56 minutes ago, Georgealbert said:

After this latest partial success by SpaceX, do you believe there is still room for the other competitors in the launch race, or will SpaceX and its massive investment, close out the market for themself?

 

The others being, the New Glenn, from Jeff Bozos, Blue Origin, which may launch this year.
 

The Vulcan rocket, the joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, which launched in January.

Ariane 6, by the European Space Agency, which is also expected to make its first flight this year.

 

I fully understand you have close links to SpaceX, but do you considered the others as real competition?

Plenty of market for competitors, a lot depends on the economics of SuperHeavy.

 

The real market is going to be for smaller, totally reusable rockets, which are coming Real Soon Now.

15 hours ago, Danderman123 said:

Elon launched SuperHeavy today. The launch was relatively good, but both stages were lost after the launch.

Shame about your big rocket. That must hurt your pocket money supply.

On 3/8/2024 at 1:21 PM, Danderman123 said:

One of my companies has purchased a launch on Super Heavy, so I have a lot riding on this launcher. But its only one of many tests. So, a bad day won't be a show stopper.

Worse than a bad day though. Is Elon cursed?

6 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Shame about your big rocket. That must hurt your pocket money supply.

Actually, SuperHeavy supports Elon's smartphone to satellite service, which completes with one of my companies.

 

And the Starship failure was post-payload deployment, which wouldn't impact the launch customer.

 

It looks like SuperHeavy needs a lot more work.

6 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Worse than a bad day though. Is Elon cursed?

Actually, it wasn't a terrible day for the launch test. Kind of normal for a test campaign.

21 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Shame about your big rocket. That must hurt your pocket money supply.

I forgot to say that it was a shame that Elon wasn't piloting it, and a few others I can think of as passengers.

🙂

Interesting article from Reuters about SpaceX's Starshield $1.8 billion contract to build a network of spy satellites.

 

The contract was signed in 2021, after you had left the company, but can not help wondering if any of your companies are involved in these developments. No need to answer, as I am sure The National Reconnaissance Office, has some extremely classified clauses to be followed.

 

https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/musks-spacex-is-building-spy-satellite-network-us-intelligence-agency-sources-2024-03-16/

16 hours ago, Georgealbert said:

Interesting article from Reuters about SpaceX's Starshield $1.8 billion contract to build a network of spy satellites.

 

The contract was signed in 2021, after you had left the company, but can not help wondering if any of your companies are involved in these developments. No need to answer, as I am sure The National Reconnaissance Office, has some extremely classified clauses to be followed.

 

https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/musks-spacex-is-building-spy-satellite-network-us-intelligence-agency-sources-2024-03-16/

I never worked for SpaceX, even back in the old days, I only worked for space companies where I was an owner.

 

I am not sure if Elon's NRO work is going to survive (unless Trump is elected).

7 hours ago, Danderman123 said:

I never worked for SpaceX, even back in the old days, I only worked for space companies where I was an owner.

 

I am not sure if Elon's NRO work is going to survive (unless Trump is elected).

Ok

 

Sorry, was making an assumption, because the patent you posted earlier, 2 March, “for supplying orbital space platforms using payload canisters” seemed to imply you were one of the 2 inventors, and judging by you using name, you're not Benigno Muniz Jr.The other named inventor seemed to match everything you have posted about your experience, and had links to SpaceX.

My company just got some sort of contract from NASA for a Mars airlock. I have no idea how or why, since NASA doesn't have a Mars program yet.

 

 

On 1/22/2024 at 11:51 PM, ColeBOzbourne said:

Please help settle a bet. My friends say we can't travel to the sun because it's too hot. I say if we go at night it won't be a problem. Who's correct?

It can be done but with protection like a sombrero, 

10 hours ago, Danderman123 said:

My company just got some sort of contract from NASA for a Mars airlock. I have no idea how or why, since NASA doesn't have a Mars program yet.

 

 

Is it linked, in any way, to this recent report about Voyager Space partnering with NASA to develop a new airlock for Mars transit vehicle?

https://executivebiz.com/2024/05/voyager-space-partners-with-nasa-to-develop-new-airlock-for-mars-transit-vehicle/

 

 

 

2 hours ago, Georgealbert said:

Is it linked, in any way, to this recent report about Voyager Space partnering with NASA to develop a new airlock for Mars transit vehicle?

https://executivebiz.com/2024/05/voyager-space-partners-with-nasa-to-develop-new-airlock-for-mars-transit-vehicle/

 

 

 

If he told you, he'd have to kill you. 

4 hours ago, Georgealbert said:

Is it linked, in any way, to this recent report about Voyager Space partnering with NASA to develop a new airlock for Mars transit vehicle?

https://executivebiz.com/2024/05/voyager-space-partners-with-nasa-to-develop-new-airlock-for-mars-transit-vehicle/

 

 

 

Next question: what's a Mars transit vehicle?

19 minutes ago, Danderman123 said:

Next question: what's a Mars transit vehicle?

As far as I can ascertain, it is still just a concept, and the ‘red knight’ airlock, from my earlier link, will under go 12 months of study, to see how it may meet the challenges of deep space travel, and how it could fit into the final design.

 

Unless, of course, you know more.

23 minutes ago, Georgealbert said:

As far as I can ascertain, it is still just a concept, and the ‘red knight’ airlock, from my earlier link, will under go 12 months of study, to see how it may meet the challenges of deep space travel, and how it could fit into the final design.

 

Unless, of course, you know more.

I know less.

 

I don't even know why a Mars transit vehicle needs an airlock.

44 minutes ago, Danderman123 said:

I know less.

 

I don't even know why a Mars transit vehicle needs an airlock.

Not really sure if you don’t know.

 

But this Voyeur Space, and you never did confirmed if this is what your company is linked to?

 

“Future airlocks, including Red Knight, will be crucial for moving equipment, conducting research, deploying satellites and trash, and performing maintenance on space stations and spacecraft, supporting various missions and technology demonstrations.“

2 minutes ago, Georgealbert said:

Not really sure if you don’t know.

 

But this Voyeur Space, and you never did confirmed if this is what your company is linked to?

 

“Future airlocks, including Red Knight, will be crucial for moving equipment, conducting research, deploying satellites and trash, and performing maintenance on space stations and spacecraft, supporting various missions and technology demonstrations.“

Voyager Space. But the contract is for the Nanoracks Airlock module.

 

The blurb about airlocks doesn't mention the specific application for the Mars transit vehicle, but rather, generic applications of airlocks

 

I am not sure that the current airlock module could support a human EVA, it may be large enough, but certainly doesn't support the interfaces with an EVA suit.

3 minutes ago, Danderman123 said:

Voyager Space. But the contract is for the Nanoracks Airlock module.

 

The blurb about airlocks doesn't mention the specific application for the Mars transit vehicle, but rather, generic applications of airlocks

 

I am not sure that the current airlock module could support a human EVA, it may be large enough, but certainly doesn't support the interfaces with an EVA suit.

From what I posted above is the “Red Knight” not just advancing the development of Nanorack Bishop airlock, that is currently being used on the space station, and having 12 months to test suitability and capability of this new design?

9 minutes ago, Georgealbert said:

From what I posted above is the “Red Knight” not just advancing the development of Nanorack Bishop airlock, that is currently being used on the space station, and having 12 months to test suitability and capability of this new design?

Yes, and I suspect that part of the task order will be integrating spacesuit support.

 

But the airlock design is probably too small for 2 astronauts. They are going to need a bigger airlock, which means a larger diameter hull.

 

This may actually end up as the airlock for the Starlab.

Just now, Danderman123 said:

Yes, and I suspect that part of the task order will be integrating spacesuit support.

 

But the airlock design is probably too small for 2 astronauts. They are going to need a bigger airlock, which means a larger diameter hull.

 

This may actually end up as the airlock for the Starlab.

Getting beyond my knowledge now, but is the Bishop airlock just a separate, four-cubic meter bell-shaped module, that attaches to the space station?

So is your company getting involved in the development of this bigger air lock?

25 minutes ago, Georgealbert said:

Getting beyond my knowledge now, but is the Bishop airlock just a separate, four-cubic meter bell-shaped module, that attaches to the space station?

So is your company getting involved in the development of this bigger air lock?

To be clear, Nanoracks developed the Bishop airlock, and then was acquired by Voyager. It's pretty obvious that Red Knight is a study to design a larger, more capable version of Bishop.

 

And now for some "inside Baseball":

 

There are 2 types of engineering management, System Engineering and One Smart Guy tells Everyone What to Do.

 

Elon and SpaceX are on example of the latter, and the Russians are another. The top Russian design bureau, RSC Energía, used the Smart Guy approach. It used to be the head of Energía who was the Smart Guy, but once Putin got in power, he would switch out the head of Energía so the Smart Guy would be different based on the specific project. For the human spacecraft, the Smart Guy used to be Nicholai Bryuchanov, no idea who it is now. After I left Russia, they started putting design engineers in jail.

 

System Engineering is what NASA uses. This approach makes the design process lengthy and expensive, but avoids stupid mistakes. I used to get caught as the Stuckee for writing ICDs, which is pretty much the worst job, it's easy but boring.

 

There are a series of steps in NASA System Engineering, starting with System Requirements Review, then System Design Review, PDR, CDR and then build the thing. Most projects don't make it to PDR. I suspect the Red Knight contract is for SRR.

 

I once took a design through SRR simultaneously in Russia and with NASA. It was a lot of work, and then NASA changed the requirements and we had to start again.

10 minutes ago, Danderman123 said:

To be clear, Nanoracks developed the Bishop airlock, and then was acquired by Voyager. It's pretty obvious that Red Knight is a study to design a larger, more capable version of Bishop.

 

And now for some "inside Baseball":

 

There are 2 types of engineering management, System Engineering and One Smart Guy tells Everyone What to Do.

 

Elon and SpaceX are on example of the latter, and the Russians are another. The top Russian design bureau, RSC Energía, used the Smart Guy approach. It used to be the head of Energía who was the Smart Guy, but once Putin got in power, he would switch out the head of Energía so the Smart Guy would be different based on the specific project. For the human spacecraft, the Smart Guy used to be Nicholai Bryuchanov, no idea who it is now. After I left Russia, they started putting design engineers in jail.

 

System Engineering is what NASA uses. This approach makes the design process lengthy and expensive, but avoids stupid mistakes. I used to get caught as the Stuckee for writing ICDs, which is pretty much the worst job, it's easy but boring.

 

There are a series of steps in NASA System Engineering, starting with System Requirements Review, then System Design Review, PDR, CDR and then build the thing. Most projects don't make it to PDR. I suspect the Red Knight contract is for SRR.

 

I once took a design through SRR simultaneously in Russia and with NASA. It was a lot of work, and then NASA changed the requirements and we had to start again.

As I was reading your post, this came up at the same time in my newsfeed, not really relevant but just a coincidence.

 

Seems that NASA staff enjoy working there.

 

https://apnews.com/article/federal-government-best-places-to-work-survey-68c48b8b97b5688d7c202c7cbf3522f4

I went to a space conference this weekend where William Shatner talked about his trip into space.

The fairly successful Starship launch is good news for one of my companies.

 

The downside for me is I have to write an analysis of a competitor who plans to launch on Starship, too.

On 1/31/2024 at 9:01 AM, Morch said:

 

Three boobed ones, maybe?

(Total Recall reference, for the challenged).

Nature seems to prefer to build everything symmetrically. So no, there won't be any three boobed ones, but maybe four boobed.

1 hour ago, SpaceKadet said:

Nature seems to prefer to build everything symmetrically. So no, there won't be any three boobed ones, but maybe four boobed.

What in Nature is symmetrical? 

30 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

What in Nature is symmetrical? 

Human beings for one....DNA strands... biological entities. Shall I go on? Even us, as engineers, we prefer symmetrical structures.

1 minute ago, SpaceKadet said:

Human beings for one....

Humans are not symmetrical. 

 

2 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

Humans are not symmetrical. 

 

Huh? What have you smoking lately?