Jump to content

SpaceX Discussion Thread


Skylon

Recommended Posts

2 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

Come on, let's light this candle!

Wonder how tight they can get the launch date once they actually get ready? I need about a 15 hour warning (more if I want to stop for a meal).

Least if I take my son out of school for it, he can do half the driving.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, tater said:

Wonder how tight they can get the launch date once they actually get ready? I need about a 15 hour warning (more if I want to stop for a meal).

Least if I take my son out of school for it, he can do half the driving.

My oldest son is just under 10 so I'll have to do it all myself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, tater said:

I need about a 15 hour warning

Yeah, funny that I live in west Texas and I need an 8 hour lead time. I would love to be there when it goes (or goes off). Wife and kid aren't even remotely interested so, a solo drive for me.

On that note, they did say they were not going to do road closures on the weekends, right? And that means a monday to friday only launch?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, tater said:

The environment is worse for static fire than launch. Tile loses have been greater lower on SS, and SS will be farther from the SH engines by a lot—and it has a high launch stand, etc.

They don't have to recover to know if the TPS worked, they have to see the vehicle after peak heating intact, not as a cloud of debris. That tells you the TPS works at some level. Future vehicle recovery helps from there.

It's not irrelevant at all. There are many plausible TPS strategies for rapidly reusable vehicles. All were tested and simulated short of flight at some level—but the proof of actual efficacy requires reentering. Suggesting one never actually used TPS concept instead of another never actually used TPS concept can certainly be argued, but neither can be said to be better, as neither has any real world data. Also, I'm pretty sure the TPS guys at SpaceX are not idiots. They may be barking up the wrong tree, but they are not brain dead, their concept must have some decent data behind it.

A copy of something show to be effective is fine—you know it can work. Starship TPS will very likely iterate as it's something from this project that has literally never been done before (zero refurb reuse).

Yes many says launch is less a problem than static fires, and yes they plan to have cameras in the fuel tanks to watch the inside during reentry. 
It might be smart to have an cubesat taking images of it in space but I assume the heat spots tells most of it. 

The metallic tiles sounds better and perhaps more fitting for SS, looks like it was solid bolted on for one. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, tater said:

I have to wonder what the ultimate solution is for the crane attachments on the nose.

I think they keep the crane attachments in place until they are ready to actually launch, and then they remove them and put on the tile cover sections before final stacking.

Until they are ready to actually launch, those crane hooks remain the only way of lifting other than the chopsticks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

37 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

Until they are ready to actually launch, those crane hooks remain the only way of lifting other than the chopsticks.

Yeah, I was thinking later, with "rapid reuse." In general it seems like it could be moved onto the transporter using the hardpoints. The trick is getting it to the test stand then.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, tater said:

Yeah, I was thinking later, with "rapid reuse." In general it seems like it could be moved onto the transporter using the hardpoints. The trick is getting it to the test stand then.

I don't think anything other than the chopsticks can utilize the hardpoints. You end up with too many degrees of freedom.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

I don't think anything other than the chopsticks can utilize the hardpoints. You end up with too many degrees of freedom.

Unless they built a ship test stand with chopsticks, or some sort of platform they could drop on the OLM and use it to test ships...

 

Edited by tater
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello Everybody!

Dont know if anyone discussed it here,but i will.

When we saw B7 rollout i almost immediately had a question about new outer engine thermal shielding,it appears that it is only a thin layer of foil.So will we see a rollback to Highbay after finishing test campaign?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, Tellurium128 said:

When we saw B7 rollout i almost immediately had a question about new outer engine thermal shielding,it appears that it is only a thin layer of foil.So will we see a rollback to Highbay after finishing test campaign?

Up the thread I posted a tweet where someone was saying that they'd do some testing on this stack, then send the vehicles back to the production site to be finalized before going back to the pad to launch—Elon Musk liked that tweet, so I 'd say "yes."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

51 minutes ago, Scotius said:

How did they solved joint stiffening issue if suit is only "slightly bulkier"?

I have heard that mechanical counter-pressure may help reduce the bulk of space suits.

servo-assisted bending could also counter stiffening, I suspect.

In any case, if they work well with only a slight bulk increase, it could be quite a big deal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, tater said:

 

Only what, 12 hours to KSC for FH?

Nice. Mengtian on the LM-5B is targeted for the same day, so we may get two HLLVs launching on one day.

When Scott Manley does his videos recapping launches over the month, it is crazy how it is practically one Falcon 9 and one Long March variant per week.

Musk isn’t kidding when he says he views China as his competitor.

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...