sh1pman

Why did they decide to comment on the radiation background?..

Tesla + Solar Roof + Steel blade made scrap metal at Boca Chica = MoonDozer.

Blue Origin of Kent and SpaceX of Hawthorne. Sounds like they’re honorable knights or something...

It's even better than that. Standard enthalpy (heat) of combustion of methane is -890 kJ/mol. In order to produce 5.5 GJ of thermal energy you need to burn 6200 moles or 138.5 m3 of methane gas. Combined Cycle Gas Turbines (CCGTs) have up to ~60% thermal efficiency, so that volume goes up to 230 m3. Last time I checked, natural gas was about $0.08/m3, so the total cost would be around $18.5 per 100kg to orbit. You just need to figure out how to efficiently convert that electrical energy into orbital velocity. Mass driver maybe?

50% now. Not great, not terrible

NASA: We need SLS to go to the Moon! Elon: *renames BFR to SLS*

News from the future: “...NASA commercial Moon transportation contracts pay for a new Starship each time. Used Starships will be the SpaceX property to do with as they please...”

Who will win? My bet is on team SpaceX. They’re already testing the lander prototype!

Which brings us to ~9.5km/s dV (most of the orbital velocity will be gained at near vacuum Isp), that’s assuming the prototypes dry mass is 75t, and I doubt it is this low. Maybe it can reach orbit but not land afterwards. If I were them, I’d build and test the booster first, then go for orbital and reentry tests.

A 75t dry 1100t full Starship with 380s RVacs has a dV of around 10km/s. Just enough to orbit and land. I don’t think the prototypes can pull this off, not without the booster.

Roscosmos finally got decent launch photographers. More nozzles than Falcon Heavy!

Flight hardware will be built to handle way, way worse conditions that that brief fireball...

They're going to need to man rate Starship at some point. Commercial crew launches to the Gateway is a good opportunity to prove its safety and reliability, before starting selling tickets to Mars.

GTO is not that far from TLI in terms of dV, right? It means that a Starship can probably send a fully fueled Orion (~25t) to the Moon, maybe even with some comanifested cargo. Just saying...

Not again...

What's the problem with Mk2 cockpit?

Yes, I'm talking about spaceplanes, having in mind a typical Mk2 spaceplane. Their natural reentry orientatnion usually depends on where thier CoM is relative to CoL. But if we're talking about super-fast interplanetary reentry (4km/s), it doesn't really matter because much of your aerobraking will happen in the upper atmosphere (47-50 km Peri, any lower and you'll burn up), and at these altitudes the atmosphere is thin enough that you can keep belly-first orientation with just RCS and reaction wheels. If you can't slow down from an interplanetary speed to ~3km/s in one pass, you're going to be thrown back into an interplanetary space. That is usually an undesirable result. Once you're captured in Kerbin orbit, you can take as many passes as you like. Yes. That's why the best orientation is when the whole spaceplane is pointing straight up. At ~50km good enough RCS is all you need to keep it. Just yesterday I tried reentry with my spaceplane coming from Jool. With Pe any lower than 47 km it burns up regardless of feathered or normal wing configuration. But with normal configuration, it does slow down a bit better (more wing area exposed to reentry plasma), enough to get captured in Kerbin orbit.

Rotation servos from BG make it easy. However, what I noticed is that feathered wing configuration doesn't really help you to slow down more than fixed wings. It just makes reentry orientation very stable. If you have issues with overheating at high speeds (>4km/s), it won't help.

Yea, you need to go just a bit lower than 50km, I think I went 48 or so. Almost exploded, some bars were completely red. Try tumbling and rolling when things get too hot to disperse heat

4000m/s reentry is fine. Doable. All the parts that are exposed to plasma need to have at least 2000K max temp., like Mk2 spaceplane parts for example. Aim for 48-50 km periapsis and max angle of attack (belly first). With luck, you’ll lose enough velocity to capture in Kerbin orbit. Then make another pass with 30km Pe and land. I did this exact thing just yesterday, actually. Aerobraked at Kerbin in a Mk2 spaceplane coming from Jool, nothing exploded.

Late July (Elon time).

The hero we need.

I think it’s because there’s a far higher chance to survive a car crash than a plane crash.