Posts about Falcon Heavy
The long anticipated Falcon Heavy has finally come - and gone to Mars – so it should be interesting to explore some of the great things this goliath launch vehicle could accomplish in the near future. Just this year we expect two more FH launches, STP-2 for the US Air Force (to complete EELV certification) and Arabsat 6A for Saudi Arabia, due to fly on a new FH version called ‘Block 5’ (SpaceX never stand still on development!)
More interesting still is the new vista of possibilities opened up by FH, which is now the most powerful rocket in operation. Falcon Heavy is classed as a ‘Super Heavy Lift’ (SHL) launch vehicle, in other words it’s capable of placing more than 50 metric tons into Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Effectively that means FH can launch any planned payload to any location in our solar system.
So the answer to the question: what missions can Falcon Heavy fly is – YES!
Here’s a table to give some idea of the maximum payloads possible for a selection of solar destinations:-
| LEO | GTO | Mars | Pluto | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Max Payload | 63.8 mt | 26.7 mt | 16.8 mt | 3.5 mt |
Basically SHL is too much for LEO but should be ideal for cislunar operations, which is anywhere in proximity to the Moon. For example the Saturn V was a SHL launch vehicle, optimised for Moon landings.
The government will pay good money to build a cislunar station (called Deep Space Gateway), plus provide all the necessary crew flights and cargo. It is currently proposed such a station could be complete by 2030, using a fleet of disposable SLS. However, with a single reusable Falcon Heavy, such a station could be deployed by 2020 (assuming availability of modules), using just the SLS reserve funds!
Given the magnitude of missions FH can perform, perhaps it would be more practical to discuss what new types of missions it makes possible.
Lunar landers/rovers – essential for scouting locations of a Moon base or in situ resources
Orbital fuel depot – the ability to refuel satellites using rendezvous vehicles is an emergent technology. Having an orbital depot capable of refuelling those rendezvous vehicles could allow these operations to be performed faster and at less cost (because rendezvous vehicles could be refuelled and reused)
Planetary orbital missions – instead of flyby probes, FH should allow long duration orbital missions because the increased payload capacity allows sufficient fuel to be carried for orbital insertion and maintenance. In addition these flights could be direct i.e. dispense with planetary slingshot manoeuvres to increase velocity, reducing time to deployment
Search for life – three moons in the outer solar system, Europa, Enceladus, and Titan, look particularly juicy prospects for discovering life. From today FH makes these destinations accessible to automated landers/rovers. If NASA discovers life on any these worlds, their funding worries will likely be over, with international agencies fighting to be included on follow-up missions
Extraplanetary Satellite Constellations – colonies on the Moon or Mars will require satellite constellations for communication and real time monitoring of surface operations. At the opening of the SpaceX Seattle Office Elon Musk said: “That same system [Starlink] we could leverage to put into a constellation on Mars, because Mars is going to need a global communications system too and there's no fiber optics or wires or anything on Mars. We're definitely going to need that. We're going to need high bandwidth communications between Earth and Mars. So I think a lot of what we do in developing an Earth-based communication system could be leveraged for Mars as well.” Falcon Heavy could be used to establish both Moon and Mars constellations before the first manned missions arrive, allowing more in-depth preparation and less fraught launch schedules
Contingency Utility – we never know what we might need in the future, possibly at quite short notice. For example:Oumaumau, the first extrasolar asteroid ever detected, has passed us by without any possibility of a mission to explore this interesting phenomena. However, with a fast turnaround SHL like Falcon Heavy, such missions could be launched while an intercept flight is still feasible. Asteroid defence is also a concern and FH should allow us to launch quite substantial countermeasures at relatively short notice, similar to a scaled up version of DART
From a commercial point of view this inaugural launch proves SpaceX have no gaps in their capabilities and can compete for the most lucrative military missions, such as the hard driving reference missions to Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) or direct insertion to Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO). The recently announced SBIRS GEO-5 (GTO), AFSPC-44 (GEO) and SILENTBARKER (GEO), are now fair game for SpaceX to pursue. They will likely win some of these launch contracts away from ULA, because from the military’s perspective, having an alternate vehicle to Boeing’s Delta IV Heavy should help them achieve their goal of: “assured access to space.”
Possibly the most exciting application for SHL is expanding the commercial space economy. In a few years Bigelow Aerospace plan to establish the first commercial space station using B330 expandable modules. It’s possible FH could launch 2 modules (in tandem) to LEO or a single module to the Moon. Also there are asteroid mining ventures like DSI and Planetary Resources, who will require increasingly heavy payloads delivered even further afield, to enable in space resource extraction and refinement. In the medium term, the launch capabilities and cost advantages offered by Falcon Heavy should allow these commercial space concerns to shift into high gear.
From a strategic perspective, SpaceX are advertising they can launch much heavier payloads than previously possible. This should encourage customers to make more ambitious plans, now there is a rocket capable of delivering much heavier payloads. Overall the hardware for such missions can take years to develop, so it’s quite possible some launches gained with FH could later be transferred to BFR, when it becomes operational. Such launches should be considerably cheaper for BFR, thus generating even greater revenue for SpaceX’s end run on Mars (all made possible by FH).
Future is bright with Falcon Heavy, or more correctly golden. It’s our bridge to the future.