[ExI] Eyes on the Solar System

[spike at rainier66.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: spike at rainier66.com <spike at rainier66.com> 
Sent: Sunday, 4 September, 2022 4:48 PM
To: 'ExI chat list' <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Cc: spike at rainier66.com
Subject: RE: [ExI] Eyes on the Solar System



-----Original Message-----
From: spike at rainier66.com <spike at rainier66.com> ...

>...On second thought, Stuart, scratch that.  The irony of using a 
>hydrogen first stage to lift a kerosene final stage, oh that is killing
me... spike



Oldie but a goodie.  The fun stuff starts about at 7 minutes in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf4qRY3h_eo&t=441s

A lot of us watched the hell outta this video and it changed a lot of
attitudes (sure did mine.)  At that time, I was still thinking we weren't
quite there yet on feet-first landing, and still cheering for an updated
variant of LockMart's Titan IV.  But after I saw the successful triple
landing in April 2019, I was convinced: ja, Elon's whooped our ass, fair and
square, if ya can't beat em, join em, etc.

The SpaceX Falcon Heavy is a kerosene burner.  Stuart what I don't know but
want to find out: is it practical to feet-first land a hydrogen booster?  I
can imagine it would be a loooot more difficult and dangerous, but I don't
know that it would be impossible.  The fire risk would be thru the roof:
hydrogen will find any tiny crack or weld flaw anywhere, and if it leaks,
the fire cannot be put out by any means I can easily envision: you wouldn't
send firemen running up to it with a hose.

spike