OK, a more fair comparison. During the joint Senate-NASA presentation in September 2011, it was stated that the SLS program has a projected development cost of $18 billion through 2017, with $10 billion for the SLS rocket, $6 billion for the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and $2 billion for upgrades to the launch pad and other facilities at Kennedy Space Center.
Do we really know what the true costs of the SLS program are?
OK, a more fair comparison. During the joint Senate-NASA presentation in September 2011, it was stated that the SLS program has a projected development cost of $18 billion through 2017, with $10 billion for the SLS rocket, $6 billion for the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and $2 billion for upgrades to the launch pad and other facilities at Kennedy Space Center.
Do we really know what the true costs of the SLS program are?
Correction, there was a small problem with the burn.
https://www.inverse.com/article/41032-elon-musk-tesla-roadster-miss-mars-deep-space
Tuesday’s test mission of the Falcon Heavy proved that the SpaceX rocket is in fact the world’s most powerful operational booster. But it might have even been a little too powerful for its precious payload.
The launch was supposed to send Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster into orbit around the sun, where it would fly by Mars and Earth over and over again. But late on Tuesday night, Musk tweeted an image depicting the current trajectory of his vehicle, and it’s not going according to plan.
“Third burn successful,” wrote Musk. “Exceeded Mars orbit and kept going to the Asteroid Belt.”
Trajectory of Musk's Roadster.
Would of? LOLYea I mentioned that in an earlier post. You would need a control system and thrusters to keep the space craft oriented to the sun. I was hoping someone would of asked him about that last night at the press conference.
One thing I did learn from the press conference is that it was his investment alone in the falcon heavy, costing him around $500 million to develop.
Elon Musk runs an electric car company, puts an electric car into space, and the batteries running the cameras and radio die after just a few hours?
From Elons twitter
"Our final view of Star Man before the S2 batteries ran dry last night."
They said that they actually overshot the orbit for Mars, and that the car will likely end up in the Asteroid Belt. Oops.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/6/1...y-roadster-orbit-asteroid-belt-elon-musk-mars
As the article mentioned, SpaceX was more interested in “showing off” a maneuver to the Air Force than an exact Mars orbit. (Plus, there are companies interested in mining on the asteroid belt, so suggesting that distance capability is good for business, too.)Let's hope when the Mars mission comes, they'll do better orbital trajectory calculation. Altho missing an exit and ending up taking a leisure cruise in a Tesla convertible isn't such a bad thing.
This is the part that interests me. Without actually trying for it, they squeezed out the delta-v required to push to the belt, that's huge for prospects for commercial mining (or at least scouting missions) should anyone be willing to put up the scratch to cover it.As the article mentioned, SpaceX was more interested in “showing off” a maneuver to the Air Force than an exact Mars orbit. (Plus, there are companies interested in mining on the asteroid belt, so suggesting that distance capability is good for business, too.)
Let's hope when the Mars mission comes, they'll do better orbital trajectory calculation.
This is the part that interests me. Without actually trying for it, they squeezed out the delta-v required to push to the belt, that's huge for prospects for commercial mining (or at least scouting missions) should anyone be willing to put up the scratch to cover it.
It would have been pretty sarcastic to send a Tesla Model 3 right?