SpaceX just made history.

[helosailor]

Have you submitted your plans to Elon Musk yet?

I mean, it's not rocket sci...oh, wait.

[juiceweezl]

He's already been to mars





Twice.

Just with 10K and a fox body...

[svauto-erotic855]

Have you submitted your plans to Elon Musk yet?

Until he pays the judgment I have against him I would not piss on him to put out a fire.

We see how well that worked for firefly space systems....

Firefly had money problems, not design problems.

I do not know what it takes to refurb SpaceX's existing design for a new launch but my goal would be to make the 1st stage below the refurb cost. Like I said before, the single most expensive part on the entire thing is the fuel pump.

Musk & Co are not exactly idiots and they may have looked into what I am suggesting years ago and rejected the idea.

[mschmoyer]

Musk & Co are not exactly idiots and they may have looked into what I am suggesting years ago and rejected the idea.

Are you saying the fuel pump has to be refurbished every time? He did talk about a 24-hr turn-around time which I would assume means he wants to make everything last through a launch eventually.

[Ruffdaddy]

Until he pays the judgment I have against him I would not piss on him to put out a fire.



Firefly had money problems, not design problems.

I do not know what it takes to refurb SpaceX's existing design for a new launch but my goal would be to make the 1st stage below the refurb cost. Like I said before, the single most expensive part on the entire thing is the fuel pump.

Musk & Co are not exactly idiots and they may have looked into what I am suggesting years ago and rejected the idea.

They had money problems because no one would invest in them. Even the original investors pulled out That's a strong indication that the entire industry knows they were not the right path forward.

Do you seriously think you know better than the entire industry? Of course you do...because you are skilled enough to repeat the same dumb shit you hear from the random source of the day.

[jw33]

I will bite, what is this judgement against Elon about?

[svauto-erotic855]

I will bite, what is this judgement against Elon about?

Pay Pal took my money so I filed in small claims court to recover it and had their agent in TX served with papers. They did not show up in court so I won. I then filed against them in county court and they did not show up again so I won again and they did not respond to the judgement and did not try to appeal it. Pay Pal only had 9 employees then and all of them were listed in the filings.

[svauto-erotic855]

Are you saying the fuel pump has to be refurbished every time?

I am not saying that at all. I am saying that the fuel pump is the most expensive part on the entire rocket and I would simply get rid of it. The system that back fills the fuel tank also cost a ton and can be done away with. The nozzle of the engine get heavy deposits from combustion that have to be removed and the hole the fuel passes through gets eroded. The nozzle also is put under extremely high pressure and temps and at time has to be replaced. The pressure in the open nozzle hits as high as 15,000psi and there is a delicate balance between enough strength while keeping the weight low. The surface area for the pressure to act on is huge.

[YALE]

I am not saying that at all. I am saying that the fuel pump is the most expensive part on the entire rocket and I would simply get rid of it. The system that back fills the fuel tank also cost a ton and can be done away with. The nozzle of the engine get heavy deposits from combustion that have to be removed and the hole the fuel passes through gets eroded. The nozzle also is put under extremely high pressure and temps and at time has to be replaced. The pressure in the open nozzle hits as high as 15,000psi and there is a delicate balance between enough strength while keeping the weight low. The surface area for the pressure to act on is huge.

You know all those Highland Park mucky mucks. Get investors and fire up a competitor.

[mschmoyer]

I am not saying that at all. I am saying that the fuel pump is the most expensive part on the entire rocket and I would simply get rid of it. The system that back fills the fuel tank also cost a ton and can be done away with. The nozzle of the engine get heavy deposits from combustion that have to be removed and the hole the fuel passes through gets eroded. The nozzle also is put under extremely high pressure and temps and at time has to be replaced. The pressure in the open nozzle hits as high as 15,000psi and there is a delicate balance between enough strength while keeping the weight low. The surface area for the pressure to act on is huge.

Super interesting post! Not questioning your idea, just genuinely curious how a rocket engine works, and I know very little.

How can you remove a fuel pump? Don't you need something to pump the fuel? Gravity only works when the engine is burning right? Helium keeps fuel pressurized, but not enough to pump a giant rocket engine is it?

[svauto-erotic855]

You know all those Highland Park mucky mucks. Get investors and fire up a competitor.

You do not understand the game being played. Mr Musk is a carnival barker who keeps up the hype to keep the money flowing so he can keep the project going. This is being done to fulfill his dreams and not for profit. The people putting money into the deal expect a profit but it is unlikely there will ever be one. Look at Tesla if you want an example of what I am saying. People are convinced that company is worth just a touch over 61 billion when their total annual revenue is not even 10% of that, they have never made a profit, they do not pay a dividend, and every asset the company owns totals up to about 1/3rd of that. The other 2/3rds (or 40 billion dollars) in value comes simply from Mr Musk selling the hype and as Flavor Flav wisely said "Don't believe the hype".

[svauto-erotic855]

They had money problems because no one would invest in them. Even the original investors pulled out That's a strong indication that the entire industry knows they were not the right path forward.

Do you seriously think you know better than the entire industry? Of course you do...because you are skilled enough to repeat the same dumb shit you hear from the random source of the day.

From an engineering stand point they were doing fine. What they could not compete with is the cult of personality that is Mr Musk. Just ask yourself how much actual profit SpaceX has generated and if they even have a working plan to generate a profit anytime in the future. Most of the gains in anything Musk has touched since they sold PayPal has simply been from promoting the hell out of it and not from actually selling a product or service. He is a brilliant visionary and hype man and that is about it.

[Sgt Beavis]

Another launch is scheduled for Sunday. That'll be three flights in 10 days. I think it will also break the record for the most launches in a year by any company.

[mschmoyer]

From an engineering stand point they were doing fine. What they could not compete with is the cult of personality that is Mr Musk. Just ask yourself how much actual profit SpaceX has generated and if they even have a working plan to generate a profit anytime in the future. Most of the gains in anything Musk has touched since they sold PayPal has simply been from promoting the hell out of it and not from actually selling a product or service. He is a brilliant visionary and hype man and that is about it.

Why are people so happy with their Teslas? Customer satisfaction is through the roof.

Everyone who gets satellites launched by SpaceX seems to be happy (except Facebook) as well. He's launching quickly, and re-launching rockets. Only a matter of time before it becomes economical.

He's also well versed in rocket science, something he did not study originally.

I would call that more than a "hype man".

[svauto-erotic855]

Why are people so happy with their Teslas? Customer satisfaction is through the roof.

Everyone who gets satellites launched by SpaceX seems to be happy (except Facebook) as well. He's launching quickly, and re-launching rockets. Only a matter of time before it becomes economical.

He's also well versed in rocket science, something he did not study originally.

I would call that more than a "hype man".

I never said that people who buy a Tesla are not happy with them. People who buy a Prius are also very happy with them; so much so that there is a South Park episode about it.

I never said that people who are dealing with SpaceX are not happy. I said that the purpose of both companies is to fund Mr Musk ride to Mars; profit is not a factor and it is very unlikely there ever will be one unless it just come from selling the companies stock and that will only net a profit for the seller of the stock.

I call him a hype man because he is selling a dream and is very, very good at doing so. Tesla has never made a profit and is so far away from doing so it is like it is orbiting a far away star. The exact same thing can be said of SpaceX. There is no there there, at the end of the day there is only the dreams of Mr Musk and dreams are the most powerful ideas of all.

Rocket science is not that hard to understand if you have an engineering back ground like I do but I will be the first to admit that the devil is in the details. There is truly nothing new that SpaceX is doing except for trying to reuse a booster. Their designs are a tried and true type that any engineer from NASA in the late 60s would instantly recognize and could work on. Unfortunately those tried and true designs were designed by an engineering team working in a program where cost did not matter and are more complex than they need to be and are very expensive. Why do you think a fuel tank with a combustion chamber and a nozzle on the end of it (aka a rocket) cost 60,000,000 dollars?