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Space

Rocket Lab Reveals Plans For Reusable Rocket With 8 Ton Payload (engadget.com) 52

Posted by BeauHD from the Falcon-9-challenger dept.
Rocket Lab has unveiled plans for a larger rocket that can carry bigger payloads than its current reusable trooper, the Electron. It's called the Neutron and will be capable of carrying 8 metric tons to low-Earth orbit compared to the Electron's 660 lbs capacity. Engadget reports: The Neutron will also have a fully reusable first stage that can land on an ocean platform, in the same vein as SpaceX's Falcon 9 booster. Rocket Lab is looking to fast-track the rocket's first flight to 2024 by using the existing launch pad at Virginia's Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport located at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility. It's also scouting sites across the US to build a new factory where the Neutron will be assembled at scale.

The new rocket is designed with an eye to the future of mega-satellite constellations. Its larger payload means it can take multiple small satellites in batches to specific orbital planes, creating a "a more targeted approach to building out" the massive projects, said Peter Beck, Rocket Lab founder and CEO. Demand for the constellations is growing, with the satellite networks enabling better navigation and providing communications in rural areas back here on Earth. The Neutron's lift capacity also means it should be able to transport 98 percent of all satellites forecast to launch through 2029.
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Rocket Lab Reveals Plans For Reusable Rocket With 8 Ton Payload More

Rocket Lab Reveals Plans For Reusable Rocket With 8 Ton Payload

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  • Love Rocket Lab :) (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Rei ( 128717 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2021 @02:57AM (#61114904) Homepage

    Peter Beck had previously stated that they'd never make a larger rocket (and also never do reusability) and if they did he'd eat his hat... so in the video unveiling the rocket [twitter.com], Peter Beck blended ate part of his own hat ;)

    There's not many companies out there doing engineering with the same sort of out-of-the-box thinking and rapid iteration philosophy as those Musk runs, but Rocket Lab is definitely in that subset. I remember all of the skepticism (if not outright derision) when the Rutherford engine was unveiled with Electron. I had myself previously considered electric-driven turbopumps, but scrapped the idea due to battery mass concerns - but their solution of staging the battery packs makes that seem so obvious in hindsight. They then pulled off returning carbon fibre boost stages that were never designed for reuse, even though carbon fibre and extreme heat aren't fast friends. And are getting close to snatching them out of the air with a helicopter.

    (Plus, I love how Peter isn't on the Mars bandwagon with everyone else, but rather, giving (much neglected) Venus some love)

    SpaceX will continue to eat up the lion's share of the launch market, but Rocket Lab is good at picking up the scraps that they don't serve well. Godspeed, Rocket Lab. :)

    • Ayup - though the plans are kinda contrail vaporware so far.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Rei ( 128717 )

        As all plans begin.

        But Rocket Lab, as a company, most definitely isn't vapourware.

    • At least he's a good sport.

      What's really interesting is their choice of materials and their choice of 3D printing the engines. That seems to be their major area of innovation.

      • At least he's a good sport.

        What's really interesting is their choice of materials and their choice of 3D printing the engines. That seems to be their major area of innovation.

        They use blockchain as well!

        Does anyone know of the costs of reuseablility? I think many think they just take the existing rocket after landing and refuel it, and there ya go - all flights except the first are free.

        I've been trying to find that cost, so I think the next step is to land them right on the launchpad.

        • The costs will probably be predominantly in refurbishing and testing the engines, and we don't know a lot about those (if they're even developed yet), not even which cycle is to be used. The Rutherford is probably quite reusable since it has no turbines, meaning only the main combustion chamber is likely to have soot and coke deposits, and all rotating parts run cool. I wonder if a hybrid electric pump-fed cycle would be practical for larger engines - run a generator on a turbine, to power the pump motor,

    • > Venus some love

      The Soviets were more fond of Venus, too.

      There's a real chance of terraforming it. Solar power is much better.

      But it's a thousand-year project to put humans up there. Mars is next-decade.

      SpaceX's mission is the preservation of consciousness so they're doing the right thing.

      The Soviets knew that the Union would last another thousand years at least so they were doing the right thing.

      Humans should be chasing all these opportunities.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Alcari ( 1017246 )
        >Solar power is much better. Eventually, maybe. For now, Venus is covered in hugely thick, highly reflective clouds. Despite the solar irradiance in orbit being more than double that of earth, on the surface you'd get less than a quarter of what you'd get on the surface of earth. And the fact that a venus day is 116 earth days long makes solar power extremely complicated. We can barely store power for a couple of hours on earth, let alone for 4 months.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Rei ( 128717 )

        Venus's middle cloud layer is the most Earthlike place in the solar system outside of Earth. Earthlike gravity - no risk of wasting diseases due to reduced gravity. An amount of atmosphere over your head shielding you from radiation equivalent to being under about 5 meters of water. Earthlike pressures. Earthlike temperatures. Earthlike brightness. The resources that you need in bulk right in the atmosphere around you flowing across your habitat's skin and through its propulsion system (C H O N P S Cl F Ar

  • Just to be pedantic (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ukoda ( 537183 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2021 @03:46AM (#61115022) Homepage
    Electron is New Zealand rocket so the payload is not 660 lbs, it is 300 kg to LEO. No sane Kiwi engineer is going to use imperial units unless under duress.

    • Pretty sure all real science and engineering is done using SI units everywhere in the world, actually.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by evanh ( 627108 )

        Yep, it's just the dump-ass media that refuse to quote the original figures ... even, and especially, with US based science and engineering. No sane engineer uses imperial, period.

      • Since the US Mars lander crash that mixed up feet with meters when it started its deceleration rockets, probably yes. But I would certainly not bet on it.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Rei ( 128717 )

      it is 300 kg to LEO

      I don't understand your units. What's that in talents, or slugs, or large sacks?

    • Re:Just to be pedantic (Score:4, Informative)

      by JoshuaZ ( 1134087 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2021 @07:53AM (#61115456) Homepage
      The rockets currently launch from NZ but it is a US based company, and they are working on launching directly from the US.

      • The rockets currently launch from NZ but it is a US based company

        That's only correct on paper. They registered a US company "Rocket Lab USA" to wholly own their actual NZ rocket business "Rocket Lab", which helps them get US investors and allows them to compete for (and win!) NASA contracts.

        They built a launch complex in Mahia, NZ (first private launch facility with successful orbital launches) that they use for most launches (which makes the announcement that Neutron will launch out of Wallops in USA interesting) and their main manufacturing facility is in Auckland a

        • (which makes the announcement that Neutron will launch out of Wallops in USA interesting)

          Easier to reach orbit from southern US than from Mahia NZ. Mahia is around 39 degrees South, Canaveral is 28.4 or so degrees north. 10+ degrees closer to the equator makes launches easier....

          Yes, there's a reason we don't launch from southern Michigan....

        • They have a license to launch every 72 hours from 1A, whereas from Wallops we expect they'll have to submit for approval of each launch.

          Yes and no. The FAA made a rule change early this year. For qualifying rockets, the only launch approval required is air traffic control, not the old style long form evaluation.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ukoda ( 537183 )
        No, it is New Zealand base company playing location games to appeal to USA investors and to add launch options from a location closer to the equator.

        Regardless is there still anyone in the launch industry in the USA still using the imperial system? If so did they no hear what happened to the Mars Climate Orbiter in 1999?

    • > No sane Kiwi engineer is going to use imperial units unless under duress.

      No sane journalist is going to write for somebody other than their primary audience.
       

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by necro81 ( 917438 )

        No sane Kiwi engineer is going to use imperial units unless under duress.

        No sane journalist is going to write for somebody other than their primary audience.

        And for what it is worth, RocketLab's own press release was in metric, but with imperial values in parenthesis.

        • No sane Kiwi engineer is going to use imperial units unless under duress.

          No sane journalist is going to write for somebody other than their primary audience.

          And for what it is worth, RocketLab's own press release was in metric, but with imperial values in parenthesis.

          But if you use both, it doesn't give half the Slashdot users the chance to lose their minds. Nothing gets them going like their inability to understand multiple systems.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ukoda ( 537183 )
        Given the "primary audience" in this case was Slashdot readers I think mixing metric and imperial measurements in the same sentence as the basis of comparison was sloppy journalism and bound to annoy people who actually care what the numbers mean.

        As someone pointed out Rocket labs did their press release in metric, but with imperial values in parenthesis. If Slashdot was a USA only targeting website them they should have converted the metric 8T to imperial and used that. As a website aimed at a techni

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by xOneca ( 1271886 )
      The worst part is they mix metric (8t) and imperial (600lbs) in the same sentence for comparison because, why would they use same units?
  • Spacex has started a whole new age of space programs and I think there will be many private companies in near future competing for the next-gen space tech.

    • Spacex has started a whole new age of space programs and I think there will be many private companies in near future competing for the next-gen space tech.

      Do you have an Elon Musk shrine in your bedroom?

      • Do you have acknowledgement as a synonym for worship in your dictionary?

        • Do you have acknowledgement as a synonym for worship in your dictionary?

          Okay - tell me the new space explorations that Elon Musk has started. Created solely by Elon Musk, without any input from anyone else.

          Your wording was the worrisome part.

          Musk has been very successful in getting people excited about getting to space again, and that's a really good thing. And Spacex is in "cowboy mode, trying different things. Also good. I like Spacex. I like Musk. His cult he accidentally created? Not so much.

          Because it is a cult. Spacex cult members insert themselves in everything s

          • I agree that cultism sucks and that we should cheer on all space development. I do however also agree that SpaceX has started a whole new age of space programs, as OP said. OP said nothing about Elon, you did.

            • OP said nothing about Elon, you did.

              That is a distinction without a difference. The Spacex cult is not differentiated from the Musk cult.

  • What intrigued me the most was the mention of being capable of becoming a human rated rocket. A lot of questions come to mind with that statement alone. There is a lot of growth potential with this move to a larger rocket with regard to a larger payload but the potential of launching humans to space (perhaps to the Moon?) raises the stakes for the little rocket company that could. I'm excited! Good for them
  • The hard parts are: (1) funding, (2) fabrication and assembly, (3) a reason to go.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Rei ( 128717 )

      (1) They're merging with a SPAC. Market cap in the billions
      (2) They have experience with this already, with the Electron.
      (3) How about "because people will pay them for launch services"?

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