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SpaceX pulled off quite the feat today when it launched the Falcon Heavy rocket. What's more, it landed the two flanking boosters in perfect synchronized formation. But the fate of the core booster was unclear; now it appears that the center booster, which was supposed to land on a drone ship, was lost.
Elon Musk said on a conference call with reporters that the launch "seems to have gone as well as one could have hoped with the exception of center core. The center core obviously didn't land on the drone ship" and he said that "we're looking at the issue."
Source: Engadget
Elon has stated during the post launch Press Conference (aired live by ABC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cygUnhAGdWc ) that the center core ran out of TEA-TEB ignition fluids. These are used to restart the Merlin 1D engines in flight. The central engine relit, but the outer two failed to reignite. The resultant loss of thrust cause the center core to hit the water at 300mph/500kph and explode. Elon reports two drone ship thrusters on OCISLY were damaged or destroyed.
Source: Reddit.
TEA-TEB is a reference to triethylaluminium-triethylborane.
takyon: Instead of becoming an Earth-Mars cycler, it appears that the car has overshot its intended orbit and will reach far into the asteroid belt:
Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster, which launched on top of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy earlier today, is going farther out into the Solar System than originally planned. The car was supposed to be put on a path around the Sun that would take the vehicle out to the distance of Mars' orbit. But the rocket carrying the car seems to have overshot that trajectory and has put the Tesla in an orbit that extends out into the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. [...] SpaceX CEO Musk tweeted out a map of the Roadster's final orbit after the burn, showing just how far out the car will travel. And it looks like it's going so far into the asteroid belt that it will get relatively close to the orbit of the dwarf planet Ceres.
Previously: Falcon Heavy Maiden Launch Successful (Mostly)
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Immerman on Wednesday February 07 2018, @08:07PM (5 children)
Are we sure it actually overshot and this wasn't the original plan? My understanding was that it was going to be put on an orbit that "brought it near Mars" - which an elliptical orbit to the asteroid belt would certainly do. It might even still be a Mars cycler - quite a few such orbits go well outside Mars' orbit, and/or well inside Earth's, in order to make the orbital timings line up nicely over the long term, without requiring frequent course adjustments.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Wednesday February 07 2018, @08:44PM (2 children)
I had read that last experimental burn as "we'll give it all we can and see how far it goes, hopefully to Mars".
The primary goal was to show direct GEO insertion for .mil. The secondary goal was to reach Mars despite not pushing the FH dynamics too far on the first test. Getting to the asteroid belt is just a bonus.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @09:27PM (1 child)
I wouldn't be surprised if reaching the asteroid belt was the actual goal, as there is a fortune out there.
However, it wasn't what was promised; we were promised a car flying past Earth and Mars on a periodic basis.
(Score: 4, Informative) by frojack on Thursday February 08 2018, @02:55AM
Well, maybe he has more fuel, and can turn around and slow his roll.
By the way, watch this Youtube to get a sense of the sound of this rocket, and the triple sonic booms as the boosters land.
https://youtu.be/ImoQqNyRL8Y [youtu.be]
Play this video with headphones, or at least your best ear buds. Turn it up.
It uses BINAURAL AUDIO IMMERSION [theverge.com]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday February 08 2018, @05:50AM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by martyb on Friday February 09 2018, @02:21AM
Might want to take a look at this diagram from Elon Musk: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/961083704230674438/photo/1 [twitter.com].
On the diagram, I see: "Apohelion (AU) 2.61" and "Perihelion (AU) 0.98".
The path goes far enough beyond Mars that it nearly approaches the orbit of Ceres [wikipedia.org]!
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @08:08PM
She screamed. Oh, she screamed. In response, the sound of little boys cheering was heard. Chairs. A tile floor. A chalk board. It was a classroom.
The man was vigorously moving his hips and slamming his fist into the woman's face. It might be more accurate to say that he could stop neither his fists nor his hips. The woman screamed for help. However, the children only cheered. Rather than caring about the woman's well-being, it would be more accurate to say that the boys were actively cheering for her demise.
Every time the fist collided with the woman, mankind took a microscopic step forward towards a future where men's rights were respected. The children knew this, which is why they were so excited. A bright future awaited them.
When silence finally descended upon the woman, the children could no longer contain their excitement. Endless cheers and clapping were heard from within the classroom. The woman's motion had been completely replaced by the children's desire for freedom.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @08:51PM (8 children)
So can we look forward to the Tesla Roadster getting another
worldplanetary-system record first? The first car to hit an asteroid!(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Wednesday February 07 2018, @08:54PM (1 child)
They would be extremely lucky to hit an asteroid with the car. Asteroid fields are not densely packed like in the movies.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by DECbot on Thursday February 08 2018, @12:56AM
If you end up crashing and totaling a roadster by collision with an asteroid in the asteroid belt, (1) could you file an insurance claim and (2) will your rates go up because of the statistical improbability of it occurring again?
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 4, Funny) by bob_super on Thursday February 08 2018, @12:53AM (5 children)
Elon decided to really piss off his insurance company.
"Asteroid does not count as 'Act of God', you gotta pay"
(Score: 2) by pkrasimirov on Thursday February 08 2018, @04:09PM
"Alright, sir, get your car over here for damage assessment."
(Score: 2) by Rivenaleem on Thursday February 08 2018, @04:22PM (3 children)
Asteroid hits you, you can make a claim. You hit asteroid on the other hand...
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday February 09 2018, @01:42AM (2 children)
Elon can afford Full Coverage, and a spacesuit is not proven to count as Driving While Impaired.
(Score: 2) by Rivenaleem on Friday February 09 2018, @08:53AM (1 child)
True, but the insurance company might argue that he was travelling at an unsafe speed, in excess of 30,000 km/h at the time of the accident.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday February 09 2018, @05:18PM
Not his fault that the speed limit was written in black on a black sign posted in the shade of a black asteroid which was subsequently hurled into the Sun.
It's known to happen when music and space are combined.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday February 08 2018, @01:14AM
Aluminum really really wants to burn. It wants to burn so badly that it will suck the oxygen away from ferrous oxide - rust - when Thermite ignites.
There is a large scorch mark on the wall of one of Caltech's lecture halls. During a lecture on organometallic aluminum, the instructor squirted some out of a syringe. It burst into flames immediately upon exiting the syringe's tip then stuck to the wall until it had all burned up.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]