Jump to content

SpaceX Discussion Thread


Skylon

Recommended Posts

15 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

It looks absolutely accursed.

LOL.

Will be interesting.

Actually, wonder what the cross sectional area in the airflow is folded vs deployed. You'd need to take average angle of attack into account for deployed, but they are pretty thick folded, and most of the cross section is empty space deployed. The min value being the sum of the metal thickness they used (1/2 steel? times the grid pattern).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, tater said:

wonder what the cross sectional area in the airflow is folded vs deployed. You'd need to take average angle of attack into account for deployed, but they are pretty thick folded, and most of the cross section is empty space deployed.

My intuition is that the drag will be higher in this configuration BUT the weight will be lower and so the overall penalty will be negligible, if anything.

They are pretty thick folded, but in the folded config the airflow would end up going around them pretty smoothly. There’s going to be a lot more overall shock drag from the large extension.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

My intuition is that the drag will be higher in this configuration BUT the weight will be lower and so the overall penalty will be negligible, if anything.

They are pretty thick folded, but in the folded config the airflow would end up going around them pretty smoothly. There’s going to be a lot more overall shock drag from the large extension.

True. These are tighter to the tank than previous renders—the sort of squashed hexagon version—perhaps for that reason (also easier to fabricate).

I have to assume they have a metric ton of data on gridfins at this point, though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, tater said:

True. These are tighter to the tank than previous renders—the sort of squashed hexagon version—perhaps for that reason (also easier to fabricate).

I have to assume they have a metric ton of data on gridfins at this point, though.

One advantage is that if the arms were to miss the catch/lift points, they would likely still snag on the grid fins. Would probably still cause serious damage but would at least prevent RUD and pad FUBAR.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, sevenperforce said:

One advantage is that if the arms were to miss the catch/lift points, they would likely still snag on the grid fins. Would probably still cause serious damage but would at least prevent RUD and pad FUBAR.

I thought the grid fins were the catch/lift points.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, The Doodling Astronaut said:

Nostalgia am I right?

They say the moon is made of cheese, Gromit

SpaceX won the hls contract since they can bring the most moon cheese home

(dang I got Kerbiloid vibes writing this)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

28 minutes ago, Deddly said:

I thought the grid fins were the catch/lift points.

The load points where the tower catches superheavy are, at least the last time we heard about that, supposed to be right under the grid fins. But since Starbase videos have started to get outdated on average less than a day after they are out, this could as well have changed. Crossed fingers for Tim revealing more news about that in the interview

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

Well it can not rotate so photo shot, also external ribbing. Well its the un-pressurized top of the first stage so it need more reinforcement to hold the +1000 ton starship.
 

So from what I heard it can't move at all?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, The Doodling Astronaut said:

So from what I heard it can't move at all?

that was the thought, but elon's posts since seem to imply that they are functional, which would require that they at least rotate in place.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Deddly said:

I thought the grid fins were the catch/lift points.

The catch/lift point is just barely under the grid fins:

E7orYSYWEAA2INU?format=jpg 

It’s the thing that looks like a bathtub faucet.

48 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

Well it can not rotate so photo shot, also external ribbing.

These could be just for a fit check, but how can you be sure these cannot rotate? The rotating actuator could be inside and thus concealed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

35 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

It’s the thing that looks like a bathtub faucet.

It looks like it's literally gonna have an arrestor hook.

XF4U+tail+hook.jpg

 

They could also avoid anything that needs deployment, and add a wide, curved guide. 100% passive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought they moved pairs of the grid fins closer together (not 90 degrees apart) to facilitate catching the booster by the grid fins. But why do that if they're going to snag the booster by hard points?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

9 minutes ago, Brotoro said:

I thought they moved pairs of the grid fins closer together (not 90 degrees apart) to facilitate catching the booster by the grid fins. But why do that if they're going to snag the booster by hard points?

There could be hooks that deploy, or a wide metal guide, wider than grid fins.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, tater said:

 

This level of straightforward honesty is unbelievably refreshing from someone in the Aerospace industry.  

Oh wait. 8D

...

 (It's why we forgive the failures - tell people up front that it's hard, might not work, and yet is worth doing???  Brilliant)

Others should copy his style.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

44 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

This level of straightforward honesty is unbelievably refreshing from someone in the Aerospace industry.  

Oh wait. 8D

...

 (It's why we forgive the failures - tell people up front that it's hard, might not work, and yet is worth doing???  Brilliant)

Others should copy his style.

As the dad of the kid on the spectrum, I am inclined to think it has a lot to do with Elon being on the spectrum as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...