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Science & Technology
Defense News: One possible job for SpaceX’s BFR? Taking the Air Force’s cargo in and out of space.
2018-08-03
Title Link is the Redit Discussion here is the [Defense News] story:
Defense News Story
Air Force Gen. Carlton Everhart, who heads Air Mobility Command, believes it could happen within the next five to 10 years, he told reporters on August 2.

Everhart visited the headquarters of SpaceX and Virgin Orbit last week — he hopes to get to the Jeff Bezos’-owned Blue Origin sometime soon — to talk about how emerging space technologies could be used by the Air Force’s air mobility fleet, which transports people, cargo and fuel all over the world.

SpaceX executives “tell me that they can go around the globe in 30 minutes with a BFR,” Everhart said, referencing the next-generation, reusable rocket under development by the company.

“Think about this. Thirty minutes, 150 metric tons, [and] less than the cost of a C-5,” he continued. In comparison, it would take the service’s cargo aircraft take anywhere from eight to 10 hours to get to the other side of the world.

“The technology is there, now we need to experiment with it,” he said. “What kinds of fuel does it need? What parts do you have to have? Does it go offshore? Does it go onshore? What kind of a footprint does it take? All the logistical things that go with it from the logistical side, that’s what I’m working [on] with industry.”
Posted by:3dc

#7  3dc: I don't see any numbers in that chart.

My feeling is still what it was earlier, in case you missed it. I think SpaceX currently has a Ford Trimotor equivalent in a world of Sopwith Camels. They stand on the edge of being able to make a DC-3 of the space age.

And instead they're going to try to make a Spruce Goose.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain   2018-08-03 19:14  

#6  NASA orbital debris office is struggling to keep up with space junk problem
Posted by: Skidmark   2018-08-03 16:08  

#5  
Posted by: 3dc   2018-08-03 11:13  

#4  Add an orbital debris net/scoop with some packing automation. Launch an empty shell and load mass containers in orbit.
Posted by: Skidmark   2018-08-03 10:00  

#3  For a BFR launch Elon is talking roughly 250 to 500 thousand dollars.

A Falcon 9 currently costs about $ 60 million, and a Falcon 9H currently costs $ 90 million per launch.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain   2018-08-03 09:22  

#2  OldSpook - For a BFR launch Elon is talking roughly 250 to 500 thousand dollars.
Posted by: 3dc   2018-08-03 06:32  

#1  150t? Just drop 150t of rebar concrete columns with aerodynamic hardened steel caps, some guidance fins and a JDAM kit. Let 50 (3t each) smack into a target at suborbital velocities released at high altitude, with a CEP of less than 20 meters, pretty much ruin anyone's day thats at the point of impact.

Dug in deep? Try **five** of the GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) (30t each) Bunker Busters.

How about a crazy back of the envelope scenario? Here ya go.

Fill it up with Mk 82 500lb bombs. Use the GBU-38 guided variety (Mk82 500lb with a JDAM kit). At nominal 500lbs apiece, that's 600 of them, guided, all hitting at roughly the same time. The worlds biggest TOT.

What would be the effect? Laid out in a 17 x 35 pattern, based on a standard steel cased Mk 82 lethal zone of 80m x 30m, this would take out a 1.36Km x 1.05Km area. If you go with the PFB-82 casing, the lethal fragmentation zone jumps to 240m by 80m, meaning 4.08km by 2.8km with the same 17x35 grid.

For reference, Central Park in NYC is roughly 4km by 1km. So you could wipe out Central Park twice over.

And dont forget the crater: roughly 15m x 10m. So imagine a grid of 15m wide 11m deep craters, that are spaced roughly 40m apart. If you go dense pack for maximizing cratering you can completely rubble an area roughly 80 meters on a side (or 87 or so meters diameter if a circle pattern deployment is used). For comparison, the Cactus Dome nuclear crater on Eniwetok was 110m across.

Rods from god? More like Concrete from Canaveral, but probably highly effective if you have a target worth the money.

Thanks Elon!

Posted by: OldSpook   2018-08-03 04:15  

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