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Disclaimer: This paper partially fulfills a writing requirement for the first year (freshman) engineering students at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering. This paper is a student paper, not professional paper. This paper is based on publicly available information and may not provide complete analyses of all relevant data. If this paper is used for any purpose other than this author`s partial fulfillment of a writing requirement for first year (freshman) engineering students at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, users are doing so at their own risk.

FALCON HEAVY

Zoë Neal ([email protected])

SPACEX order to finish the mission the vehicle was set out to SpaceX is a private space exploration do. company that designs and manufactures various Named after its use of nine first stage launch technologically advanced spacecraft and launch engineers, this is the world’s first partially reusable vehicles under the direction of co-founder and rocket [1]. It is comprised of three separate parts. CEO, [1]. The company was founded in The first stage is comprised of two boosters and the 2002 with the intent of advancing space exploration second stage is rocket itself. The Full technology to achieve their ultimate goal of Thrust can lift cargo up to 50,300 pounds to low enabling humans to live on other planets. They are . That is the equivalent of sending a the first private company to return a spacecraft from sailboat, a greyhound bus, and a monster truck to an low-Earth orbit and are the first to use an orbital altitude of 1,200 miles. The can take class rocket in re-flight. They have not fell short of 18,300 pounds to Geostationary Transfer Orbit. their expectations, and the success of SpaceX has That equalizes to flying a Howitzer Trailer and a not gone unrecognized. NASA has worked in medium missile to an altitude of 22,236 miles [3]. tandem with SpaceX numerous times in order to For comparison and assistance in solidifying the receive state of the art technology. In 2011, NASA understanding of the weight and heights mentioned contracted SpaceX to build a version of their above, an average commercial aircraft carries Dragon Capsule, a free flying spacecraft, that was around 175,000 pounds to an altitude of 7.8 miles suitable for human transport to the International [4]. Space Station and back. This year, Musk stated that In 2008, SpaceX won a contract to resupply SpaceX has been contracted by two individuals that the International Space Station from NASA and want to be put into the Dragon and orbit the moon. utilized the Falcon 9 and Dragon Capsule. The pair They are already set to launch in 2018, resulting in launched their first mission in October 2012. This SpaceX becoming a pioneer in lunar tourism. The rocket has performed extremely well, but many focus of my paper is SpaceX`s , a changes and innovations have been made, which rocket that is years in the making and set to launch have resulted in the Falcon Heavy. Although the in late 2017. Falcon Heavy is designed to be superior to the Falcon 9, it is being prepared to be certified for In order to understand the significance of human transportation to the International Space the Falcon 9 Heavy, one must possess general Station. information of the Falcon 9 Full Thrust, its predecessor. FALCON 9 HEAVY The Falcon 9 Full Thrust is a two-stage, LOX/RP powered heavy lift launch vehicle. “Two- The Falcon 9 Heavy is set to launch late this stage” describes the way the rocket is made, and year, and the space exploration community is how it functions [2]. The rocket essentially is brimming with excitement. It is a reusable, two- comprised of two parts. The first stage, or the first stage, super heavy lift space launch vehicle. The part, is designed in a way that once it suns out of Falcon Heavy is comprised of a stronger version of fuel, it detaches from the second stage. Many space the Falcon 9 rocket core, and two additional first vehicles are constructed this way due to the fact that stage rockets as strap on boosters. once the fuel runs out, the fuel chambers just After some research and analysis of what the become extra weight. Therefore, it is disposed of. capabilities of the Falcon 9 Heavy would be, the The second stage is equipped with its own fuel in SpaceX decided that the first two stages will be comprised of liquid strap on boosters. That allowed

University of Pittsburgh, Swanson School of Engineering 10.31.2017 Zoë Neal

them to place in the neighborhood of 25 tons into The task at hand is to discuss a problem and lower earth orbit, more than any launch vehicle an innovation that attempts to act as the solution. used since 1975. This rocket can send 141,00 to low One may contemplate, what problem is SpaceX earth orbit, and 37,000 pounds to trans- trying to solve? There is a lot of controversy around injection, which is a maneuver to set a spacecraft on space exploration, but SpaceX is solving one of the the path towards mars Additionally, it is a reusable biggest encroaching problems to date, population rocket and costs less than the average rockets of its control. The Earth can only hold so many people, kind. Falcon Heavy was designed from the outset to once we have reached maximum capacity, what will carry human cargo, and due to its strength, restores happen? The phrase “There is no Planet B” is the possibility of sending humans to mars. infamous nowadays. Yet, SpaceX is challenging Technology this advanced is seldom produced that phrase. Elon Musk confidently estimates without difficulty. Combining the three Falcon 9 humans will be on Mars within twenty years, and cores necessary to produce the new spacecraft SpaceX is closer to sending men to Mars than the proved a lot more difficult than originally human race has ever been before. anticipated. Musk stated “At first it sounds real easy, you just stick two first stages on as strap-on THE FUTURE WITH FALCON 9 boosters, but then everything changes…All the HEAVY loads change, aerodynamics totally change. You’ve tripled the vibration and acoustics. You The Falcon 9 Heavy was designed to deliver sort of break the qualification levels on so much human cargo safely to the International Space of the hardware [5].” For the Falcon 9 Heavy, Station, and potentially has enough power to send they had to reanalyze and redesign a lot more itself on the proper path towards Mars. As we than they thought. Which continually delayed the continue to get more familiar and better to launch date of the rocket. explore our celestial environment, debate increases In May 2017, SpaceX did the first static fire about space exploration. Should humans really be test of flight design for the Falcon Heavy center expanding beyond our boundaries? core, and everything went as expected [6]. Alas, due With the innovations of the Falcon 9 Heavy, to the difficulty of the perfecting the Rocket, Musk some people against Space Exploration have grown has downplayed the success of the rocket during the more worried that humans will begin setting up actual. All he hopes for is the launch, it won`t residence on planets other than Earth. They believe damage the launch pad. that if we were given the Earth, which has all we The “SpaceX need, and the atmosphere, which protects us from Development Program” is a program that devotes the unsuitable conditions of space, then there is no its energy toward new technologies that make need to go any further. Humans do not know what rockets reusable, similar to the reusability of an lies outside of our atmosphere for a reason. Another aircraft. In order to return the parts, it involves view from this side of the debate is, by expanding flipping the around, possibly a boost back beyond our preset boundaries, we can potentially to reverse the course, a re-entry burn, and disturb other life in space. Due to the fact that controlling the direction to arrive at the site. reusable rockets are a relatively new innovation, The hard part about this is that, rockets take a lot of there is copious amounts of debris from earlier time to build and they only go in one direction. missions floating in space. That waste has the Once they have detached from the initial rocket, and potential to badly damage or destroy another form are out of the gravitational field, it is hard to focus of life that we do not now about. If the Falcon where they will land. Rocket ships are extremely 9Heavy or Falcon 9 does become certified for costly, and being able to retrieve the rockets will be human transportation, it is only a matter of time an enormous cost reduction and enable companies before the . This can be safely to build more rockets. Currently, Space X is assumed, because Elon Musk has directly expressed working on the development of an extensible interest in Mars colonization. reusable rocket launching system that would be able Leaving the existing debate aside, there are a to recover all parts of the Falcon 9 Heavy. myriad of issues that can arise if humans begin to inhabit Mars. There are no legislations regarding IS ALL THIS REALLY life on other planets. An event such as this has the NECESSARY? energy to cause international turmoil and ruin existing relations. Additionally, this will no doubt be an expensive venture, something only the

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wealthy can afford. No doubt, the wealthy will take [5] Clark, Stephen. “Musk sets expectations their fortunes with them, possibly leading to an low for maiden Falcon Heavy launch.” Breaking international economic crisis. News. 7.25.2017. Date Accessed October 22nd,2017 Yet again, this can all be a figment of a pessimist’s imagination. As our numbers only “https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/07/25/musk- continue to rise, expanding outward can be a sets-expectations-low-for-maiden-falcon-heavy- reasonable solution. Additionally, the Earth is launch/ decaying due to pollutants and poisons produced [6] Wall, Mark. “SpaceX Static-Fires Falcon from human activity. There are efforts to repair Heavy Core for the 1st Time(Video).” Spaceflight. what we have done, but we cannot get the earth to 5.9.2017. Date Accessed October 22nd, 2017 back to the state it was in before the age of https://www.space.com/36782-spacex-test-fires- industrialization. If a significant number of people falcon-heavy-core-video.html left the planet, the Earth will have a better chance of repairing a little bit, hopefully lasting longer than ADDITIONAL SOURCES we have speculated. There is such a gray area that consumes the seemingly black and white. Because [1]Clark, Stephen. “Falcon 9 rocket launching its space the final frontier, what do we know? Sunday sports fin upgrade.“ Breaking News. I feel as though the detriments and the benefits 6.25.2017. Date Accessed October 22nd, 2017 of space exploration even themselves out. The https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/06/25/falcon-9- detrimental cost of potentially disturbing another rocket-launching-sunday-sports-fin-upgrade/ life form in my eyes, is equal to the beneficial [2]Australian Space Academy. “Low Earth amount that will be received if humans are enabled Circular .” Circular Parameters. 2017. Date to live on other planets. It is a well-known fact that Accessed October 22nd, 2017. humans cannot survive without mechanical http://www.spaceacademy.net.au/watch/track/leop assistance in space. Therefore, it is logical for ars.htm humans to stay in our atmospheric bubble and [3]Radio Electronics. “Geostationary Satellite silently live out our days. Yet, we have been Orbit, GEO.” Geostationary Satellite Orbit, GEO. hardwired as curious creatures. We crave 2017. Date Accessed October 22nd, 2017. knowledge of the unknown, we want to explore http://www.radio- every undiscovered corner that crosses out path. electronics.com/info/satellite/satellite- While it is logical to stay on Earth, it is in our nature orbits/geostationary-earth-orbit.php to branch out universally. in order to figured out my [4] Sify News. “Orbiter Sucessfully Placed in stance on this debate, I thought to myself, “Well, are Mars Transfer Trajectory.” Science. 10.30.2017. humans logical or instinctive?” Date Accessed October 22nd, 2017. http://www.sify.com/news/orbiter-successfully- REFERENCES placed-in-mars-transfer-trajectory-news-science- nmbdgtggghh.html [1] SpaceX. “About SpaceX”. About SpaceX. [5]Clark, Stephen. “SpaceX Completes Static 2017. Accessed 10.23.2017. Fire Test for Sunday Launch of Secret Satellite.” http://www.spacex.com/about Breaking News. 4.25.2017. Date Accessed October [2] Milligan, Tim Van. “How Multi-Stage 22, 2017 Rockets Work.” How Two Stage Rockets Work. https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/04/25/spacex- 2017. Accessed 10.23.2017. completes-static-fire-test-for-sunday-launch-of- https://www.apogeerockets.com/Tech/How_2- secret-satellite/ Stage_Rockets_Work [6]Fernholz, Tim. “The Complete Visual [3] BerkaZerka. “How Much Things Weigh.” History of SpaceX`s Single Minded Pursuit of 05.06.2008. Accessed 10.22.2017. Rocket Reusability.” Quartz. 07.01.2017. Date nd http://www.bountyheadbebop.com/forum/index.ph Accessed October 22 , 2017 p?topic=24.0 https://qz.com/1016072/a-multimedia-history-of- [4] Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. “Ask every-single-one-of-spacexs-attempts-to-land-its- an Explainer.” Structures and Materials. booster-rocket-back-on-earth/ 06.07.2015. Date Accessed October 22nd, 2017. https://howthingsfly.si.edu/ask-an-explainer/how- much-weight-can-average-size-airplane-hold

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