Questions tagged [payload]
Questions regarding equipment or other material to be transported during space exploration.
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Is mandatory to coat SLV fairing with anti static paint, please? [closed]
What type of surface coatings are required for payload fairing? Fairing
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What is the significance of a heat flux value of 1135 W/m^2 when jettisoning the payload fairing? [duplicate]
I have seen that many rockets jettison their payload fairing at an altitude where the aerothermal heatflux is leass than or equal to 1135 W/m^2. What is the reason behind considering this particular ...
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What are the safe structural elements of spacecraft that could be used for on-orbit capture?
I know this depends on the general configuration of a spacecraft, but I am hoping to gain some insights. Assuming you have a servicer spacecraft with an abstracted capture mechanism (i.e., end ...
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Has Spacex released any reports describing how they are going to secure the payload on Starship?
SpaceX has announced that Starship will be able to lift around 100 to 150 tons of cargo into Leo. When the spacecraft is landing or taking off you don’t want the payload just floating insecurely in a ...
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Does the payload capacity of an interplanetary launch rocket increase with decreasing fuel mass or with increasing escape velocity?
Does the payload capacity of an interplanetary launch rocket increase with decreasing fuel mass or with increasing escape velocity? I was thinking that the escape velocity has nothing to do with it ...
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Dosimeter in a CubeSat
I heard that a dosimeter could be used to detect cosmic ray particles and estimate the radiation dose received by the devices onboard. In this way, one can determine the average amount of ionising ...
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Radio Pollution Payload for CubeSat
I was thinking of a spectrum analyzer as a radio pollution monitoring payload (for a CubeSat) that aims at making a global map of spectrum usage.
My question is: Of which spectrum range can a CubeSat ...
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Inclination vs payload capacity of a rocket
I am learning about Space exploration and I have the following question:
When you are launching a rocket into space with maximal inclination, is the payload capacity then the highest?
Thanks!
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Is the critical inclination the same on every planet in the solar system?
I am learning about Space exploration.
Is the critical inclination the same on every planet (in the solar system) or does it depend on the planet?
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How much mass will Artemis landers deliver to the moon?
Is there an estimate of the mass Artemis Landers must be able to deliver to the Lunar surface? I am interested in the total mass - vehicle and payload on arrival - as well as a breakdown of how much ...
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Why weren't super heavy lift launch vehicles used for deep space missions?
According to this PDF Cassini-HuygensPDF, we would need to launch 70 tons if we wanted to do a Saturn transfer orbit from a low earth orbit. It says that there are no vehicles in NASA’s stable even ...
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Why do we launch similar payloads on different models of rocket?
Why don’t we just use one launch vehicle to carry different payloads? For example, to launch payloads in the size range of supplies for a Martian base or something made to destroy a Dimorphos size ...
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Why hasn’t SpaceX sent anything to Mars yet?
SpaceX has the rockets to send some payload to Mars. The Falcon heavy can carry up to 16.8 tons to Mars according to this answer: Why can Falcon Heavy bring 4.2 times as much mass to Mars than F9, but ...
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Have there been any rockets whose payload fairings consisted of more than two parts?
Most cargo rockets, such as Falcon 9, Delta IV, and many others, incorporate payload fairings to protect payloads from aero forces and heating during ascent. All of these rockets' fairings split in ...
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Could a third stage be added to Starship?
SpaceX has predicted that Starship will be able to lift up to 150 tons to LEO. Could some of the payload that it will carry have a third stage? If so could that save another flight of Starship since ...
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Are there payloads that went to orbit without a protective fairing?
Reading about the Ultralight Starshade Structural Design,
It seems some solution among others could be an umbrella based concept
Since the starshade has to be roughly 100m in diameter, one could ...
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3U CubeSat components
as a project for school, we are designing a preliminary conceptual 3U CubeSat design. The mission is to launch in orbit at 1,000 km and Maintain orbit for 1 month. After orbit is maintained for 1 ...
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Info needed on PSLV launch adaptors and configurations
I want to understand how satellites are accommodated in PSLV. I know about few configurations and adaptors that've been used in the past. Is there any document which gives detailed info on Multiple ...
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How would an SSTO adapt to various payloads?
Yet another kerbal question here.
Background: I've built many SSTOs before, mainly small, light-payload or crew delivery ones (either boosted by a rocket or by itself). The reason why I've been shying ...
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What was South Korea's Nuri's dummy payload and where did it end up?
Wikipedia's Nuri (rocket) explains that it is a South Korean, three-stage all indigenously developed launch vehicle, and says:
On 21 October 2021, it had its first flight at 08:00 UTC and it launched ...
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what is revisit rate
I want to understand what the revisit rate is. If the payload is required to make the revisit rate of 5 hours. The orbit is LEO (altitude less than 2000 kms). What does this mean?
Revisit time - the ...
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what kind of valves are used in payload fairing for venting?
I wanted to know that there have been a handful of literature that mentions vent openings in the rocket payload fairings. However, none specify the kind of valves used in those fairings? does anyone ...
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What was the STS mid-deck cargo capacity?
What was the normal cargo capacity of the Shuttle mid-deck, in terms of mass and volume?
STS-135 apparently carried more than usual in the mid-deck, how much and how?
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What are the longest current rocket payload fairings, capable of carrying long space station sections?
Space News' China launches Tianhe space station core module into orbit
China successfully launched a 22-metric-ton module April 28, beginning an intense period of missions for constructing the nation’...
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Crew Dragon: Could launch escape thrust determine payload capacity?
The superdracos in Dragon's launch escape system each produce $\color{black}{\texttt{71.2 kN}}$ (16,000 lbf) of thrust. There are eight superdracos, giving a combined thrust of $\color{black}{\texttt{...
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Interplanetary secondary payload
Have there been any interplanetary secondary payloads? If there were none, are any such payloads planned?
I consider two options:
launcher rocket's destination is Earth's orbit (LEO etc.), then ...
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Why wasn't there a 2nd attempt for the Viking-DS (VDS) test payload before the real Viking 1 and 2 were launched?
Per Gunter's Space Page for Viking-DS (VDS):
Viking-DS or VDS (Viking Dynamic Simulator) was a vehicle evaluation payload, which was to represent the dynamic properties of the Viking spacecraft.
It ...
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Payload capacity of Electron rocket?
I can only find the Electron capacity for LEO and SSO: 300 and 200 kg
And for Venus: 15 kg (which links to here)
But what is the capacity for GTO, Moon and Mars?
LEO = Low Earht Orbit
SSO = Sun-...
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Payload Capacity definition
Does the payload capacity of a rocket include the satellite and the adaptator or is it just the satellite ?
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Payload capacity of a rocket
Why does a rocket have far more payload capacity when placing an object in LEO compared to when it's placing the object in farther orbits, like on the Moon? If a rocket has sufficient thrust to take ...
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Let's say I build an orbit-capable launch vehicle, what tests/certifications would the LV have to acquire to be allowed to launch payloads into orbit?
For the purpose of the question, let's assume said launch vehicle is 100% identical to Electron. What sort of tests/certifications would I have to send the rocket through in order to make it legal to ...
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What is the correct rough estimation for the payload to kick-off a sustainable Mars colony?
In this talk, Elon Musk explains our current global capacity required to kick-off a sustainable Mars colony, should be about 1 000 000 tons (including humans).
While this is for sure just some rough ...
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How much payload capacity is available for a Rocketlab Photon interplanetary mission to Venus?
I've been quite interested in Rocketlab's Photon satellite bus, which they claim to be able to send to Venus. I'm trying to get some kind of an idea of what kind of payload might possible be able to ...
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What does the connector supports on the payload adapter do?
Good day, I am currently doing a project for university in which I have to redesign the connector support for the Payload Adapter (PLA 1194 VG) for the Vega(picture shown).
I would like some ...
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Space Shuttle missions for satellite deployment?
Was there any Space Shuttle mission whose primary target were e deploying satellites (space stations do not count).
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Are there any images of SOOS?
SOOS--Stacked Oscar On Scout--was what it was called when the 1985 decision was made to replenish the Operational (Oscar) Transit constellation with unflown first-production models. Early Oscars were ...
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Who started conducting multiple-payload launches routinely, and on which vechicle?
I know multiple-payload launches are routine these days, and everyone seems to have their own reignitable kick-stage. But who were the first to start doing that?
This is similar to this question, but ...
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Determine envelopes for the payloads?
I am a mechanical engineer who is trying to expand my domain knowledge in aerospace and am currently reading a book to increase my understanding of it. I am mostly interested in studying the design of ...
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Would the 6.5 ton capable Blue Moon lander fit in New Glenn?
As the 2 massive projects of the same company, are they designed to be compatible for NASA's CLPS program ? New Glenn's said to have a 7 m payload fairing diameter but as far as I know, Blue Moon's ...
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Was the Space Shuttle balanced experimentally before flight?
Even spacecraft that are designed and optimized for a single mission need to be carefully balanced experimentally, and have ballast added before flight.
Why did New Horizons have to be spin-balanced ...
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Which kind of launch vehicle has put the most total payload mass in space?
Examples of "kinds of launch vehicles" include Ariane 5, Electron, Pegasus, Falcon 9, Space Shuttle, Saturn V, etc.; small variations shouldn't be counted as separate.
Question: Which kind of launch ...
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Can communication satellite carry payload other than it's own boards?
Can we attach payload to communication satellite and detach it in space after having gained a specific altitude? What is probability that it will fail?
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What's the largest rocket that was carried to space inside a Space Shuttle?
Why did the Ulysses probe reach Jupiter much faster than Galileo? got me wondering about the largest rocket that was carried to space inside a Space Shuttle.
Largest in terms of some performance ...
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Is it possible to build a rocket with 2kg payload? [duplicate]
Is it possible to build a small rocket that carries 1 cubesat into orbit?
And how small the rocket would be, if it is possible?
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Can a lighter rocket lift more than a heavier rocket?
Let us consider two launch vehicles - "A" and "B". If "A" has a larger wet mass than "B", does this imply "A" has a higher payload capacity to a particular orbit, from a particular launch site than "B"...
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Why use an air conditioning blanket instead of supplying air into the fairing?
This answer explains that some Atlas payloads were covered in an air coditioning blanket before launch.
I can imagine that the payload has some thermal requirements, but a blanket looks lust plain ...
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Orbital insertion accuracy for SpaceX payloads
What is the orbital insertion accuracy of SpaceX for positioning its payload (for example satellites)? How close do they get to the requested or target orbital parameters?
I tried to research this on ...
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Are there examples of cargo being damaged during re-entry?
Are there examples of items being brought to or returned to Earth that were damaged in the re-entry process? For example, lunar samples during Apollo, or something being returned in the Shuttle ...
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Why was the Energia’s payload capacity to lunar orbit greater than its payload capacity to geosynchronous orbit?
The Energia rocket, developed in the 1970s and 1980s to launch the Soviet Buran space shuttle, had the second-highest payload capacity (100 tonnes to LEO) of any rocket ever flown (and the highest-...
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What is the largest number of identical satellites launched together?
What is the largest number of (essentially) identical satellites launched together?
Form factor alone (e.g. 1U, 3U cubesat) is not enough to make satellites identical, they need to be the same design,...
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