57
votes
Accepted
Why isn't SpaceX's Starship "trial and error" development strategy an open source project?
There are many reasons. They include money, intellectual property, regulations, and Elon Musk.
Money. Building open source software is relatively inexpensive, sometimes ridiculously inexpensive. No ...
- 71.3k
10
votes
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How much of the world's xenon has been used in spaceflight altogether? Is it a lot? Did it cost a lot?
According to Wikipedia's article about xenon, the gas occurs at 87 ppb (parts per billion) by volume in Earth's atmosphere. Earth's atmosphere weighs 5.15×1018 kg. Dividing this by the density of air (...
- 116
10
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What is the relationship (if any) between NASA's Kilopower project and its request for 40 kW reactor designs?
Kilopower is designed for at most 10 kW of power. I asked Patrick McClure, who is the engineer in charge of the Kilopower project at Los Alamos (2019 Humans to Mars summit) if they could scale it up ...
- 120k
8
votes
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Starlink vs 5G technology, are they directly competing services?
This partial answer is not about the technical possibilities, but about Starlink's hypothetical relationship to 5G.
SpaceX's plans with Starlink are unclear at the moment. On the one hand, one should ...
- 5,385
8
votes
When was advertising on Earth from space first proposed? By who?
In Robert Heinlein's 1950 Novella "The Man Who Sold the Moon", the central character raises the possibility of using the moon as a billboard. He does not actually propose to do it, but he ...
- 8,084
6
votes
Accepted
Regulations preventing SpaceX from saying "no" if OneWeb asked them to launch their satellites?
There are no such regulations, so I can't think of any reason why SpaceX couldn't refuse to launch a competitor's satellites.
The relevant regulator here is the FAA, and specifically AST. AST ...
- 1,403
6
votes
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Why is the Space industry expected to flourish and grow in the near future?
Private companies have been trying to get into the launch business since the 80s (ORTRAG in Germany since the 70s), usually turning into a financial disaster for the investors. Several things have ...
- 4,257
5
votes
Were there any non-state organizations to organize space flight and colonizations in the second half of the 20th century?
There was a lot of work with sounding rockets after World War II. Those are rockets that go up and come back down--they are not intended to enter orbit, which is actually a much more difficult problem ...
- 4,257
4
votes
Has anything "changed" about the way that NASA will procure technology for the Artemis program?
This applies to the HLS elements as well, but NASA has recently been requiring Firm Fixed Price Contracts (To avoid ballooning costs, like on SLS) alongside the result of the contract being NASA ...
- 968
4
votes
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How much do on-demand, artificial meteor showers cost these days?
They are not yet a thing, but are still being worked on. The system will launch on the Electron rocket. The cost isn't known, but it will be launched on an Electron rocket, costing \$6 million, and ...
- 120k
4
votes
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Ultra Safe Nuclear Technologies (USNC-Tech) has delivered a design concept to NASA, but what does NASA consider a "design concept" to be?
"Design concept" sounds like it's Technology Readiness Level 2: "technology concept and/or application formulated". In short, what UNSC-Tech has delivered is a paper design for a ...
- 12.4k
3
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Besides landing several folks on the Moon and returning them safely to the Earth what criteria did Human Landing System proposals to NASA meet?
A short summary:
The HLS needs to be able to support human life. The overarching goal is to land humans on the Moon and safely return them to the Earth.
The HLS needs to be able to land on and later ...
- 71.3k
3
votes
Are there enough people who have the resources to pay for a one way trip to Mars to start a colonization?
The Mars one scheme/scam and the history of the colonization era (also rich in schemes and scams) indicate there are plenty of people willing to make a one way trip.
With mars the question is where ...
- 19.1k
3
votes
Accepted
Portable Starlink antennas
There is a GPS Module in Dishy, and they know where you are (Also if you have been good or bad, so be good for goodness sake).
In a Reddit AMA they were asked that, and more implied that the location ...
- 78.6k
3
votes
Why isn't SpaceX's Starship "trial and error" development strategy an open source project?
Frankly, until 3d printing gets significantly better (as in print circuit boards and complex electronics better than printers print thermoplastics today), "open source hardware" doesn't ...
- 16.2k
3
votes
What to do with money?
Two options:
Become an investor in SpaceX. \$10M is not enough to start your own rocket company (it takes at least \$1000M), but it would be enough to be taken seriously as an investor in another ...
- 47.3k
3
votes
Can you buy land (while) in space?
Yes, No, Maybe. All of those, depending on where they want to buy it.
When buying property in a country, you generally have to do it under the jurisdiction of the country where the property is ...
- 6,852
3
votes
Were there any non-state organizations to organize space flight and colonizations in the second half of the 20th century?
@Greg has a good answer, but he's missing my favorite: OTRAG.
Orbital Transport und Raketen Aktiengesellschaft was the very first private company to launch their own rockets to orbit. They were ...
- 47.3k
3
votes
Accepted
Globally extensive overview of rocket startup companies
New Space Hub is an invite only social network that keeps track of things like this. https://newspacehub.co/
They allow you to search their database though, even if you are not a member. So hopefully ...
- 1,690
3
votes
Starlink vs 5G technology, are they directly competing services?
WiFi from a satellite is actually impossible, due to a number of issues. Regulation wise WiFi only works because of the ability to have low power unlicensed devices, for it to work in space it would ...
- 120k
3
votes
Spacecraft Maneuvers as Intellectual Property? Wow!
I have never heard of a patented maneuver before. There are maneuver strategies that operators will perform but there are many common ones like a Hohmann Transfer and a pure inclination change. I ...
- 113
3
votes
Accepted
Why does Blue Origin want to go to the moon?
Let's look at the company's webpage for the Blue Moon mission. At the very bottom, they clearly state:
For interest in flying on Mission One or future lunar transport services, please email (...
- 47.3k
2
votes
Why does Blue Origin want to go to the moon?
Launching resources to build space stations is expensive. This is because gravity on Earth makes it require a lot of energy to get off the ground and into space.
The moon has certain resources that ...
- 345
2
votes
How much of the piggybacked Aireon system rely on its Iridium Next hosts?
The Aireon Hosted Payload is a 1090ES ADS-B receiver that is attached to Iridium NEXT as a "Hosted Payload".
The paper "Iridium NEXT SensorPODs: Global access for your scientific ...
- 2,073
2
votes
Can you buy land (while) in space?
I see the two key issues are:
proving ones identity
having witnesses to the signing of documents
I hesitated about answering this question. I think the question only stands as a "Space Exploration" ...
- 9,129
2
votes
Can you buy land (while) in space?
Why would being in space be any different from being in another country, or even at home during lock down (covid 19)? Every local government has different rules.
With cash, transfer is just ...
- 27k
2
votes
Accepted
Who won the first round of Limitless Interstellar Initiative Grants?
They have a press release here.
It contains the selections (listed below), and the grant amounts. "Tactical" means grants up to \$100k and "Strategic" grants up to \$250k.
...
2
votes
How does MEV use its "ion thruster on a stick" technology?
I suspect that what you suspect is the problem is actually the answer. MEV is intended to dock with spacecraft that were not intended to dock with, and control the orientation of those spacecraft. ...
- 120k
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