Elon Musk, SpaceX and PayPal

If NASA faked the moon landings, does the agency have any credibility at all? Was the Space Shuttle program also a hoax? Is the International Space Station another one? Do not dismiss these hypotheses offhand. Check out our wider NASA research and make up your own mind about it all.
fbenario
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Re: Elon Musk, SpaceX and PayPal

Unread post by fbenario »

nonhocapito wrote:Fbenario: I can see how in general a startup company gets people to invest in it. I just have a hard time placing the model in such a context, where you create from nothing a company that in 10 years becomes a key contractor for NASA. One so crucial that with a faulty spacecraft could endanger the lives of its actornauts.
How could SpaceX work, make research, make tests and make profit during those years until it landed this very lucrative contract? And at the same time making enough experience to pull this off without a glitch?
But Nonho, we don't need to understand it!

Assuming it was set-up from the beginning as a front for CIA and/or NASA, it would have - by definition - been funneled enough cash to survive until going public. And then continue to be funneled sufficient money to survive until TPTB decide it no longer serves their purposes. The only investors who 'win' are those already 'connected', like the big banks. No individual's wealth matters to them in the slightest.
Heiwa
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Re: Elon Musk, SpaceX and PayPal

Unread post by Heiwa »

Easiest way to find out what SpaceX is up to is evidently to contact Mr. BARRY MATSUMORI - VICE PRESIDENT OF COMMERCIAL SALES AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT! :)
http://www.spacex.com/company.php

"Mr. Matsumori brings more than 25 years of experience in technology and business, and he is currently responsible for all commercial sales and business development at SpaceX. Prior to SpaceX, Barry worked for several key telecom companies, primarily at Qualcomm, in developing mobile communications technologies and products lines. His most recent role at Qualcomm was as Vice President, Wireless Connectivity. In this capacity his responsibilities included product management, marketing, and technical development of mobile telecom module products. Barry has also worked on the development of satellite communication infrastructure and terminals at Qualcomm.
Barry has experience working with early stage technology companies in executive management roles. This included developing new product lines based on leading-edge technologies or maturing operational processes leading to an IPO. He has worked in the satellite communications market at Space Systems Loral. Further, he has worked on the development and support of space launch vehicles at General Dynamics. Barry holds a Bachelor of Science in business from Arizona State University and a Master of Science in electrical engineering from the University
of Arizona."

It seems Barry is the right person to contact! :rolleyes:

It seems a Falcon9 SpaceX rocket just had problems - http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... 790472.cms :P
simonshack
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Re: Elon Musk, SpaceX and PayPal

Unread post by simonshack »

Heiwa wrote:cket just had problems - http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... 790472.cms :P
Let us all start calling a spade a spade. This is just a big bluff. No outer space travel is possible - and the people behind this long-lasting money-making hoax keep reaping profits from this idiotic and ongoing scam :
"Orbcomm declared the satellite a total loss and filed a claim under an insurance policy worth up to $10 million, "which would largely offset the expected cost of the OG2 prototype and associated launch services and launch insurance," the company said in a statement."
(...)
"With its remaining eight engines making up the lost power, the rocket successfully completed its primary mission, sending a Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station. The flight was the first of 12 for NASA under a $1.6 billion contract."
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... 790472.cms
Does anyone really, REALLY believe in any of this shit? :huh:
Heiwa
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Re: Elon Musk, SpaceX and PayPal

Unread post by Heiwa »

Here is a description ( :lol: ) how SpaceX rocket Falcon 9 gets the Dragon into orbit: Note that the poor rocket is under maximum stress (loads applied on it are maximum) 80 seconds after liftoff. Then it is easy and smooth travel up. :P

http://www.spacex.com/downloads/spacex- ... esskit.pdf
Flight

At one minute, 10 seconds after liftoff, Falcon 9 reaches supersonic speed. The vehicle will pass through the area of maximum aerodynamic pressure—max Q—10 seconds later. This is the point when mechanical stress on the rocket peaks due to a combination of the rocket’s velocity and resistance created by the Earth’s atmosphere.

Around two and a half minutes into the flight, two of the first-stage engines will shut down to reduce the rocket’s acceleration. (Its mass, of course, has been continually dropping as its propellants are being used up.) At this point, Falcon 9 is 90 kilometers (56 miles) high, traveling at 10 times the speed of sound. The remaining engines will cut off shortly after—an event known as main-engine cutoff, or MECO. Five seconds after MECO, the first and second stages will separate. Seven seconds later, the second stage’s single Merlin vacuum engine ignites to begin a six-minute, 14-second burn that brings Dragon into low-Earth orbit.

Forty seconds after second-stage ignition, Dragon’s protective nose cone, which covers Dragon’s berthing mechanism, will be jettisoned. At the nine minute, 14 second mark after launch, the second-stage engine cuts off (SECO). Thirty-five seconds later, Dragon separates from Falcon 9’s second stage and seconds later, Dragon will reach its preliminary orbit.

It then deploys its solar arrays, and begins a carefully choreographed series of Draco thruster firings to reach the space station.

So after 70 seconds the speed is 340 m/s and after 150 seconds it is 3 400 m/s, but the altitude is only 90 000 m, so the average speed has been 600 m/s ... and it seems the figures do not make sense! :D

It would appear that the second stage is orbiting Earth not far from the Dragon. And it will remain there! In low-Earth orbit.

Dragon will, however, soon return to Earth and drop into the Pacific ocean 450 km off southern California. :D

At what point during the descent will the Dragon be under peak mechanical stress? That's the question! :rolleyes:
Last edited by Heiwa on Sun Oct 14, 2012 1:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
lux
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Re: Elon Musk, SpaceX and PayPal

Unread post by lux »

At this point, Falcon 9 is 90 kilometers (56 miles) high, traveling at 10 times the speed of sound.
So there should be a sonic boom, right?

For that matter there should be sonic booms with all rocket launches that leave the atmosphere, right?
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Re: Elon Musk, SpaceX and PayPal

Unread post by fbenario »

lux wrote:
At this point, Falcon 9 is 90 kilometers (56 miles) high, traveling at 10 times the speed of sound.
So there should be a sonic boom, right?

For that matter there should be sonic booms with all rocket launches that leave the atmosphere, right?
Does the bolded question thus necessarily imply that none of these types of booms have ever occurred? Won't bother me none to find that out!
lux
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Re: Elon Musk, SpaceX and PayPal

Unread post by lux »

^ I don't know. It just occurred to me that I've never heard of booms occurring in connection with launches or seen any mention of booms. If these rockets are supposedly going into orbit or beyond and if that means they must attain supersonic speeds then it follows that there should be a boom following the launch.

I'm just looking at this from the standpoint of finding things that can be pointed out as evidence of fakery to an interested person. It also gives the NASA huggers something else to invent BS explanations for. :)
lux
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Re: Elon Musk, SpaceX and PayPal

Unread post by lux »

Elon Musk, the billionaire founder and CEO of the private spaceflight company SpaceX, wants to help establish a Mars colony of up to 80,000 people by ferrying explorers to the Red Planet for perhaps $500,000 a trip.
More here.
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Re: Elon Musk, SpaceX and PayPal

Unread post by simonshack »

lux wrote:
Elon Musk, the billionaire founder and CEO of the private spaceflight company SpaceX, wants to help establish a Mars colony of up to 80,000 people by ferrying explorers to the Red Planet for perhaps $500,000 a trip.
More here.
Yes - and you may win a free trip if you can debunk the Sept Clues! : http://cluesforum.info/viewtopic.php?f= ... 3#p2042483

What are y'all waiting for? :lol:

(I should probably get in touch with Mr. Lone Skum and strike some sort of deal with him - in case anyone strikes the jackpot... But hey, there hasn't been a single player so far!)
lux
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Re: Elon Musk, SpaceX and PayPal

Unread post by lux »

This SpaceX "Grasshopper" test is dated Dec 17th:

full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4PEXLODw9c

Details are here.

Something about this doesn't look right to me. I guess it's the way the exhaust flames are blown to one side by the wind. I don't think I've ever seen that on a rocket launch before. It makes it look like the rocket is actually suspended (as by a crane) rather than being supported by the rocket thrust. Any comments?
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Re: Elon Musk, SpaceX and PayPal

Unread post by hoi.polloi »

This looks TERRIBLE!

This looks like a hair above the worst special effects from a 1960's television science fiction show. I can't believe they would disgrace their company so boldly by claiming this is a rocket test. How is it stabilized? What is preventing the rocket from toppling over and ramming into the ground - even while wind is blowing the flames every which way? It's atrocious - an embarrassment to human intelligence.
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Re: Elon Musk, SpaceX and PayPal

Unread post by CitronBleu »

hoi.polloi wrote:It's atrocious - an embarrassment to human intelligence.
More than an embarrassment, it is an insult.
mayor
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Re: Elon Musk, SpaceX and PayPal

Unread post by mayor »

similar effect at work here?


full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAL-Czl56Mw

:lol:

you raise a very good point, hoi. where is all of the foamy outrage from experts? how is it that this and other impossible stunts, time and time again, escape critique?
lux
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Re: Elon Musk, SpaceX and PayPal

Unread post by lux »

If you look closely at the "landing" at 0:33 --> 0:40 it appears that that sequence is a reverse motion of a takeoff. The exhaust smoke appears to be going back into the rocket instead of out of the rocket.

Image

The exhaust flame also gets smaller as the rocket descends which looks very odd.

It looks like they just reversed the take-off footage to represent a landing.
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Re: Elon Musk, SpaceX and PayPal

Unread post by nonhocapito »

This kind of test supposedly demonstrates precisely what raises our eyebrows, the ability to "stabilize" a rocket. So on one hand we obviously have reason to laugh at the whole thing, but on the other this is exactly the way by which people will be convinced that SpaceX is relevant and was a good choice, because it is going to magically solve all these unsolvable problems, saving money in the process. And we will accept the idea because SpaceX is "cool", "young", "green", whatever.

As if the stabilization of a rocket was something NASA could not have pretended to solve itself; as if having a rocket that lands back on its feet wouldn't cause a much bigger waste of fuel compared to one that falls down (and it would have to carry up the added weight of the fuel necessary to land back, so this is complete nonsense); as if anyone is really going to be there to count the amount of money spared by this or that enterprise: of course it is always going to be more money. Always more. SpaceX is just the shill selling us old tricks as new ideas.
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