CatastrophicFailure

Apparently all that static firing broke something.

The weather here is disgustingly mild, rarely snows, rarely gets super hot, never a hurricane but we usually get a few nasty windstorms every fall/winter. This one just surprised the L out of everyone, no one saw it coming. We had a mild wind advisory to start then out of nowhere there were 100kph+ gusts in places. What we do have lots of around here, are trees, they don’t mix so well with aerial power lines, especially when the ground is so saturated it’s basically mud and they can just flop over. One of those “perfect storms” I guess. Would love to have a wind/solar system, where I am if the sun’s not shining the wind is usually blowing. Then again, I’m having enough conniptions with this brassafrackin propane gennie at the moment. Apparently, possibly due to my nonstandard wiring setup, the starting battery doesn’t charge when the generator is running. Must be making the controller wonky cuz the generator shut down in the middle of the night due to low coolant... It’s air-cooled...

Well, about 1 this morning things certainly got... interesting around here. In the “oh God God we’re all gonna die” sort of way. Well, maybe not that bad, but I’m lying in bed reading the forum when I start getting SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNINGs popping up. That’s a pretty extreme rarity around here. Didn’t see much wind where I was but the power went out shortly thereafter. And is still out. Upwards of 500,000 people in the dark in the greater Puget Sound area, multiple roads were closed due to trees and powerlines down (including both directions of a major 8-lane interstate. ) That standby generator we got last spring is becoming the best investment ever. But as usual, Comcast is out too. Help me Elon-1 Kenobi, you’re my only hope. Seems I picked the right day to take off from work. Which of course, now involved splitting all this: I feel like a lumberjack. I had no idea lumberjacks lived in so much pain. Also discovered that this does not, in fact, work: Seems the charger doesn’t like GFCI outlets either, so it’s a lame 5mph charge all night. Oh, the “oh God oh God we’re all gonna die” part? This guy: Gust of wind caught him coming over the bridge. Not pictured: the 180-foot drop down to the frigid, churning water below. Hope he wore his brown pants that day. I’m sitting here in a parking lot in town where there’s actually cell service connecting to the outside world for a few minutes, then it’s back to the digital black hole. StarLink plz.

You should come out here, everything’s so saturated right now there’s zero fire danger. Except maybe with dioxygen difluoride. But fuel-wise, maybe fire starter pellets? Fairly light, burn long and consistently. I tried looking up fire resistant fabric out of curiosity, but after a truly painful amount of math it seems to be twice the weight of paper. Maybe just some good ol’ fashioned nylon? I think that’s what actual balloons are made of. Or maybe parachute silk, prolly available on eBay. And ITAR, the FAA, EPA, NTSB, MPAA, AAA, SAG, MIB, PDQ, RSTLNE...

Have you considered dioxygen difluoride? Everything takes off better with dioxygen difluoride.

Not... sure... if this should be rotated or not...

An Ekranoplan shuttle transport/launcher?? Hah, I love it! And looks like they had plans to vertically launch a missile from a cargo plane, too.

Just one example, Back when I was a youngun around here, I was officially scolded for posting a reaction meme sans text. Since then, that rule has been reconsidered, and wisely so. Picture is worth a thousand words and all...

I’ll see that symphony and raise you this one.

What are you talking about? That thread has never been unlocked. Not once. Ever.

I think that may be why it was so short, longer burns have tended to run a little, well, pad-rich. Everything about SN9 has been quite short, seems like only yesterday they brought it to the pad, no extended cryo-test campaign, could maybe fly as soon as Friday. That speaks to just how confident and comfortable they’re becoming with both the design and flight procedures. I expect SN10 is already on the pad, but the photons involved were caught off guard and are still milling about the build site, feeling very confused.

Interesting indeed. Now weld 4 of those panels to a skeletal sub-structure, and there’s your cargo bay doors...

Maybe it’s the promised mini-Cybertruck for the European market.

A sort of culture shock, I think. We’re all used to seeing rockets assembled in clean rooms or at least very clean indoor factories, they “seem” such fragile, high-precision things. There is absolutely logic to building a steel rocket not that different from a steel ship, but it’s a mental gear-shift for sure.

No. Old clicks should be forgot, and never brought to mind...

So, the question is, which is mechanically and engineeringly easier and more reliable? Threading the needle or giant booster huggers? The actual answer will probably surprise, or be Option C... just a few years ago no one would have suspected a stainless steel rocket built in a field, either.

I wonder if it could really be just this simple. We keep comparing Superheavy to F9, but it can do one thing F9 cannot, which makes all the difference: hover. That’s going to allow incredible accuracy, no need for complex moving booster-grabbers (the best part is no part), just a great big shock absorber. Thinking that further, SpaceX already uses Tesla technology, they could conceivably borrow from the latter’s guidance and machine learning systems and land the SH visually, using cameras (among other sensors). If the algorithm can keep a Model X between the lines, threading a needle with a Superheavy should be comparatively easy, they could even cover the launch/landing stand with high-contrast markers, kinda like motion-capture rigs, no need to adapt the system to existing roadways, after all. Now, say, combine that with Starship hot-gas thrusters for translation control without gimballing and tilting the booster, then a setup like what @cubinator and @RealKerbal3x mentioned above seems pretty plausible. Might even be able to be retrofitted to the existing launch structure in Boca.

Kinda like this?

Stats/price plz? The old gaming rig I’m using for our security cameras & weather station is reaching its last legs, pretty case or not. This looks like a nice, simple (wall-mountable?) solution. Oh and I just noticed I have that same funky sideways mouse, too.

Well... this escalated quickly...

The wife & I saw this live a few years back, best show we’ve ever been to, right down to the bubble-snow falling down on the crowd. In less... this years, we usually re-learn it and jam together, real simple song to play. But for me, this, after I learned its (partially) based on a Christmas carol... Now I can’t not hear it. And now neither can you.

The first module of the orbital expansion of St. Basil’s.

Wouldn’t be so sure about that, I once got way into it with some guy who insisted that if you drove with the window down and no mask on you were absolutely going to spread your COVID to each and every car you passed. Now me, I can’t stand the dang thing, so I don’t wear it a moment longer than necessary and beneficial. ...and then there’s the guy who’s been wearing the same pair of blue latex gloves all day and touching everything... Question is, how does their infection rate compare to the state at large?