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posted by martyb on Saturday September 15 2018, @03:49AM   Printer-friendly
from the queue-up-some-Pink-Floyd-for-the-journey dept.

After a previously planned flight around the Moon using a Falcon Heavy fizzled out, SpaceX has announced that it will send a private passenger around the Moon using a BFR launch vehicle. More details will be announced on Monday:

On Thursday evening, without any advance notice, SpaceX tweeted that is had signed the world's "first private passenger to fly around the Moon aboard our BFR launch vehicle." Moreover, the company promised to reveal "who's flying and why" on Monday, September 17. The announcement will take place at the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif.

There were only two other clues—tweets from Elon Musk himself. Was the rendering of the Big Falcon Spaceship in SpaceX's tweet new? Yes, Musk said. And was he the passenger? In response to this, the founder of SpaceX simply tweeted a Japanese flag emoji. This would seem to be a strong clue that the passenger is from Japan. Or maybe Musk was enjoying the epic Seven Samurai movie at that moment.

By announcing this on Thursday, and waiting four days to provide more details, the company has set off a big guessing game as to who will fly. Of course that is an interesting question, but we have many other questions that we'd like to see answered before that. We've included some of those questions below, along with some wild and (slightly) informed guesses. Musk even answered one of them for us.

The design of the BFS has apparently changed to include three prominent fins and an underside heat shield.

Related: How to Get Back to the Moon in 4 Years, Permanently
SpaceX to Launch Five Times in April, Test BFR by 2019
SpaceX to Begin BFR Production at the Port of Los Angeles
2020s to Become the Decade of Lunar Re-Exploration


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Immerman on Tuesday September 18 2018, @04:46PM

    by Immerman (3985) on Tuesday September 18 2018, @04:46PM (#736592)

    You might be right - but orbital construction hasn't even taken any baby-steps yet, the closest we've come is the ISS, which was really just fastening completed modules together using standardized quick-connect joints. And from what I recall, even that is exhausting, dangerous work in space.

    Such relatively easily assembled modules will probably be the mainstay of orbital "construction" for the foreseeable future, probably throughout the life of the BFR - and that means means that payload masses and volumes will be a major limiting factor on what can be done. Inflatable modules like Bigelow's habitats can push the limits some, but when you get right down to it the square-cube law declares that bigger is better. You want something bigger than can be launched by the BFR or its successor, then it's going to have to go up in pieces, which means we'll need serious orbital construction capabilities.

    Welding underwater is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, how much worse would welding in space be? There's no hiding from the radiation while working in a space suit, and any suit breach is likely to kill you, or at least cost you a limb. I suspect that we won't see major space industry until we've mastered either (mostly)autonomous construction robots, or good industrial telepresence robots. Devices that can function in the harshness of space while the operator is safe within a nearby habitat (trying to operate from Earth introduces a lot of lag, especially since you keep having to route the signal halfway around the planet every hour or so.

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