[AR] Re: irrational gushing enthusiasm (was Re: Future Exploration...)
- From: "John Stoffel" <john@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 11 Feb 2018 15:01:48 -0500
"Henry" == Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
Henry> On Sat, 10 Feb 2018, Paul Mueller wrote:
But now it's the whole gamut, from suborbital to interplanetary...
Henry> Again, has been for quite a while. It's been possible to buy a Proton
Henry> launch commercially for a couple of decades now, and Proton has launched
Henry> Mars landers -- in fact, it launched the *first* Mars landers (Mars 2
and
Henry> 3), as well as the latest (the ExoMars orbiter carrying the Schiaparelli
Henry> lander). It was also a candidate to launch Pluto Fast Flyby, which
later
Henry> morphed into New Horizons.
Henry> (And speaking of Falcon Heavy missions, Proton also launched the first
Henry> designed-to-be-manned spacecraft to fly around the Moon... although in
the
Henry> end, Zond never flew manned because Apollo 8 got there first.)
Henry> An increment up in payload mass and down in cost, yes, but *not* a
Henry> radically new development.
But wouldn't this be considered a radical change because from a US
perspective, you now have much much much less ITAR headaches than if
you tried to launch on a Proton. Along with a possible lessening of
integration issues, though as we saw the recent SpaceX launch of Zuma,
you can still screw that up even if you're a dino-space builder.
Gah! I'm not making my point well here. I suspect that integrating a
US built sat, designed in English and EST to PST timezones, is easier
when working with a launcher provider who is also based +- a few
timezones from you. It's hard enough working with people in the same
building, but now put them 12+ hours out and in a totally different
language...
Maybe I'm over-estimating the difficulties.
Also, you aren't dealing with ULA and their NASA-centric procedures
when dealing with SpaceX. At least I hope not. And don't they quote
NASA and US Security launchers as costing more because of all the
paperwork they need to do?
And to change subjects again, when is Elon going to show off his
tanking a stage in orbit from a second stage... Really Big Friggin
Rocket. Heh.
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