/sci/ - Science & Math

>>14550487
Thanks those are the ones. Crazy to think they are still up there, floating around. What bigelow could’ve been... FUCK!

>>11802857

>>10504272
Sea Dragon was designed to be shit-easy to build, it's pressurization system is close to as simple as it can get, the body and bell are all welded stainless steel because the enormous power of the engine outweighs the enormous weight of the rocket. This big black rocket would make a Saturn V look like a bottle rocket going off, the dB level of it's takeoff would be lethal several miles out. It would make some sense if they ever want to achieve an even larger launch system, the rocketry version of a supertanker to carry extra-massive payloads or enormous propellant supplies (for that period before extraplanetary bases can start manufacturing their own). Stuff like the raw construction components for building the skeletons of large rotohabs or supersized solar collectors, or radiators to reject heat from powerful nuclear reactors.
>>10504660
Getting the rocket to the top of your launch pad would add more work than it would be worth and there are only a few places so many miles up that they'd actually be useful.

>>10464441
We need Starship to get the medium sized ones up. The 330 should work with F9/FH now, so we're waiting on Bigelow for those, but haven't heard much from them since BEAM was attached to ISS.

>>10453328
B330 (the first size they're going to build) needs 5m. F9 fairing is 5.2m.

I haven't heard much of any talk about it but apparently the same company that built the BEAM module currently attached to the ISS is planning to launch a huge 330 cubic meter module in 2020 and at some undetermined time later enormous 2100+ cubic meter modules. Gateway is going to look pretty embarrassing when a single B330 with six times the habitable volume seems like it will be up two years before the first parts of it are even on the pad.