Falcon Heavy Launch 3pm EST

Nick Comstock said:

In reply to RX Reven' :

So there is a chance we can get footage of an asteriod slamming into the Tesla? I think I'd like to see that.

I want to know if they try to claim the comprehensive insurance. I would just for the hell of it.

jj said:

In reply to GameboyRMH :

Probably referring to things like this from Mr. Nye. 

Ah I can see why someone might think he's a political figure if that's all you've seen of him. I haven't seen his latest series.

minivan_racer said:

So looking at the rocket names I'm assuming (as others have) that Falcon is the PC version of another word.  Much in the same way the model 3 was to originally be the model E, making Tesla's lineup the model S, model E, and model X.

I'd heard the Falcon name was as in Millennium.

I could probably google this, but I'm lazy.  How does the Falcon heavy compare to a Saturn V?  I remember as a kid, those things were bloody huge.

I suppose the overall size/height would be similar, but the strap on boosters would certainly add a great deal of lift capacity.  Have rockets gotten more efficient?  MPG improvements since Apollo 16?

So, I got bored.  Turns out the Saturn V is still the big dog, and by a substantial quantity.

http://money.cnn.com/2018/02/06/technology/future/biggest-rockets-falcon-heavy-comparison/index.html

MadScientistMatt said:

Jerry From LA said:

Now that we have an orbiting Tesla, does anyone else wonder what's in the trunk?

How about Bertrand Russel's invisible teapot?

dculberson said:

No; I do not remember how dumb everyone thought Columbus was. At that point, most educated people believed the earth was round. "Educated" being a pretty low bar at that time. By the sixth century BC, Pythagoras was talking about the round (as in spherical) earth and Columbus was fully 2000 years later.

Not only that - in Columbus's time, geographers would have had a pretty good idea of the distance from Spain to China if you sailed west, and would have known the ship Columbus was using wouldn't have the range to make it. Cue conspiracy theories that Columbus knew he'd find something halfway along the trip.

Columbus probably had a map compiled from Zheng He's Chinese exploration fleets of 1421. 

Another view of the booster landings from a distance. Damn, they came down fast. Double sonic boom FTW. That is awesome.

Falcon Heavy: 27 motors

Saturn V: 5 motors

Russian N1: 30 motors

They used to display a stage one motor in the parking lot at the old Rocketdyne plant but I notice it's gone now.  Why we decided to cut up the tooling for that stuff is hard to fathom.  Those motors were huge.

In reply to Jerry From LA :

It was a safeguard against espionage so the missile tech didn't get out there. Unfortunately it's lead to having to borrow rockets from museums to reverse engineer technology from the 50's.

There's a certain elegance and romance to technology and engineering out of the late WWII and Moonshot era despite having better materials and more computational power available today.

So, then, back to the Saturn V comparison.  It has way more capacity on its five rockets, but it seems likely the multiple rockets on the Falcon would be far easier to control, particularly on the decent phase.

Right?

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

Basically yes but it also provides redundancy in the event there's a failure of one motor which is typically catastrophic for launches.

In reply to The0retical :

Makes sense.

That. Was. Awesome. The booster landing gave me chills. 

1999 Elon Musk: "I design websites."

2018 Elon Musk: "I design whatever the berk I want."