tater Posted February 20, 2020 Share Posted February 20, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatGuyWithALongUsername Posted February 20, 2020 Share Posted February 20, 2020 35 minutes ago, Dartguy said: Please excuse my ignorance, but these are just mockups of the Starship, right? I mean, the finished product isn't going to look like some old farm silo, right? Yes and no. This is not going to orbit, but it IS a flight prototype, supposed to launch to an altitude of 20km. It has the exact same design of the orbital starship (unless that design changes due to rapid development), but it is built to a lower standard of quality and precision since it is not going to reach orbit. This allows them to build these quicker and cheaper, make design changes quicker if they encounter a problem during construction, and build multiple prototypes (parts of SN2 are already under construction, it will be closer to orbital quality if not actual orbital quality- that's kind of unclear and I suspect they're not sure themselves) It's a really unique flight development path, they're doing this with a heavy emphasis on "test-as-you-fly." Even if SN2 is orbital, the design and quality of each build is supposed to keep improving through at least SN20. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wjolcz Posted February 20, 2020 Share Posted February 20, 2020 1 hour ago, Dartguy said: Please excuse my ignorance, but these are just mockups of the Starship, right? I mean, the finished product isn't going to look like some old farm silo, right? If water towers can fly... ...then why not silos? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnemoe Posted February 20, 2020 Share Posted February 20, 2020 1 hour ago, tater said: The above is a flight article for 20km, then maybe 100km tests. Once they iterate to the point they have a functional design, I imagine the tanks look more like this: Yes, however the current build looks pretty decent I say. However an 4 mm steel cylinder 9 meter wide and pretty much as long between bulkheads will it be stable without internal structure without pressurization? Not to talk about 2 mm? Granted the raceways will add some strength. Add the LOX pipe down the center. MIght add some bracing on that. One reason to not have structure on the hull is probably thermal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCgothic Posted February 20, 2020 Share Posted February 20, 2020 Elon has said it will be stable unpressurized. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnemoe Posted February 20, 2020 Share Posted February 20, 2020 1 hour ago, ThatGuyWithALongUsername said: Yes and no. This is not going to orbit, but it IS a flight prototype, supposed to launch to an altitude of 20km. It has the exact same design of the orbital starship (unless that design changes due to rapid development), but it is built to a lower standard of quality and precision since it is not going to reach orbit. This allows them to build these quicker and cheaper, make design changes quicker if they encounter a problem during construction, and build multiple prototypes (parts of SN2 are already under construction, it will be closer to orbital quality if not actual orbital quality- that's kind of unclear and I suspect they're not sure themselves) It's a really unique flight development path, they're doing this with a heavy emphasis on "test-as-you-fly." Even if SN2 is orbital, the design and quality of each build is supposed to keep improving through at least SN20. Pretty unique in current times but it was pretty common doing stuff like this, During WW2 it was not uncommon to test by using prototypes in combat. An pretty desperate move as it was an Soviet thing early in the war and a German and Japanese late in it. During wars these sort of things happens in this days too, UAV was developed like this, wonder if any first generation predators surived, During the first gulf war the US came up with an bunker bursting bomb using an old artillery gun barrel. Multiple factors here, companies, bureaucracy and governmental organisations hate high risk as it make the operators look bad because you will get fails. This includes how SpaceX developed first stage landings. Once you state you want to reuse first stages anyone who crashes is an fail even if before you tried the fail rate was always 100% and the cost of trying to recover was an faction of the cost of the stage. Have fun trying to explain that to your backers who are clueless. And this was standard in early aviation, no I would not sell life insurance to an test pilot in 1910 This enforce regulations who ended up made aircraft very safe. Last setting up an mass production pipeline tend to be very expensive and hard to change, using composites reinforces this and you don't want prototype passenger planes to crash. And yes starship need an abort system if they want to push an passenger version fast. Here Musk is over optimistic. Finally I say that Mars will stay an scientific outpost like Antarctica until we teraform it who is far away. LEO, Moon and asteroids has business cases who might fail but still has potential. 1 hour ago, Wjolcz said: If water towers can fly... ...then why not silos? And yes I posted that they could not fly it without an nose cone. as short stubby rockets are unstable in KSP, You can however get better flight control software than Mechjeb is you spends some millions develop them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted February 20, 2020 Share Posted February 20, 2020 I'm looking forward to some explanation about what happened. I'm still guessing nasty wind shear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatastrophicFailure Posted February 20, 2020 Share Posted February 20, 2020 3 hours ago, Wjolcz said: If water towers can fly... Dang... I forget how surreal that still looks... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted February 20, 2020 Share Posted February 20, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted February 20, 2020 Share Posted February 20, 2020 Sunny, with a chance of tweet storm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted February 21, 2020 Share Posted February 21, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrandedonEarth Posted February 21, 2020 Share Posted February 21, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KSK Posted February 21, 2020 Share Posted February 21, 2020 It worked in Kerbal Space Program? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimate Steve Posted February 21, 2020 Share Posted February 21, 2020 On mobile, picture weird, but we were in the area so we paid a visit to the old mk2! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCgothic Posted February 21, 2020 Share Posted February 21, 2020 Don't really know where else to put this, but it's brilliant! Spoiler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xd the great Posted February 22, 2020 Share Posted February 22, 2020 19 hours ago, KSK said: It worked in Kerbal Space Program? Some kerbals popped due to thermal stress Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerbiloid Posted February 22, 2020 Share Posted February 22, 2020 (edited) 21 hours ago, KSK said: It worked in Kerbal Space Program? They test it with Tundra. All goes fine in KSP. Kerbals are expendable, but NASA still doesn't want to accept that. Edited February 22, 2020 by kerbiloid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted February 22, 2020 Share Posted February 22, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimate Steve Posted February 22, 2020 Share Posted February 22, 2020 Do you think they will try to stack it today? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wjolcz Posted February 22, 2020 Share Posted February 22, 2020 (edited) 3 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said: Do you think they will try to stack it today? Looks like they are (presumably) welding something on the bigger part of the tank right now. But it's attached to the crane, so maybe? Edited February 22, 2020 by Wjolcz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted February 22, 2020 Share Posted February 22, 2020 The taller bit with the dome is attached to crane right now, that goes on top of the shorter section. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RealKerbal3x Posted February 22, 2020 Share Posted February 22, 2020 As I expected, SN1 is coming together quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted February 22, 2020 Share Posted February 22, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted February 22, 2020 Share Posted February 22, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wjolcz Posted February 22, 2020 Share Posted February 22, 2020 That square hole in the side looks hella ugly (and dangerous as it's a square). They will probably weld a plate on the inside, or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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