totm nov 2023 SpaceX Discussion Thread

[StrandedonEarth]

Hmmm. So  put Starlink sats in the same plane as known debris objects. When the Starlink is nearing end-of-life, rendezvous with the debris, grapple it (with the dispenser mechanism?) and then de-orbit.

So much easier said than done...

[Raven Industries]

I very much want to see a blueprint or something of these Starlink satellites. 

[satnet]

13 hours ago, magnemoe said:

One issue with landing is that you obviously will have to overfly land unless you land on the US west coast and then you have to move it trough the panama canal on ship anyway.

Any ideas here?

They could land it on a barge in the Atlantic and ship it back. You still need to move it by sea, but you can avoid the canal, though at an average of US$54,000 for an entire ship passing through the canal they might just add that to the launch cost and still be ahead of their competition by a fair margin (assuming it delivers an appreciable reduction in launch costs). They could also land it on the west coast of Africa and then ship it back (which might be cheaper than going through Panama, but obviously not faster). You could also land on west Africa, refuel, then do a sub-orbital hop back to Florida, which would be very expensive, but extremely fast and a good demonstration of rapid reuse.

Since Starship will be returning with at least some dV they can boost back towards land after going out to sea. If they start re-entry over land, but at a point where even a post-breakup ballistic trajectory would take the debris out to sea they might convince NASA and the FAA to allow it, which would minimize the boost back dV. If they aggressively use aerodynamic drag and whatever fuel they can afford to slow down they might be able to maintain a trajectory that ensured the Starship would land in the ocean without going too far away from the landing zone then fly back towards the landing zone and trajectory similar to a Falcon 9.

My best guess is that they'll go with the US west coast landing and trip through the canal until either launch cadence or competition forces them to look into one of the other options.

[AVaughan]

They might also be able to land on an island or an old oil rig in the gulf of Mexico, or maybe even on the west coast of Florida.  No idea what range would suit super heavy, but maybe around the Bahamas or the west coast of Florida might work?  Any old airfields near the coast there?  Other unused rural property near the coast?  (They could make a large enough offer to convince a farmer to sell/lease his land).  Failing that they could just build a bigger barge, and attempt to land at sea for at least the initial flights.  

[Flying dutchman]

I wonder if starship alone would be able to land on their current barge.. nearly empty of fuel i wonder if the barge "should" be able to support it's weight?

[magnemoe]

3 hours ago, Flying dutchman said:

I wonder if starship alone would be able to land on their current barge.. nearly empty of fuel i wonder if the barge "should" be able to support it's weight?

First stage is 25 ton dry mass, starship will be 75 ton I think so far heavier but don't think diameter with legs are much larger. 
More an question if they have nailed landing accuracy enough, on the other hand starship can hover 

[tater]

 

[tater]

 

[Brotoro]

It still puts a silly grin on my face to think of guys building a freakin spacecraft out in a open field.

[CatastrophicFailure]

 

4 minutes ago, Brotoro said:

It still puts a silly grin on my face to think of guys building a freakin spacecraft out in a open field.

If only it were a junkyard, the meta would be compete. 

Tho it makes you wonder... if they can slap ‘em together this fast out in a field, imagine what they could do in a proper factory once all the construction bugs are worked out. 

Edited May 20, 2019 by CatastrophicFailure

[Rakaydos]

5 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

 

Tho it makes you wonder... if they can slap ‘em together this fast out in a field, imagine what they could do in a proper factory once all the construction bugs are worked out. 

Factories have the "Any color as long as it's Black" problem- that is, while they're really good at the one thing they're making, splitting into multiple product types  adds massive complication. Making Sidedoor (crew), Chomper, Expendable and Tanker varients may be too much for one factory.

[tater]

 

[CatastrophicFailure]

32 minutes ago, Rakaydos said:

Factories have the "Any color as long as it's Black" problem- that is, while they're really good at the one thing they're making, splitting into multiple product types  adds massive complication. Making Sidedoor (crew), Chomper, Expendable and Tanker varients may be too much for one factory.

I really doubt they’ll make a dedicated expendable version, that goes against everything SSH is made for. But beyond that, seems there’s really only two different shells, everything probably will start out as a tanker until the right holes are cut for the crew version. OTOH, that may be a reason behind the competing build teams right now, too. 

33 minutes ago, tater said:

 

So apparently they haven’t given up on this idea, hmm...

[Xd the great]

5 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

So apparently they haven’t given up on this idea, hmm...

the fairing is a piece of flying cash...

[magnemoe]

14 hours ago, Rakaydos said:

Factories have the "Any color as long as it's Black" problem- that is, while they're really good at the one thing they're making, splitting into multiple product types  adds massive complication. Making Sidedoor (crew), Chomper, Expendable and Tanker varients may be too much for one factory.

Yes, 3 is not mass production. After they are done with the starship prototypes they will make superheavy, this is likely to also be an real version, not much point in making an prototype as they get experience using starship. 
After this they start with the production versions. 

One benefit of steel over composite is that you don't need an factory to make it and for small series the factory would just be an building who protected you from elements. Yes for stuff like pressing curved plates you need an huge press but this is things who can be done elsewhere. 

[Treveli]

19 hours ago, Brotoro said:

It still puts a silly grin on my face to think of guys building a freakin spacecraft out in a open field.

Makes me wonder what Von Braun would think. I remember a story about a meeting he had with a subcontractor that assured him they were not leaving debris inside sub-assemblies. Then Braun pulled a dirty rag out of his desk and said 'we found that in one of your parts'.

[CatastrophicFailure]

 

[CatastrophicFailure]

Also, found this: 

 

[CatastrophicFailure]

And as long as I’m sittin’ here...

 

 

[tater]

 

[Mr. Peabody]

On ‎5‎/‎20‎/‎2019 at 2:08 PM, Brotoro said:

It still puts a silly grin on my face to think of guys building a freakin spacecraft out in a open field.

Why do I feel like spacex has taken a turn for the unprofessional? 

In all seriousness though, they do have an *ahem* interesting company image to go with their slightly abnormal fan base. Boeing on the other hand is much more proper.  True, some may find that boring, but at least they haven't named a recovery ship "Mr. Steven."

[Racescort666]

9 minutes ago, The Dunatian said:

Why do I feel like spacex has taken a turn for the unprofessional? 

In all seriousness though, they do have an *ahem* interesting company image to go with their slightly abnormal fan base. Boeing on the other hand is much more proper.  True, some may find that boring, but at least they haven't named a recovery ship "Mr. Steven."

I would say that SpaceX has always been like that. They're (or were) a startup with the intent of disrupting an existing market, it's almost expected that they would be a little more relaxed. Most startups I've dealt with are like that. 

On the other hand, it's not like Boeing is entirely stuffy:

[tater]

15 minutes ago, The Dunatian said:

Why do I feel like spacex has taken a turn for the unprofessional? 

In all seriousness though, they do have an *ahem* interesting company image to go with their slightly abnormal fan base. Boeing on the other hand is much more proper.  True, some may find that boring, but at least they haven't named a recovery ship "Mr. Steven."

It's lateral thinking, and I love it.

I am a fan, I freely admit it. I want to be a Blue Origin fan, and I will be when they start doing something interesting (which means orbit). As I tell people, I don't follow sports at all. I make a point to learn who is playing in the Superbowl and World Series so I don't look like a freak when they are discussed, but I literally cannot now tell you who played in the last installments of either game. SpaceX is my sportsball team at this point. I'm open to rooting for other teams, and in a perfect world I'd see all the teams going back and forth beating each other with awesome feats.

[Xd the great]

19 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

And as long as I’m sittin’ here...

 

 

Regarding 3), they dumped the gravel as new bricks.

[Nightside]

1 hour ago, The Dunatian said:

True, some may find that boring, but at least they haven't named a recovery ship "Mr. Steven."

It was already named that when they bought it.