Space X Interplanetary Transport System

[Archibald]

That picture is awesome. While the propellant tanks and engines are fixed mass and volume, I wonder how much the forward BFS part (the nose) could be modified.
For example, the manned variant has a Boeing Stratoliner - like cockpit and passenger cabins. But the one showed in the picture has an Airbus Beluga -like cargo door.
When ones look at all those bizarre 707s and C-135 offsprings, some with very big noses, it is tempting to try and imagine plenty of crazy variants of the BFS.
To think a 747 ended as a fire bomber...

 

[Michel Van]

That picture is awesome. While the propellant tanks and engines are fixed mass and volume, I wonder how much the forward BFS part (the nose) could be modified.
For example, the manned variant has a Boeing Stratoliner - like cockpit and passenger cabins. But the one showed in the picture has an Airbus Beluga -like cargo door.
When ones look at all those bizarre 707s and C-135 offsprings, some with very big noses, it is tempting to try and imagine plenty of crazy variants of the BFS.
To think a 747 ended as a fire bomber...

That Picture was part of the presentation by Elon Musk about updated version of BFR last year
Means SpaceX will building this cargo version
What would be cool if BFR could bring Hubble space Telescope back home in one piece, for a museum.

 

[Archibald]

I just agree with that. Hubble seating in the NASM would be one hell of a sight.

by the way, this picture reminds me of that James Bond early movie where the SMERSCH hijack space capsules and their astronauts to trigger a nuclear war between the two superpowers.

 

[Michel Van]

by the way, this picture reminds me of that James Bond early movie where the SMERSCH hijack space capsules and their astronauts to trigger a nuclear war between the two superpowers.

That's Elon Musk, a man who take himself not Serious,
but Serious transform our World Future...

...but he is not alone, there Jeff Bezos and Paul G. Allen
and the china business magnates who smell the blood of profit

Rocket Sommer is coming

 

[GeorgeA]

by the way, this picture reminds me of that James Bond early movie where the SMERSCH hijack space capsules and their astronauts to trigger a nuclear war between the two superpowers.

You Only Live Twice.

 

[Triton]

I just agree with that. Hubble seating in the NASM would be one hell of a sight.

by the way, this picture reminds me of that James Bond early movie where the SMERSCH hijack space capsules and their astronauts to trigger a nuclear war between the two superpowers.

Though Elon is more Hugo Drax than Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

 

[NeilChapman]

BFS, and perhaps BFR, may be built in Long Beach.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/03/spacex-indicates-it-will-manufacture-the-bfr-rocket-in-los-angeles/

https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/03/20/spacex-in-early-talks-to-build-a-manufacturing-facility-in-the-port-of-la/

 

[Michel Van]

This make sense

First
BFR is far to big for Road Transport, used for Falcon 9
It has to be transported over sea to the Texan Testing facility and from there to Launch Pads
So it needed to be constructed near a harbor.

Second
The SpaceX Hawthorne facility (Falcon 9 Production site ) is far to small for BFR production.

Financing the new billion dollar Production site will be easy
Investors to stand in line to trow there money into SpaceX (and Tesla) after Falcon Heavy maiden flight.
more on that Insanity here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHS0H5AwGjU

 

[Dragon029]

https://www.instagram.com/p/BhVk3y3A0yB/

SpaceX main body tool for the BFR interplanetary spaceship

 

[TomS]

Mayor of LA officially confirms what we already knew, that BFR is being built in Port of LA.

https://twitter.com/MayorOfLA/status/985931907970908161

I think this is a new graphic.

 

[Flyaway]

SpaceX closes in on lease for BFR spaceship manufacturing plant on Terminal Island

The future SpaceX deep-space rocket capable of flying missions to Mars will be built at the Port of Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Monday.

The BFR — which stands for Big Falcon Rocket — will be the largest rocket ever built, capable of carrying 150 tons and powered by 31 Raptor engines.

“This is a vehicle that holds the promise of taking humanity even deeper into the cosmos than ever before,” Garcetti said during his State of the City address at City Hall.

https://www.dailybreeze.com/2018/04/16/spacex-closes-in-on-lease-for-rocket-manufacturing-plant-on-terminal-island/

 

[Flyaway]

Next BFR update in about a month or so.

https://mobile.twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1017949588295159808

 

[Flyaway]

Warning this is s very long article but well worth reading.

The Evolution of the Big Falcon Rocket

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2018/08/evolution-big-falcon-rocket/

 

[eugenevintage09]

Looking at the design of the interplanetary vehicle on its own I guess Mr Musk must have been a Dan Dare fan when younger.

With suitable fuel depot it is designed to reach Jupiter & Saturn.

Hmm.. Interesting.

 

[publiusr]

If a space only Starship uses nuclear power—maybe the radiators can at least look like fins.

No ugly tiles.

The Orbit Jet may live again.

Papers of interest
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S009457652500236Xhttps://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/1.A35945https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/1.A35925https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/1.A36165
Lunar matters
https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/1.A36062
On slosh
https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/1.A36062
Asteroids
https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/1.A36051
TPS
https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/1.A35955https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/1.A36290https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/1.A35905

 

[Luneo]

Hm, the naive hype of this thread sure did age well!!!
Could anyone explain the point of the newly revealed 1000 starship built per year goal? Sounds useless for a supposedly rapidly reusable vehicle

 

[abheiden]

Hm, the naive hype of this thread sure did age well!!!
Could anyone explain the point of the newly revealed 1000 starship built per year goal? Sounds useless for a supposedly rapidly reusable vehicle

Because the fail rate would be terrible the first coming years.
From the 1000 per year maybe SOME are rapidly reusable.
And a few will make it to mars with robots not humans

 

[Luneo]

Because the fail rate would be terrible the first coming years.
From the 1000 per year maybe SOME are rapidly reusable.
And a few will make it to mars with robots not humans

No, I can assure you SpaceX's official plans are to build 1000 reusable starships per year, no modifications mentioned

Also that "will" is doing some pretty heavy lifting when Starship's future is becoming less and less clear by the day

 

[TheKutKu]

Hm, the naive hype of this thread sure did age well!!!
Could anyone explain the point of the newly revealed 1000 starship built per year goal? Sounds useless for a supposedly rapidly reusable vehicle

The point is mars colonization, which will require sending hundreds of thousands of tons of payloads (in fact likely 10x-100x more IMO, but these are the figures mentionned by Musk) to Mars every 2 years. This will require 1000+ starships (with 100-200t of payload each) going to mars every 26 months, and the starship that will be going to mars will, obviously, not be easily or rapidly reusable.

 

[Seragina]

Considering space crafts only last ~10 years on average (part aging/failures, micro-meteor strikes etc.) and a 2-year round trip each starship would do at most 5 roundtrips. To keep the supply chain going without delay this means 100 starships need to be replaced each year.

 

[Luneo]

The point is mars colonization, which will require sending hundreds of thousands of tons of payloads (in fact likely 10x-100x more IMO, but these are the figures mentionned by Musk) to Mars every 2 years. This will require 1000+ starships (with 100-200t of payload each) going to mars every 26 months, and the starship that will be going to mars will, obviously, not be easily or rapidly reusable.

That sounds extremely unrealistic
I dare not to imagine the required factories needed for such an abhorrent amount
Also Starship will very certainly not reach 100t+ to orbit without complete redesign, we're already seeing Musk's desperate attempts at reaching the advertised capacity by shedding more mass than reasonable and stretching Starship more and more (which will certainly mean a start over for reentry testing at some point)

 

[Seragina]

Well, just don't sent a lot of people or rather keep the population low. Naturally, this means longer colony development and expansion time. Higher risk of failures and death toll due to delivery delays or incidents. Eventually, might cost more but overall less risk to the total number of people. But I suppose Musk & co would want it to be finished during his lifetime.

 

[Byeman]

Also Starship will very certainly not reach 100t+ to orbit without complete redesign,

That is wrong