SpaceX Tuesday...
Discussion
Flooble said:
Interesting that the crane has an extra bit hanging out the back to let it lift, when it's so far under the weight limit. Extra safety for wind?
They just transfer the load so that the boom is in compression with the cables taking the tension. Absolutely standard with anything other than small mobile cranes.
https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/117805899682...
"This is an outdoors event, and there have been scattered showers in the area today."
"This is an outdoors event, and there have been scattered showers in the area today."
I'd recommend the Q&A rather than the presentation, Elon was far more in his element answering questions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCpLvUF8nAM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCpLvUF8nAM
What a remarkable presentation.
While Musk certainly isn't infallible (especially wrt casting aspersions on people trying to rescue kids stuck in caves) I think what Spacex have achieved with Starship is pretty amazing.
I'll eat my hat if they actually get it to 20km in the next 30 days but the achievements they've made so far have been incredible when you consider where they were this time last year.
I'll be interested to see how the manufacture of the super heavy booster goes too - this appears to have been glossed over slightly. I assume it'll be made out of carbon fibre not stainless as per the starship as it doesn't have to deal with re-entry heat? But stainless would be significantly cheaper and quicker...
Exciting times we're living in!
While Musk certainly isn't infallible (especially wrt casting aspersions on people trying to rescue kids stuck in caves) I think what Spacex have achieved with Starship is pretty amazing.
I'll eat my hat if they actually get it to 20km in the next 30 days but the achievements they've made so far have been incredible when you consider where they were this time last year.
I'll be interested to see how the manufacture of the super heavy booster goes too - this appears to have been glossed over slightly. I assume it'll be made out of carbon fibre not stainless as per the starship as it doesn't have to deal with re-entry heat? But stainless would be significantly cheaper and quicker...
Exciting times we're living in!
shalmaneser said:
I'll be interested to see how the manufacture of the super heavy booster goes too - this appears to have been glossed over slightly. I assume it'll be made out of carbon fibre not stainless as per the starship as it doesn't have to deal with re-entry heat? But stainless would be significantly cheaper and quicker...
Like the Falcon 9 first stage, it will have to endure a fair degree of re-entry heating, so could well be stainless tooHe seems to like stainless steel now. Being 2% the cost of the equivalent carbon fibre doesn't hurt.
The super heavy booster is more of a known quantity in terms of operation. A scaled up Falcon 9 booster really. The Falcon 9 body is mostly aluminium-lithium alloy. The black interstage is carbon fibre now. The fairing and legs are carbon fibre with an aluminum honeycomb. The grid fins used to aluminium, but got a bit melty sometimes and are now titanium.
Interesting that he doesn't think it'll need a re-entry burn like the Falcon 9. Wouldn't surprise me if that changes.
Edit: They have a web page for Starship now:
https://www.spacex.com/starship
Scroll down for more.
The super heavy booster is more of a known quantity in terms of operation. A scaled up Falcon 9 booster really. The Falcon 9 body is mostly aluminium-lithium alloy. The black interstage is carbon fibre now. The fairing and legs are carbon fibre with an aluminum honeycomb. The grid fins used to aluminium, but got a bit melty sometimes and are now titanium.
Interesting that he doesn't think it'll need a re-entry burn like the Falcon 9. Wouldn't surprise me if that changes.
Edit: They have a web page for Starship now:
https://www.spacex.com/starship
Scroll down for more.
Edited by Beati Dogu on Monday 30th September 21:09
I think he said that it was 1-2 months before they would launch it (so I guess that means 4-6 months in reality).
He said it was the re-entry burn they wanted to avoid, so there is still a boostback burn. If you are killing the horizontal velocity then it's "just" gravity accelerating you back to the ground. If those fins can generate a bit of lift to slow the rate at which you fall back (peak heating), together with the more heat-tolerant construction I guess it may actually be possible to just slide back down.
He said it was the re-entry burn they wanted to avoid, so there is still a boostback burn. If you are killing the horizontal velocity then it's "just" gravity accelerating you back to the ground. If those fins can generate a bit of lift to slow the rate at which you fall back (peak heating), together with the more heat-tolerant construction I guess it may actually be possible to just slide back down.
The Super Heavy is supposed to be 9 m (30 ft) in diameter and 68 m (223 ft) in height.
For an idea of the scale, here's the dummy first stage of the SLS rocket arriving at the Kennedy Space Center:
It's actually slightly smaller that the Super Heavy - with a width of 8.4 m (27 ft 7 in) and height 64.6 m (212 ft).
For an idea of the scale, here's the dummy first stage of the SLS rocket arriving at the Kennedy Space Center:
It's actually slightly smaller that the Super Heavy - with a width of 8.4 m (27 ft 7 in) and height 64.6 m (212 ft).
Looking forward to seeing Starship fly, though 2 months seems an ambitious time schedule for the first small sub orbital. The dragon crew capsule abort test has a lot riding on it also in that time frame.
I assume with up to 37 engines superheavy will not have control issues if they lose a couple asymetrically? The russians had problems with multiple engines in the past of course. That and the re-entry on starship seem to big issues now they seem to have got landing more or less sorted out.
I assume with up to 37 engines superheavy will not have control issues if they lose a couple asymetrically? The russians had problems with multiple engines in the past of course. That and the re-entry on starship seem to big issues now they seem to have got landing more or less sorted out.
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