Article

2018-08-03 Science & Technology

Defense News: One possible job for SpaceX’s BFR? Taking the Air Force’s cargo in and out of space.

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Posted by 3dc 2018-08-03 01:29|| || Front Page|| [6 views ] Top

#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|| 2018-08-03 04:15|| Front Page Top

#2 OldSpook - For a BFR launch Elon is talking roughly 250 to 500 thousand dollars.

Posted by 3dc 2018-08-03 06:32|| 2018-08-03 06:32|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2018-08-03 09:22|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2018-08-03 10:00|| Front Page Top

Posted by 3dc 2018-08-03 11:13|| 2018-08-03 11:13|| Front Page Top

#6 NASA orbital debris office is struggling to keep up with space junk problem

Posted by Skidmark 2018-08-03 16:08|| 2018-08-03 16:08|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2018-08-03 19:14|| Front Page Top

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