Paul Wooster, SpaceX Principal Mars Development Engineer talks at Mars Society Convention 2019
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Submitted October 20, 2019 at 10:00AM by Zyj
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Interview with local residents near Texas site. [Dutch]
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Submitted October 21, 2019 at 04:39PM by DutchDom92
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Elon Musk on Twitter: Sending this tweet through space via Starlink satellite
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1186523464712146944

Submitted October 22, 2019 at 08:04AM by OccupyMarsNow
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Julia Bergeron: "...both fairing recovery ships have nets! GO Ms. Chief and GO Ms. Tree are displaying their gear for all to see at the north dock this morning."
https://twitter.com/julia_bergeron/status/1186645227274211328

Submitted October 22, 2019 at 04:38PM by PhysicsBus
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SpaceX To Build Cities On Mars And Moon, Lead Engineer Confirms
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Submitted October 22, 2019 at 03:43PM by EdwardHeisler
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SpaceX plans to start offering Starlink broadband services in 2020
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Submitted October 22, 2019 at 10:52PM by jclishman
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Space X - Cameron County [Boca Chica road closures for "space flight activities]
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Submitted October 23, 2019 at 03:40PM by CProphet
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Trevor Mahlmann on Twitter: SpaceX’s Gwynne Shotwell speaking at IAC 2019 in Washington, DC
https://twitter.com/TrevorMahlmann/status/1186657117668691969

Submitted October 23, 2019 at 01:11AM by Caemyr
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New satellite pictures show growth of Boca Chica spaceport
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Submitted October 23, 2019 at 05:12PM by AndreasMen-
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US Air force tests Starlink project with encrypted internet on military planes
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Submitted October 23, 2019 at 08:53PM by DutchDom92
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SpaceX’s Crew Dragon set for important test campaign
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Submitted October 24, 2019 at 09:12PM by CProphet
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SpaceX on Twitter: "Test of Crew Dragon’s upgraded launch escape system ahead of static fire and in-flight abort tests – altogether we are conducting hundreds of tests to verify the system's advanced capabilities to carry astronauts to safety in the unlikely event of an emergency"
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1187489139291119616

Submitted October 25, 2019 at 12:01AM by ethan829
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<b>I created an Open Source REST API of SpaceX webcast telemetry (for past flights and in real time)</b>
Hey everyone,I created an Open Source REST API for telemetry from webcasts of rocket launches, called <strong>Launch Dashboard API</strong>. Despite the post's title said "SpaceX", the API contains telemetry from other launch providers as well (but that may have made the title too long).GitHub Repository: <a href="https://github.com/shahar603/Launch-Dashboard-API/">https://github.com/shahar603/Launch-Dashboard-API/Documentation: <a href="https://github.com/shahar603/Launch-Dashboard-API/wiki">https://github.com/shahar603/Launch-Dashboard-API/wikiThis is quite a long post, so I divided it into sections:The goals of Launch Dashboard APIGeneral informationFuture Work (Launch Dashboard Client)What can you do?PatreonThe goals of Launch Dashboard API1) Centralize all public rocket telemetry in one easy-to-use place2) Broadcast telemetry in real timeGeneral informationInformation about the API and the data it containsThe telemetry in the APIThe API contains 3 types of telemetry:Webcast telemetry - In the API is under the name <em>raw telemetry</em>, it is a frame by frame capture of the data displayed in the webcast. For example: SpaceX's webcasts contain time, velocity and altitude and stream at 30 FPS. Thus the raw SpaceX telemetry contains 30 data points per second. Each data point has time, velocity and altitude.Analysed telemetry - Webcast telemetry analysed by a <a href="https://github.com/shahar603/SpaceXtract/blob/master/src/Analysis/analyse_raw_telemetry.py">script I wrote. Analysed telemetry contains more fields like: acceleration, downrange distance, velocity components and more.Events - A list of events and the time they occurred at the launch.For more information see the <a href="https://github.com/shahar603/Launch-Dashboard-API/wiki">documentationWhat's the current state of the API?The API contains telemetry from every SpaceX launch since Orbcomm 2 (December 2015), the 3 latest RocketLab launches and 2 Arianespace launches (1 Vega and 1 Ariane 5).Raw and Analysed telemetry are being streamed every SpaceX and RocketLab launch in real time using websockets. For more information see the <a href="https://github.com/shahar603/Launch-Dashboard-API/wiki/Live-(Websockets">"/live" section in the docs)Have people used the API?Yes! <a href="https://www2.flightclub.io/">FlightClub.io overlays webcast telemetry over the simulated launches. The webcast telemetry has helped to build trajectories in FlightClub. For example <a href="https://www2.flightclub.io/result/2d?code=DEM1">this trajectory of the DM-1 launch. As this <a href="https://imgur.com/a/pbt4YWM">comparison photo shows, the analyzed telemetry used to create it is very accurate. (Original photo by <a href="https://twitter.com/Mimikry_">@Mimikry_)In addition, I've used the telemetry in posts like: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/af7bco/iridium_8_telemetry_comparison_between_block_4/">Iridium 8 Telemetry & Comparison between Block 4 and Block 5 ASDS Landing and <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/8iwrml/bangabandhu1_telemetry_comparison_between_block_5/">Bangabandhu-1 Telemetry & Comparison between Block 5 and previous blocksHow is the telemetry captured?I capture SpaceX and RocketLab telemetry using a Python module I wrote called: <a href="https://github.com/shahar603/SpaceXtract">SpaceXtract. You can use it to capture telemetry locally or use it to extract data from non rocket related sources. Analysed telmetry is produced from raw telemetry using <a href="https://github.com/shahar603/SpaceXtract/blob/master/src/Analysis/analyse_raw_telemetry.py">this script.<a href="/u/Hitura-Nobad">u/Hitura-Nobad has used <a href="https://github.com/Togusa09/VideoTelemetryParser">VideoTelemetryParser to capture Arianespace telemetry.If you want to contribute and supply telemetry to the API, it is more than welcome. See the [How To Contribute] section in…

@thesheetztweetz on Twitter: "Full house at the @MetOpera for SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell, speaking now with billionaire investor Ron Baron." -Tweetstorm-
https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1187741337455648768?s=20

Submitted October 25, 2019 at 06:15PM by hainzgrimmer
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SpaceX wants to land Starship on the Moon before 2022, then do cargo runs for 2024 human landing
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Submitted October 26, 2019 at 01:48AM by genericdude999
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SpaceX Shotwell calls out Blue Origin, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, OneWeb
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Submitted October 26, 2019 at 12:04PM by TheCoolBrit
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SpaceX launched X-37B space plane landed today after over 2 years in orbit
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Submitted October 27, 2019 at 08:17PM by SpaceCoastBeachBum
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"Starship can take 400 satellites,” SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell says of Starlink
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Submitted October 28, 2019 at 12:54AM by thesheetztweetz
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Alumni stories: Meet the principal rocket landing engineer at SpaceX
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Submitted October 28, 2019 at 02:45PM by TheCoolBrit
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<b>Estimating what building a 1-10 MW Solar Park on Mars would involve.</b>
IntroductionI thought it'd be interesting to get an estimate of what kind of challenge would be involved in developing, delivering and deploying a solar park at 45 N on Mars, which would generate the kind of power suggested by Elon Musk in the recent tweet.I will attempt to stick to real world products or which can be readily engineered (no breakthroughs required) and I will attempt to err on the side of being conservative.It should go without saying that this is entirely hypothetical and SpaceX might do something almost completely different. I hope only for a result that is in the right ballpark in terms of payload and deployment time. Like it's helpful to get an idea of what we are looking at: Multiple Starships crammed full of solar panels? Or a small fraction of the payload capacity of a single Starship?TL;DRPayload mass: 11 tPayload volume: 225 m3Deployment time: 2-3 weeks for 4 astronauts.The RequirementsFor the 10 MW nominal capacity I am assuming "A solar park that would be labelled as 10 MW if it were on Earth", the nominal capacity of a solar panel and generally the generation capacity of a solar power plant is referenced to 1000 W of sunlight on Earth and disregards any pesky reality like night time or clouds, this way of rating a solar powerplant is often complained about but it is both convenient and conventional.The general consensus on <a href="/r/spacex">/r/spacex</a> is that a propellant plant for refueling one Starship per synod (and providing life support for humans on the side) would consume on average 1 MW, it so happens that 10 MW nominal capacity is roughly the same as 1 MW real world generation on Mars: sunlight on Mars is about 50% as intense as at the surface of Earth, 50% of the time it is dark, 30% of the power during the day is lost due to sub-optimal sun angle, 20% is lost due to latitude and seasons, 25% is lost to dust in the sky and dust on the panels. The product of these factors is around 0.1. FWIW for single-axis tracking solar panels it's about 0.135 and for dual-axis tracking about 0.145, but for this analysis I assume fixed-tilt.So in summary, this solar park is 10 MW nominal, 1 MW actual average generation.Why fixed tiltJust rolling the solar panels out on the ground is tempting, as it allows using large rolls of flexible solar panel.The reason I'm not assuming horizontal panels is primarily one of latitude: The planned latitude for the base appears to be around 45 N. And Mars has an axial tilt of 25 degrees - which is almost the same as Earth's. If you live at around 45 N (or 45 S) on Earth you'll have a pretty good idea of how low in the sky the sun is during winter, in fact the sun will rise just around 20 degrees above the horizon. A fixed tilt panel at least doubles generation during winter and also increases it throughout the rest of the year. The exact tilt to use, assuming it is non-adjustable, can be optimized to maximize power generation over a year (essentially maximizing the generation from long summer days), or to maximize winter generation, or a compromise. A tilt which is equal to the latitude (i.e. 45 degrees) tends to be a reasonable compromise.Fixed tilt also ought to reduce dust accumulation, some dust will stick due to electrostatic forces but it does stand to reason that a tilted panel will accumulate less dust than a horizontal panel and be easier for the wind to clean.Furthermore, according to my analysis going with fixed tilt does not incur a large mass penalty compared with flat panels and the deployment time is longer but still reasonable.Single or dual axis tracking is outside the scope of this analysis, I don't believe the mass penalty for single-axis tracking would be prohibitive, but it is another point of failure and complexity and the efficiency improvement isn't as great as the difference between horizontal and fixed tilt.The Solar PanelsThe solar panels will almost certainly be custom…

SpaceX on Twitter: "Installing SuperDraco engines, which will power Crew Dragon’s launch escape system, for the first mission with @NASA astronauts on board"
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1189294320471412737

Submitted October 29, 2019 at 10:34PM by _Andreww_
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