Comment: Re:To unload more than 1,000 pounds of cargo (Score 1) 133
No, cm/s.
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No, cm/s.
Union rules requires at least three workers over four days
They could have achieved this without lighting the engines.
This way they were actually able to get it done.
Just send already-dead astronauts. You will need to launch a lot less consumables, life support, shielding, and soft-landing equipment. The science return will be impacted, but not by much.
Deccelerating something from orbital velocity is just as difficult as accelerating it to orbital velocity in the first place, except you've expended all your fuel already. Much easier to use the atmosphere.
Mining water from an extraterrestrial body, with or without humans, is science fiction at the moment. I don't see how you can make 10 year plans that involve this.
As to passenger-less travel, I'm all for it. It's so much cheaper, faster, safer, and efficient that I don't see why anyone bothers with people.
That adds a huge amount to the fuel load.
Let's list them
- getting a large enough can to space (Apollo and Dragon are too small for an 8 month voyage with all the consumables needed)
- protecting the humans from radiation during the 8 month voyage
- slowing down (can be done with fuel, but increases launch costs a LOT)
- landing (can be done with fuel, but increases launch costs a LOT)
- generating fuel and consumables on Mars
- handling contingencies
Submarines that are capable of 8 month voyages mass 10,000 tons. Fancy lifting that into space?b
SpaceX got one thing right: it's conservative.
It's using proven technology with no exotic materials that they had to develop themselves. They're not even using the more efficient Hydrogen as fuel - they're using the less efficient but much more reasonable kerosene. This is what allowed them to develop a reasonable launcher for better-than-reasonable prices.
However, it's a far cry from round trips to Mars. That needs a lot of exotic development and is in uncharted territory, unlike everything else that SpaceX has done before. Musk's promises are worthless here unless he can see into the future.
VICARIOUSLY experience some reason to LIVE!!