Beccab Posted April 16, 2022 Share Posted April 16, 2022 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted April 16, 2022 Share Posted April 16, 2022 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted April 17, 2022 Share Posted April 17, 2022 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevenperforce Posted April 17, 2022 Share Posted April 17, 2022 I will say, for the record, that while I would have absolutely no qualms about riding a reused booster or a reused capsule, I would be a touch nervous about riding with a reused, ablative heat shield. Even if it is supposed to be reusable multiple times. A reused non-ablative heat shield is fine, of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted April 17, 2022 Share Posted April 17, 2022 12 minutes ago, sevenperforce said: I will say, for the record, that while I would have absolutely no qualms about riding a reused booster or a reused capsule, I would be a touch nervous about riding with a reused, ablative heat shield. Even if it is supposed to be reusable multiple times. A reused non-ablative heat shield is fine, of course. I wonder what data they have gathered from Dragon (have any reused PICA-X?). Cargo Dragon? Interesting. NASA signed off, though, and they are... risk averse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthgently Posted April 17, 2022 Share Posted April 17, 2022 1 minute ago, tater said: I wonder what data they have gathered from Dragon (have any reused PICA-X?). Cargo Dragon? Interesting. NASA signed off, though, and they are... risk averse. Is the ablation material refurbished to the starting thickness or are they just saying that there is enough left for another flight? I'm assuming that "composite" means ablative in this context; could be wrong assuming that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beccab Posted April 17, 2022 Share Posted April 17, 2022 2 hours ago, darthgently said: Is the ablation material refurbished to the starting thickness or are they just saying that there is enough left for another flight? I'm assuming that "composite" means ablative in this context; could be wrong assuming that I doubt they are reusing the ablative part; there's many spots where it is non-ablative though, which are probably being reused now (and have already been reused various times on cargo dragons). Also: New Starbase interview from Tim incoming Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted April 17, 2022 Share Posted April 17, 2022 6 hours: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanRising Posted April 17, 2022 Share Posted April 17, 2022 23 hours ago, Beccab said: I’m guessing that the “composite heat shield structure” they’re looking at reusing is not the ablative material, but instead some framing and support to keep the ablative where it needs to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted April 17, 2022 Share Posted April 17, 2022 Music is on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beccab Posted April 17, 2022 Share Posted April 17, 2022 The sun should be rising about when the first stage lands, so the view should be interesting from up there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beccab Posted April 17, 2022 Share Posted April 17, 2022 Launch & landing successful! We had again continous view of the rocket from space to landing, which is nice Also, we had some bits of unintended info on this NRO satellite: mission control audio stream accidentally continued tracking the second stage for a minute more than the main stream, and indicated that the second stage will do more than one burn for this mission. That part has since been taken down Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted April 17, 2022 Share Posted April 17, 2022 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted April 17, 2022 Share Posted April 17, 2022 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrandedonEarth Posted April 17, 2022 Share Posted April 17, 2022 Looks like that landing is a bit of a leaner... It's awesome that these landings are now routine and mundane... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beccab Posted April 17, 2022 Share Posted April 17, 2022 8 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said: Looks like that landing is a bit of a leaner... It's awesome that these landings are now routine and mundane... I thought that as well but it actually looks like it's just due to the lens distortion, someone corrected it and it came out like this: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beccab Posted April 17, 2022 Share Posted April 17, 2022 Starship pad legs seem to have begun construction at LC-39A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beccab Posted April 18, 2022 Share Posted April 18, 2022 https://youtu.be/YRvf00NooN8 Waiting for Tim to complete editing the interview and release it in a couple weeks, Musk also made one at TED a few days ago with some new bits about Starship (transcript not mine): - Orbital attempt in few months, integrating engines into booster starting a week or two, launch complex is ready to go. Depends on regulatory approval. - Starship heatshield potentially good enough for Venus? But he really didn't wanna get into that. - Currently expecting to make a booster and ship roughly every couple months and "by end of this year, one every month" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted April 18, 2022 Share Posted April 18, 2022 4 hours ago, Beccab said: - Currently expecting to make a booster and ship roughly every couple months and "by end of this year, one every month" At 1/mo, SS/SH minus heat shield, flaps, etc, would be a game-changing expendable vehicle. Even at $1M/Raptor, and charging $300M for a launch it could do old school cislunar missions (like Artemis) at 1/10 the price, and10X the cadence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimate Steve Posted April 18, 2022 Share Posted April 18, 2022 Of course, that is highly subject to Elon time. I personally doubt we will see that production rate achieved for some time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beccab Posted April 18, 2022 Share Posted April 18, 2022 5 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said: Of course, that is highly subject to Elon time. I personally doubt we will see that production rate achieved for some time. Yup, but the current rate of 1 every two months is quite good already (and still 10x the cadence of SLS, considering the current launch date of Artemis II) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthgently Posted April 18, 2022 Share Posted April 18, 2022 26 minutes ago, Beccab said: Yup, but the current rate of 1 every two months is quite good already (and still 10x the cadence of SLS, considering the current launch date of Artemis II) Given that the production is really prototype production with a lot of one-off experiments this rate is amazing. Can you imagine a Starship Gigafactor? Well, maybe Kilofactory would be a likely better word for scaled SS production. Tesla Gigafactories reveal incarnate what SpaceX has in mind and what we are seeing now is very preliminary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeSchmuckatelli Posted April 18, 2022 Share Posted April 18, 2022 14 minutes ago, darthgently said: Given that the production is really prototype production with a lot of one-off experiments this rate is amazing. Can you imagine a Starship Gigafactor? Well, maybe Kilofactory would be a likely better word for scaled SS production. Tesla Gigafactories reveal incarnate what SpaceX has in mind and what we are seeing now is very preliminary I love the idea - but I would think we'd have to see some realistic return on investment for that to be implemented. Like some serious will to 'get out there and do stuff' that needs that level of lift. Certainly, its just looking like a technical problem that will soon be solved... I'm just curious what the new capacity (once available) will inspire the world to do. Despite some people who claim that there is literally no economic need or benefit (for the short-mid term) in establishing either a Lunar Base or a Mars Base... Humans. Someone will want to go and staff it - even if there isn't much to do once you get there besides keep the lights on and the fans running. SOMEONE WILL DO IT. (But that's kind of like the guy who's willing to man the lighthouse... what we need is the Rail Tycoons to compete and develop industries and towns. It will happen - I'm just curious as to the timescale). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gargamel Posted April 18, 2022 Share Posted April 18, 2022 Oy! Topic! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beccab Posted April 18, 2022 Share Posted April 18, 2022 Time for B7 to either get grid fins, engines or both Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
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.