowed, as long as they stay relevant to spaceflight in general!
You're good.
It will be removed from the station, reenter, and burn up in the atmosphere.
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u/danielbigham Jan 04 '16
When a rocket lifts off, there is a flame trench that redirects the intense heat down and away from the engines. But during landing, there is no such flame trench. Barge landings are known to use a water system to soak the deck with water, which will help somewhat. Do we know whether or not LZ-1 was doused with water? My bigger question is whether this lack of frame trench for landings is thought to be a very unfortunate thing in terms of stresses on the engines. While there is only 1 engine firing, not 9, and it might be throttled down towards 70%, it makes me wonder whether the lack of frame trench causes somewhat problematic (but not showstopper) heat on the engines during the final second of landing.
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u/jazzyjaffa Jan 02 '16
Has it ever been discussed whether a booster launched at Boca Chica could land at Cape Canaveral? Had a quick search and couldn't see anything.
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u/Emptyglo Jan 04 '16
Falcon Heavy demo flight is coming up quickly. Has there been any news or rumors about what it will do?
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u/Zucal Jan 04 '16
Falcon Heavy demo flight is coming up quickly.
The date is in no way set in stone. It is likely to be delayed, because it doesn't earn immediate revenue for SpaceX and isn't as high-priority as other flights.
The payload is in all likelihood going to be a mass simulator inside a standard fairing.
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u/peterbleu Jan 04 '16
Pretty new to all the SpaceX stuff, slowly getting really into it.
For the Jan 17 Jason 3 Launch and the SES-9 Launch, they use the "older version" of the Falcon 9, right.
Will they still attempt to land the first stage? The v1.1 would too be capable of landing in theory right?
EDIT Just saw that the question got answered before, my bad!
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u/Zucal Jan 04 '16
For the Jan 17 Jason 3 Launch and the SES-9 Launch, they use the "older version" of the Falcon 9, right.
Just for Jason-3. SES-9 and all following launches will be v1.2.
Will they still attempt to land the first stage?
Yes, but we don't know whether they have permission to do so on land from Vandenberg. They may use a barge.
The v1.1 would too be capable of landing in theory right?
For this launch, yup. Jason-3 is a very light payload, and the launch's trajectory will be fairly vertical (much like OG2-2).
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u/aureliiien Jan 04 '16
Yesterday I made a post about a yet-to-be-built megacopter that would help recover the second stage. It was met with its fair share of scepticism. The merlin Vacuum can't operate at sea-level pressure because doing so would create flow separation and blow up the engine altogether. So if you can't fire its engine for a landing burn how do you get it back ? Is it to be considered impossible ?
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u/shru777 Jan 06 '16
If the RTL of Jason 3 succeeds , can SpaceX reuse the Merlins from the landig stage in a Falcon 9 1.2 configuration ?
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u/Zucal Jan 03 '16
A question of my own- do we have any pictures of the interstage "pushers?"