totm nov 2023 SpaceX Discussion Thread

[tater]

 

[magnemoe]

17 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Dang... must be hot up there... like sitting on a giant steel plate out in the Texas sun. Oh, wait... 

The major downside of working there is that you have lots of paparazzis around so no slacking or going behind the corner to pee. 
On the other hand it looks good on your CV, give you the obvious catch phrase, well oil platforms are not exactly rocket science   

[tater]

 

Missed this one in this last storm:

 

[magnemoe]

3 hours ago, The Dunatian said:

For some reason I've never been incline to take the star ship seriously. It just looks like a big shiny toy rocket.

My issue is that its too game changing. 
I failed to predict the mobile phone camera. i predicted that they would replace mp3 players. In part I did not belive the optic would work so small (way outside of my area)
Then I got an 9110 communicator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_9110_Communicator
Yes I had an smart phone before Y2K, and I did not get how game changing smart phone would be. Mobile internet back then was pretty horrible as in 9.8Kb/s but managed to update an customer web application on it. Download page with FTP, open in an txt editor, upload an test, try again and it worked. 
Still I could not grok it. 

Starship is more so. if work out somewhat as planned you do an manned moon mission with say 40 man, including multiple rovers and an drill rig for less cost than landing an simple unmanned rover on moon today. 
Starlink 2 will connect to your phone and will be the default carrier in remote areas. Phone companies is usually required to provide services everywhere for their bandwidth licence. 
They would be so sad to outsource that part  

[sevenperforce]

We will see aerocapture maneuvers between Earth and Mars.

 

[Guest]

Pretty excited for the presentation thing!

[Xd the great]

3 hours ago, sevenperforce said:

We will see aerocapture maneuvers between Earth and Mars.

 

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your pilot speaking. I hope you haven't forgot my name Steve. We will soon be experiencing our first atmospheric reentry in about 10 minutes. The outside temperature will be around 1200°C, please wear your IVA suits and lower your visor. Thank you."

[CatastrophicFailure]

28 minutes ago, Xd the great said:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your pilot speaking. I hope you haven't forgot my name Steve. We will soon be experiencing our first atmospheric reentry in about 10 minutes. The outside temperature will be around 1200°C, please wear your IVA suits and lower your visor. Thank you."

“We may experience some slight turbulence and then, er...” 

[sevenperforce]

I am so missing the like button.

The critical limiting factor for aerocapture is capture into the SOI during the first aerobraking pass. After that, you can take as many aerobraking passes as gently as you like to bring the apogee down further and further, and then finally make your entry, "riding T⁴ all the way down" as Elon puts it.

[Guest]

Yep, but irl we don’t have a fast forward button so hopefully not too many passes. Each dive into the upper atmosphere also has to pass through the earth’s clouds of satellites and debris D:

[Raven Industries]

6 minutes ago, Dale Christopher said:

Yep, but irl we don’t have a fast forward button so hopefully not too many passes. Each dive into the upper atmosphere also has to pass through the earth’s clouds of satellites and debris D:

Spoiler

 

Not a problem, just make the ship out of the same stuff as this thing.

[tater]

54 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

I am so missing the like button.

The critical limiting factor for aerocapture is capture into the SOI during the first aerobraking pass. After that, you can take as many aerobraking passes as gently as you like to bring the apogee down further and further, and then finally make your entry, "riding T⁴ all the way down" as Elon puts it.

Yeah, it's pretty cool, and appropriately enough for this forum, very kerbal.

[sh1pman]

1 hour ago, Dale Christopher said:

Yep, but irl we don’t have a fast forward button so hopefully not too many passes. Each dive into the upper atmosphere also has to pass through the earth’s clouds of satellites and debris D:

Possibly also swinging behind/around the Moon once or twice. This could take weeks.

[cubinator]

Two passes at Mars means orbital sunset/sunrise, which is something I would like to see but have never even seen photos of!

[Wjolcz]

Do you guys think they will switch to cutting out bigger pieces of the hull and wings instead of stitching smaller ones Frankenstein-style? It would not only look better but maybe save some weight and complexity too?

[Xd the great]

56 minutes ago, Wjolcz said:

Do you guys think they will switch to cutting out bigger pieces of the hull and wings instead of stitching smaller ones Frankenstein-style? It would not only look better but maybe save some weight and complexity too?

They are still in the innovation/testing phase, stitching stuff probably gives more flexebility.

They might switch to bigger pieces later though, to decrease stitches which I guess are points of failure.

[tater]

 

[sh1pman]

Nice. They now need to attach the upper fins and stack it on the main body. 3 workdays left before the presentation. I really didn’t believe it when Elon said SS Mk1 would be ready before 28th, but they’re very close now...

[Xd the great]

10 minutes ago, tater said:

 

Oh yeah, it's all coming together.

[tater]

3 minutes ago, Xd the great said:

Oh yeah, it's all coming together.

Could be stacked today according to Elon tweet from a few days ago.

[zolotiyeruki]

"Ready by the 28th" ...but for what?  Attaching the various parts of the fuselage is one thing.  Connecting all the plumbing, valves, control systems, instrumentation is another, let alone all the testing that needs to happen before this thing can take flight.

[Guest]

Ready for the presentation ^_~

all it needs to do is look pretty

(crazy how fast they can build things when it’s steel construction)

Edited September 25, 2019 by Guest

[Mitchz95]

On 9/24/2019 at 12:51 AM, mikegarrison said:

This rocket reminds me of the Udvar-Hazy museum. They have an F-86 parked right next to a MiG-15. When you look at the F-86 everything is flush; the rivets are countersunk; it looks sculpted. When you look at the MiG-15 it looks like your Uncle Ralph hammered it together in his garage. (Which, by the way, isn't that far from the truth.) And yet the two planes were famously equally-matched.

 

I assumed you were exaggerating but... yeah, the difference in apparent quality is striking.

[tater]

38 minutes ago, zolotiyeruki said:

"Ready by the 28th" ...but for what?  Attaching the various parts of the fuselage is one thing.  Connecting all the plumbing, valves, control systems, instrumentation is another, let alone all the testing that needs to happen before this thing can take flight.

As was said, in this case it's a backdrop for a presentation. Clearly it will take some weeks to fit out for any test flights, though it's interesting that the Raptors are already attached.

The header tanks have battery packs, however, and the use of electric motors will certainly simplify things (wires are easier than hydraulics).

[RealKerbal3x]

Looks like they've attached the main body of Mk1 to a crane, ready to lift:

I was expecting them to lift the nose section over to the main body, not the other way round, but I guess they want it to be as visible as possible during Elon's presentation so putting it out in the yard makes sense too.