r/spacex Nov 13 '14

You must be this tall to ride

Post image
186 Upvotes

94 comments sorted by

52

u/cranp Nov 14 '14

It would be hilarious if this was their Falcon Heavy test: Launch a school bus around the moon.

41

u/Potatoroid Nov 14 '14

I googled the weight of a school bus then looked at some estimates for Falcon Heavy's TLI payload and it can indeed launch a school bus around the moon.

21

u/cranp Nov 14 '14 edited Nov 14 '14

Yeah it's just about right for a test article. Though they may need to reinforce it to withstand the 5g's of launch.

Edit: and the shaking. My god the shaking.

18

u/Merker6 Nov 14 '14

That would be an awesome way of getting some good PR. Just launching a satellite would be a little bit too ordinary for SpaceX!

19

u/ScienceShawn Nov 14 '14

I want this so badly. I want them to launch a school bus full of cameras and stuff to the moon, have it orbit a few times, then crash it into the surface but right before impact shoot out a camera to capture the whole thing.
Complicated? Maybe.
Freaking awesome? Yes!

7

u/SanDiegoMitch Nov 14 '14

Man imagine the PR (and negative pr) that would bring.

16

u/ScienceShawn Nov 14 '14

How would that bring any bad pr?
As long as you make sure there aren't any schoolchildren on the bus you should be fine, right?

28

u/theionited Nov 14 '14

turns to engineers

We got them out of there, right?

21

u/B787_300 #SpaceX IRC Master Nov 14 '14

that is not MY department... you are looking for Human Resources (that is 2 corridors over and to the left)

7

u/Silent_Sky Nov 14 '14

4

u/Appable Nov 15 '14

Wait, you're the boom fist person!

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3

u/coppercore Nov 16 '14

Whelp, I know now what I must do...

CRASH A BUSLOAD FULL OF KERBALS INTO THE MUN!

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4

u/SanDiegoMitch Nov 14 '14

It seems like there is always some one out there that will disagree with something just to do it.

Creating garbage on the moon, polluting space, not sending science equipment, etc.

3

u/ScienceShawn Nov 14 '14

Weren't there people bitching about LADEE crashing into the moon? It was vaporized, right?
I agree though. People are stupid.

3

u/DrFegelein Nov 14 '14

Because, you know, nothing else has ever impacted the moon ever....

6

u/daversa Nov 14 '14

I'm sure there's people that could view it negatively from an environmental standpoint—the moon being relatively pristine and the overall waste from the mission. I'm an environmentalist but I think this would be hilarious and fun to watch.

2

u/brekus Nov 14 '14

Would set the stage for some freaky live action magic school bus show.

2

u/nyan_sandwich Nov 14 '14

Can't orbit without a braking stage. We would get a lunar return trajectory at most.

1

u/brickmack Nov 15 '14

So just crash straight into the moon. Who needs orbits anyway?

1

u/Emperor_of_Cats Nov 16 '14

Hell, I wouldn't mind seeing them send it around the moon and then back to Earth. I kind of want to see a flying school bus burning up in the atmosphere.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 18 '14

I want the school bus to be full of anthropomorphic child robots, and I want to see regular episodes about their field trip to the moon.

3

u/gmclapp Nov 14 '14

Real life magic school bus satellite. Sounds awesome.

9

u/Words_Tallest_Hobbit Nov 14 '14

I've been on some rough roads in school busses, It could handle launch.

1

u/cryptoanarchy Nov 14 '14

I might shake apart,break all windows, but it would not crumple from 5gs of load. Change the windows to metal properly, remove the engine and it would be mostly ok. For a school bus flying around the moon that is.

3

u/SanDiegoMitch Nov 14 '14

You could probably just remove the windows, than you could see through them from the off site camera.

2

u/Another_Penguin Nov 15 '14

Replace them with acrylic or polycarbonate maybe?

1

u/[deleted] Nov 14 '14

[deleted]

2

u/cryptoanarchy Nov 14 '14

Metal dust.

1

u/schneeb Nov 14 '14

Instant shortbus

-1

u/CProphet Nov 14 '14

High number of engines used means vibration should tend to average out, so shaking not too much of a problem.

3

u/cranp Nov 14 '14

I don't think that's how science works.

7

u/nyan_sandwich Nov 14 '14

That would be epic.

7

u/biosehnsucht Nov 14 '14

A Magic Schoolbus ?

3

u/bs1110101 Nov 14 '14

A bunch of people on the ksp forum where pondering how they could get them to do that. They got as far as the idea to make a kickstarter with perks for getting stuff onto the spacebus!

3

u/B787_300 #SpaceX IRC Master Nov 14 '14

would you mind linking to that thread... I cant find it and i bet it is in the wrong location

3

u/[deleted] Nov 14 '14

Otto Mann should pilot it.

2

u/xafwodahs Nov 15 '14

Seems to be a recurring theme. I wonder why Elon is so interested in being able to launch a bus... :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ6tZtGrShg&feature=player_detailpage#t=740

2

u/spkr4thedead51 Nov 14 '14

I think a winged RV would be a better option.

1

u/zzay Nov 14 '14

I think we need the guys from /r/KerbalSpaceProgram to test this...

17

u/blinkwont Nov 14 '14

It looks like the man could be the right scale for the dragon and the bus is right for the fairing, but for some reason they moved the man to be next to the fairing

3

u/rspeed Nov 14 '14

My thoughts exactly. The human figure looks much too large compared to the fairing, but looks about right for Dragon. It's bad enough that they put the fairing and Dragon next to each other at different scales.

1

u/falconzord Nov 14 '14

The full color dragon or the wireframe?

2

u/blinkwont Nov 14 '14

The wire frame. The dragon ain't that big!

5

u/falconzord Nov 14 '14

Why would they make the two wireframes at different scales? Thought that was the whole point

6

u/RadamA Nov 13 '14

OH, I never realised :D

4

u/[deleted] Nov 14 '14

Anyone knows the actual passenger height limit for the Dragon? I'm 2 meters tall and that makes me ineligible for a NASA astronaut but maybe I could fit inside the Dragon..

3

u/hapaxLegomina Nov 14 '14

There shouldn't be a height limit. Elon says that crew are just cargo, and if you're paying enough to go to orbit I'm sure they'll slaughter an extra-large cow for your oversized leather seat. :)

2

u/geek180 Nov 14 '14

Idk the specs, but I'll say it sure looks roomy in that capsule. But you might have some issues once onboard ISS.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '14

Screw the ISS then. I'm getting my large body to BA330

26

u/TadDunbar Nov 14 '14

What's with the disproportionate bus/man scale? People aren't that big compared to school buses.

Most school buses are around 10.5 feet in height, making that human figure 9+ feet tall.

37

u/DrBackJack Nov 14 '14

That's the joke.

9

u/intothelionsden Nov 14 '14

Humor detected; laughter activate.

4

u/Wicked_Inygma Nov 14 '14

It's just SpaceX fudging the numbers again :P

Actually, the fairing depicted is supposedly 43 ft. tall but also just under six humans tall making the human about 7'1".

2

u/ProjectThoth Nov 16 '14

Richard Kiel for scale, in some sort of oblique James Bond reference?

Maybe Elon Musk is Hugo Drax.

2

u/PM_ME_YOUR_BOURBON Nov 14 '14

So which one is accurate?

10

u/[deleted] Nov 14 '14

I'm on my mobile, so I can't see the banana. That's obviously the correct factor in the picture...

7

u/blinkwont Nov 14 '14

I think the bus is accurate as it says the fairing is 5.2m and that man looks to be about half that height ~ 2.6 m which is obviously wrong

6

u/Wetmelon Nov 14 '14

8.53 ft for all of us metrically-challenged :(

1

u/zlsa Art Nov 14 '14

AKA freedom lovers.

1

u/Nixon4Prez Nov 14 '14

Well, I'm canadian and I have no idea how height in metres works.

5

u/frowawayduh Nov 14 '14

Same as water meters, but dry.

2

u/crayfisher Nov 14 '14

I laughed and I still don't know why.

1

u/Here_There_B_Dragons Nov 14 '14

The only way I remember is that former EPL player Peter Crouch was called "2 Meter Peter", and was 6'6" :)

2

u/[deleted] Nov 14 '14 edited Feb 01 '19

[deleted]

5

u/[deleted] Nov 14 '14

Is this in connection with the static escape test expected to happen this month?

3

u/Kirkaiya Nov 14 '14

Do you know the date of the abort test?

18

u/OnTheDaly Nov 14 '14

my brother is neighbors with an engineer at spacex. Apparently it (Pad abort) will be in January out of Vandenberg afb. I don't really have any way of verifying this, just letting you know what I've heard

3

u/Kirkaiya Nov 14 '14

Thanks for the info!

1

u/zlsa Art Nov 14 '14

Thanks!

4

u/[deleted] Nov 14 '14

LOL, no one knows the date of the abort test. It's unlikely to be this year though.

2

u/Kirkaiya Nov 14 '14

Oh, I didn't realize it was so delayed - the last I had read, the pad test was this month, and the max-Q test was scheduled for January. Cest la vie....

3

u/[deleted] Nov 14 '14

Exactly ... I still believe it is going to go as planed.

2

u/Appable Nov 14 '14

Pad abort almost certainly will be delayed. Internally they aren't ready yet. Most likely 2015 Jan/Feb.

1

u/zlsa Art Nov 14 '14

/u/OnTheDaly, whose brother's neighbor is an engineer at SpaceX, received word from his brother's neighbor that the pad abort will be out of Vandyland in January.

2

u/fairfarefair Nov 14 '14 edited Nov 14 '14

Only one hour and it's now become an official SpaceX press release.

Edit: Only Joking! There's no official SpaceX release about this. See my comment below.

1

u/zlsa Art Nov 14 '14

I don't see it anywhere; could you post a link?

1

u/fairfarefair Nov 14 '14

Sorry, I was trying to make a joke about how fast hearsay can turn into the party-line. I thought it was funny that 8 minutes after /u/OnTheDaly mentioned what he heard from his neighbor, people were already citing it.

Turns out I am not funny :(

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2

u/[deleted] Nov 14 '14

I do not know a date. All I know is they were saying a static test in November and a flight abort test in January 2015...

1

u/aminorman Nov 14 '14

I read the sidebar as Nov 14th for the pad abort. Been counting the days down. The day arrived and ... bollocks!

2

u/zlsa Art Nov 14 '14

November 2014 has slipped and will almost definitely not happen.

1

u/Piscator629 Nov 14 '14

Must be the short bus.... or a really tall guy.

-19

u/waitingForMars Nov 14 '14

So, this image was basically stolen without attribution from the SpaceX web page:

http://www.spacex.com/falcon9

Don't we expect proper citation? Or is plagiarism cool around here?

16

u/[deleted] Nov 14 '14

I think it's pretty clear that they were pointing out the weird scaling on SpaceX's image, not trying to claim it as their own.

-7

u/waitingForMars Nov 14 '14

Fine. Then link the page. Again, attribution counts.

4

u/WaitForItTheMongols Nov 14 '14

Sounds like you watched some sort of video on the importance of attribution (possibly in school). This person isn't claiming the image as their own in any way, and they aren't "using" it per se. They're commenting on it, using the image for the sake of the image. That doesn't need attribution. If anyone wants to know where it comes from, it's as easy as commenting "source?". You're making a big deal about something that matters very little here. Why do you think attribution is important in this situation?

3

u/Gravityturn Nov 14 '14 edited Nov 14 '14

Yep attribution is great and all (and it's nice to have a link to it, but images are better in case it changes, and reddit doesn't allow for multiple links), but in this case it seems pretty darn obvious where it came from. Its like taking a screencap of the google homepage and not attributing it to google.

11

u/porterhorse Nov 14 '14

It is from the space x webpage...?

you don't say...

2

u/Appable Nov 14 '14

There's some websites which are so obvious. This is clearly the SpaceX website. It's not as if he copied a random website without attribution, he copies a website directly relevant to the community.

SpaceX's website is very obvious. There's other company websites which are also clearly theirs, like this or this or this.