OK, now that I have my health care squared away (just under the wire), I’m heading down to Long Beach. Not sure how much I’ll be able to blog from there, but I’ll take a laptop.
3 thoughts on “Spacecraft Tech Expo”
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OK, now that I have my health care squared away (just under the wire), I’m heading down to Long Beach. Not sure how much I’ll be able to blog from there, but I’ll take a laptop.
Comments are closed.
Have a good trip.
BTW, now that you have some free time thanks to your healthcare issue being so smoothly taken care of, you might want to take the time at the spacecraft tech expo to check out the engine display. It looks like it could be revolutionary; it uses advanced propellants (hydroxyl acid/hydrogen hydroxide) and, in spite of the dangerous fuels, is safer than the methane/LOX engine SpaceX is developing.
I won’t publicly name the company involved, but… they are going to be unveiling and demonstrating the engine (a full up run) in the main expo hall.
Given the thrust and ISP of this revolutionary new engine, I feel there’s a strong chance that it’ll be selected for the new main engine of the SLS, once they run out of SSMEs.
Haven’t heard from Rand, maybe they test-fired that engine and put the whole building into orbit? 🙂
Hrmmm… Maybe they did! Test firing an engine inside an expo building would usually be rather…. unusual. But not in this case. It’d be pretty safe, due to the fuels. I’m also confident that it actually happened (running that engine in an expo hall, though not reaching orbit…)
I can say, with total truthfulness, that I have stood less than ten feet away from a rocket engine running indoors at a trade show. They were selling them… for $5. The propellants? Hydroxyl acid/hydrogen hydroxide. That stuff kills thousands of people every year, and really ought to be banned – though maybe it’d be okay to get a waiver to use it in the new SLS main engines.