SpaceX Launch Aborted at the Last Second
by chriser on May.20, 2012, under General
In my previous post I mentioned that the leading contender for the NASA commercial crew vehicle development was a company called SpaceX. This company was started by a fellow named Elon Musk who was one of the co-founders of PayPal. He of course sold PayPal, became a billionaire, and then decided to start this company called SpaceX (more on Elon and his other comapies below)
SpaceX has been developing a rocket called “Falcon” along with a capsule they call “Dragon”. They hope ultimately to make Dragon a man-capable vehicle, but currently NASA is paying them $1.6 Billion to build Dragon and use it to carry cargo to the International Space Station (since the space shuttle has officially been retired). They’ve successfully orbited the Dragon once and recoverd it in the ocean. Yesterday they attempted their second launch, but just before engine ignition (at T minus 0.5 seconds), the engines shut down because a pressure sensor picked up high pressure in one of the 9 first stage engines (see space.com for more details). Apparently they think it was due to a faulty valve and are going to try again on Tuesday.
SpaceX Falcon 9 Aborts Launch
I have sort of mixed feelings about SpaceX. I don’t really like Elon Musk. He supported Obama in 2008 and was also an Obama contributor (of course, that had nothing to do with the NASA contract!!). One of his other companies is called Tesla and they build very expensive, high-end electic cars for rich people who want to feel good about themselves (with the help of a $450 million government-guaranteed loan). I don’t care if anyone wants to build, buy, or drive electric cars, but why should the government be paying for it? Also, it is pretty well known in the industry that SpaceX is an extremely arrogant company and that the people who work there think they know everything about how to build rockets and that those of us who have been working in the business for 20-30 yeasrs don’ t know anything. Some days I almost wish their rocket would blow up on the pad just to see what they would say!
On the other hand, I do believe that the only way for space travel to ever become common and cheap is for people to find a way to make money doing it (other than selling their services to a government), so I really do want someone to be successful at it (perferable someone other than SpaceX, but if they can do it, then good on ‘em).
What I want is ultimately pretty irrelevant, so whatever happens, will happen. We’ll just have to see if they make it to the space station on Tuesday.
Give me “Liberty” or . . . at least keep me employed!
by chriser on May.13, 2012, under General
Here’s a graphic of the “commercial” launch vehicle which I have worked on recently and which is being proposed by ATK corporation to be used to launch both manned and unmanned payloads. ATK is the company that made the space shuttle solid boosters and was going to be building the first stage of the Ares I rocket before it was cancelled by Obama last year.
This vehicle is called “Liberty” and although it looks a lot like the Ares I, it has a different upper stage. The first stage is the same as the Ares booster, but the upper stage is the same as the one used on the Eurpoean Ariane V rocket (built by Astrium). You can see more pictures and get a more detailed description of Liberty at space.com.
I worked on calculating some of the forces that act on the vehcile during the liftoff and during the ascent using a mathematical model (called a finite element model for those who are actually interested in this). My main focus was getting this math model working and n a form that others could use to calculate the motion and vibrations of the rocket as a function of time. (More technical trivia – all of these calculations are done on a PC by the way, using a program called NASTRAN and another one called MATLAB. I also used a CAD program called FEMAP).
I really don’t believe this vehicle has much chance of ever actually being built because ATK is probably only going to build it if they win something called the Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) contract from NASA (which begs the question of how you can really call this or any other rocket with government funding a “commercial” vehicle). I don’t think ATK is very much in favor with the Obama cronies at NASA because they were an integral part of the Ares program (which was hated by the Obamaites becaus it originated under President Bush) and because they are located in a very Red state (Utah). However, one never knows with this sort of thing. Hopefully next year we will have a new NASA administartion with a kindler, gentler view of places like Utah and comapnies that employ large numbers of Mormons. That may be too late though, because the next round of the CCDev is supposed to be awarded in August. In any event, it was a lot of fun working on this thing and I hope I get to do more of the same in the near future.
Spruce Goose or Golden Goose?
by chriser on Dec.18, 2011, under General
What would YOU do if you had a few billion dollars burning a hole in your pocket? Well, if you were Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, you would pay people to build the biggest airplane in the world to launch a rocket. In case you live anywhere other than Huntsville, Alabama, or Mojave, California, you probably didn’t hear about the big news conference the other day where Mr. Allen, Mr. Burt Rutan (both of “Spaceship One” fame), and a gaggle of others announced the latest and greatest idea since flying toast. It’s an air-launched rocket that will be slung between two 747-size fuselages having a combined wingspan of 380 ft. that will be built by Scaled Composites Corp (which is actually ownedby Northrop-Grumman Corp). The rocket is being designed to carry a payload of around 13,500 lbs to low earth orbit (comparable to the currentl Delta II launch vehicle) and will be built by a company called SpaceX that was founded by another internet billionaire and Paypal co-founder Elon Musk. (BTW, I think there’s a lesson to be learned here. First, you make a billion dollars in the IT business, and THEN you dabble in aerospace – not the other way around like some of us stupid schmucks did).
- The Stratolaunch “Spruce Goose”
The company I work for is doing some work on this vehicle for Dynetics Corp, the project system integrator. As an engineer, I think it is a cool technical idea and I have little doubt that it can be made to work if the “investor” keeps the money flowing. As to whether it can actually make a profit – I’m not so sure. But hey, I’ve lost money on every investment I ever made and am still living paycheck-topaycheck, so what do I know.
Merry Christmas from Seoul!
by chriser on Dec.10, 2011, under Family & Friends
A Seoul Christmas
A Merry Christmas to all from Sunny & Kaitlyn!
Pack Dog!
by chriser on Oct.29, 2011, under Family & Friends
It’s a beautiful autumn day so Clancy and I decided to go for a hike up Keel Mt. to see the sinkhole. I decided that it was time for Clancy to start carrying her share of the load, so as you can see, she turned out to be a pretty good pack dog! The Autumn leaves are not quite yet at their peak around here, but there was still a lot of color on the mountain. And yes, I was VERY careful while climbing down the rocks on the trail!
Pack Dog!
Autumn on the Moutntain
