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1 hour ago, YNM said:

Question : Are there any report yet on how the tanks failed, and how likely is it to fail ? Or are they just not going to put the fuel in for CRS-17 ?

They still have a few Dragon 1 capsules left, which don’t have the Super Draco LES system. But unless they have some fresh capules hidden away or intend to use them more than twice, they will run out of Dragon 1s before the end of the CRS contract in early 2020 (CRS-20).

A cargo Dragon 2 without LES should be relatively easy.

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7 hours ago, Nivee~ said:

Or maybe botox treated older steel...

To be fair, presence of Clostridium botulinum would re-smoothen crumpled food cans... Maybe they smoothened the steel in the same way :sticktongue:

Edited by YNM
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So, i was pondering in this for a while: Elon Musk wanted his starship/superheavy to be of a 9m diameter because the commercially available oven which baked the carbon fiber would be the limiting factor.

If he is building the Starship/Superheavy with stainless steel, then why is he still sticking to a 9 m diameter? Why not the initial 12m, or maybe 15m diameter?

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4 minutes ago, Nivee~ said:

So, i was pondering in this for a while: Elon Musk wanted his starship/superheavy to be of a 9m diameter because the commercially available oven which baked the carbon fiber would be the limiting factor.

If he is building the Starship/Superheavy with stainless steel, then why is he still sticking to a 9 m diameter? Why not the initial 12m, or maybe 15m diameter?

Because he already ran the simulations at 9m. A simulation at the resolution needed for entry and landing is no joke.

Also, less engines means the first rocket will launch sooner. the1st raptor was a test run and had combustion chamber problems. but the 39th raptor, assuming no further rejections, will finish the SH's N-web and get them ready for flight. That's their limiting factor here.

Also a smaller first fully reusable rocket will undercut all the unreusable and semireusables in development, eating the lunch of smaller rockets.

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8 minutes ago, Nivee~ said:

So, i was pondering in this for a while: Elon Musk wanted his starship/superheavy to be of a 9m diameter because the commercially available oven which baked the carbon fiber would be the limiting factor.

If he is building the Starship/Superheavy with stainless steel, then why is he still sticking to a 9 m diameter? Why not the initial 12m, or maybe 15m diameter?

At some point in the design you just have to lock down some parameters, even if they are arbitrary- so that everything else (like internal systems)can be designed too.

 

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20 minutes ago, Nightside said:

At some point in the design you just have to lock down some parameters, even if they are arbitrary- so that everything else (like internal systems)can be designed too.

 

Are we sure it’s just the carbon fiber tooling or are there other infrastructure considerations for being 9m?

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30 minutes ago, Racescort666 said:

Are we sure it’s just the carbon fiber tooling or are there other infrastructure considerations for being 9m?

Yeah, I thought it was also the height of standard 32’ warehouse/factory clearance under the rafters. 

But now that they’re building out in a field.... Although they’d probably still want to bring it indoors for inspections and refurbishment...

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26 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said:

Yeah, I thought it was also the height of standard 32’ warehouse/factory clearance under the rafters. 

But now that they’re building out in a field.... Although they’d probably still want to bring it indoors for inspections and refurbishment...

The fin changes also changes dimensions, its even talk of fins on superheavy. 
Is it me or would it be easier to service SS and SH in an VAB

Reasons. 
Easier access to engines, even if laid down the engines close to the tail fin would be 9 meter up, can imagine an floor halfway up the engines to. Primary purpose would be to protect the upper part of engines with sensitive parts but it would also make servicing them easier. 
The other major part who need servicing would be on top on the floor of cargo hold, or top part on SH. 
If would make servicing the manned version easier as floors would be floors and make cargo integration easier. 

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2 hours ago, magnemoe said:

The fin changes also changes dimensions, its even talk of fins on superheavy. 
Is it me or would it be easier to service SS and SH in an VAB

Call me silly, but they probably don't intend to always run production in a field. They're building throw-away prototypes. They're already on version 2 and these things don't currently require precise engineering (of the bodies at least) nor much in the way of servicing.

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59 minutes ago, Damien_The_Unbeliever said:

Call me silly, but they probably don't intend to always run production in a field. They're building throw-away prototypes. They're already on version 2 and these things don't currently require precise engineering (of the bodies at least) nor much in the way of servicing.

Why not?  Tesla moved car production to tents.

They might just be waiting for their over-sized tent order to arrive so that weather is less annoying.

Touchy composites need practically a clean-room environment for best results, but stainless steel is fine getting rained on.

Just because something can be brought into a tight tolerance, does not mean it is not precise, it just means it is forgiving if it leaves tolerance and needs to be brought back in.

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1 hour ago, Terwin said:

Touchy composites need practically a clean-room environment for best results, but stainless steel is fine getting rained on.

The people working with that stainless steel are often less fine about getting rained on.

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