Ben

Occupy Mars.

[Ben @Ben__Knee]

@M7_Reaper @astro_alexandra And a stronger heat shield. Kinda like what SpaceX is doing with their Starship. You can pretty easily just give your heat shield more material to increase its peak heating acceptance but it’s just gonna cost mass which is why engineers seek to minimize them for LEO missions

[Ben @Ben__Knee]

@M7_Reaper @astro_alexandra A skip re-entry profile where the module dipped a bit into the reentry burn and back out to reduce speed while limiting duration and intensity of heating (what NASA is now considering doing for Artemis missions given some heat shield weakness on Orion). And…

[Ben @Ben__Knee]

@rystiya @wasatch_wind @sovereignofkent @fredzannarbor They also mention that the whole thing would be a relatively untested and dangerous maneuver which could fail and cause the station to uncontrollably reenter.

[Ben @Ben__Knee]

@rystiya @wasatch_wind @sovereignofkent @fredzannarbor Furthermore, NASA’s already looked into moving it to a parking orbit and beyond the above they’ve mentioned that the truss is old and could just break off during the boost to a stabler orbit which would uncontrollably reenter and be dangerous.

[Ben @Ben__Knee]

@Erdayastronaut How do you feel about US mass to orbit without SpaceX looking to be lower than even Roscosmos?

[Ben @Ben__Knee]

@stonedapex420x @SenBillNelson @NASA Believe the phrasing was that “there is no evidence that they are alien.” Which means there’s no reason to believe they’re aliens but we don’t know for sure ofc.

[Ben @Ben__Knee]

@UptightWither @FccSpace They needed to get re-licensed given they had an unexpected event occur (it explode).

[Ben @Ben__Knee]

@zac5114 @NASAArtemis @NASA @blueorigin @NASA_Gateway They redesigned their lander (and I presume management, team, etc) to address the criticisms, reduced the price, and had senators tell and give NASA money to select a second redundant lander.

[Ben @Ben__Knee]

@AlexKane_420 @NASA @blueorigin It’s a lunar lander not a launch vehicle so getting to orbit isn’t what it’s doing (other than getting to lunar orbit from the surface, I suppose which is very different)

[Ben @Ben__Knee]

@dogehippie @SciGuySpace The lander doesn’t have to get to the moon. Only land on it and get back up to lunar orbit.

[Ben @Ben__Knee]

@intrepidpursuit @Erdayastronaut @blueorigin Orbital rockets are vastly different/more complicated than a lander.

[Ben @Ben__Knee]

@julian_koos @ztirffritz @blueorigin @NASA Think they’re currently planning to fly it on New Glenn from what I’ve seen. But I think the lander is light enough where it’d fit on a Vulcan.

[Ben @Ben__Knee]

@Siga_OBoneco2 @elonmusk Second stage* not booster

[Ben @Ben__Knee]

@Siga_OBoneco2 @elonmusk Likely a bit of ice from the booster. Or some other debris from it.

[Ben @Ben__Knee]

@89067321a @SpaceX This specific static fire added a minuscule amount of pollutants. The infrequency of rocket launches also means the pollution in general from rockets is minimal. On top of that tho, this rocket uses cleaner fuel than other kinds of rockets.

[Ben @Ben__Knee]

@IrateMaxwell @borgposting I don’t really think “the private sector’s way” is the removal of NASA/old-space. Over zealous fans of SpaceX, maybe. But I think the private sector knows and appreciates the importance of NASA and even old-space for the most part.

[Ben @Ben__Knee]

@salsadrunkard @borgposting You mean humanity in general has been set back or space exploration? Cuz privatization has allowed for some incredible leaps in space exploration thus far with NASA fully embracing and eager for it.

[Ben @Ben__Knee]

@SocialistMormon @borgposting And while we don’t often get to the specific topic of safety culture/risk of accidents, all NASA peps I’ve worked with conveyed respect and been impressed by SpaceX (good words and approval of space commercialization in general as well)

[Ben @Ben__Knee]

@SocialistMormon @borgposting …NASA wouldn’t approve of, and C) their frequency of launches gives them experience and the ability to prove out systems traditional vehicles (like SLS) may struggle to test prior to human flights.