totm nov 2023 SpaceX Discussion Thread

[RealKerbal3x]

2 minutes ago, Geonovast said:

They seem to be having issues with the cameras on the second stage...

Interesting, that was the problem they scrubbed the launch for before!

[cubinator]

100th mission complete!

I wonder if any New Zealanders are watching the deploy.

[tater]

 

6 minutes ago, cubinator said:

100th mission complete!

63 landings, 45 reflights.

[RCgothic]

3 hours ago, magnemoe said:

Not much an fan of the whale mouth hatch. Prefer an side opening hatch. First the mouth make integrating payload harder as in how do you do it? You need to either remove the hatch or get payload above the starship and then tread it between nose and hatch and down to the adapter in the bottom. 
It also limit deployment and will not work if you land on an surface. I also say it would make moving stuff between an cargo starship and an moonship cargo version harder. 

As I understand satellite deployment with starship will be that you put your satellite in an container and the container will be opened in space an the satellite is released. 
With the wale mouth its hard to release other direction than straight up after you tilted the container to clear the nose. 
With an side door you can easier release multiple satellites. 

Agreed, the whale mouth is a bit odd.

Trans-shipping of cargo in space is also something they'll need to consider. 

[tater]

I have no idea what the engineering rationale is for the hinge position they have is, but their own docs still show it that way.

[linuxgurugamer]

9 minutes ago, RCgothic said:

Agreed, the whale mouth is a bit odd.

Trans-shipping of cargo in space is also something they'll need to consider. 

 

1 minute ago, tater said:

I have no idea what the engineering rationale is for the hinge position they have is, but their own docs still show it that way.

One thing might be that having a hatch vertically uses less interior space than putting it on the side.  Also allows using all of the interior walls, if necessary

[sevenperforce]

3 hours ago, magnemoe said:

Not much an fan of the whale mouth hatch. Prefer an side opening hatch. First the mouth make integrating payload harder as in how do you do it? You need to either remove the hatch or get payload above the starship and then tread it between nose and hatch and down to the adapter in the bottom. 
It also limit deployment and will not work if you land on an surface. I also say it would make moving stuff between an cargo starship and an moonship cargo version harder.

I agree — I’ve never liked the scooper approach. I am not sure what would be better, but it seems like it has problems.

The issue with a standard payload bay door approach, on the other hand, is that you are deploying at 90 degrees from the load axis. With the whale mouth you can at least tilt the payload mount to get the right release vector, but with the 90-degree approach you can’t. So that’s not particularly great either. I’m not sure it’s a problem with a good solution.

[tater]

10 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

I agree — I’ve never liked the scooper approach. I am not sure what would be better, but it seems like it has problems.

The issue with a standard payload bay door approach, on the other hand, is that you are deploying at 90 degrees from the load axis. With the whale mouth you can at least tilt the payload mount to get the right release vector, but with the 90-degree approach you can’t. So that’s not particularly great either. I’m not sure it’s a problem with a good solution.

Seems like you could have exactly the same door:

but have the hinge running on one side along just the cylindrical part of the hull (hence straight):

^^^you can see the straight section forward of the payload adapter, but before the nose curves in that old image, above. Payload can still tilt, etc.

Just now, tater said:

Seems like you could have exactly the same door:

but have the hinge running on one side along just the cylindrical part of the hull (hence straight), at 90 degrees to where the chomper hinge is.

 

^^^you can see the straight section forward of the payload adapter, but before the nose curves in that old image, above. Payload can still tilt, etc.

 

[Clamp-o-Tron]

Please, anybody but Dodd. We want somebody with engineering knowledge/very close familiarity with the system, not someone lobbing softballs for a youtube channel that has to explain everything to people with a middle-school knowledge of physics.

Should I start a petition to get Mary (or Manley!) instead?

[tater]

 

[Deddly]

8 hours ago, Clamp-o-Tron said:

Please, anybody but Dodd. We want somebody with engineering knowledge/very close familiarity with the system, not someone lobbing softballs for a youtube channel that has to explain everything to people with a middle-school knowledge of physics.

Should I start a petition to get Mary (or Manley!) instead?

Timm Dodd's enthusiasm is contagious and he has a way of getting people interested in details of spaceflight that would otherwise be uninteresting to them. It's safe to say that everyone who has deep knowledge of rocket science is already following developments at Boca Chica with interest, but Startship/Superheavy has the potential to ignite interest in space exploration in a whole new generation. I can't think of anyone better than Everyday Astronaut for doing just that. 

[tater]

4 minutes ago, Deddly said:

Timm Dodd's enthusiasm is contagious and he has a way of getting people interested in details of spaceflight that would otherwise be uninteresting to them. It's safe to say that everyone who has deep knowledge of rocket science is already following developments at Boca Chica with interest, but Startship/Superheavy has the potential to ignite interest in space exploration in a whole new generation. I can't think of anyone better than Everyday Astronaut for doing just that. 

Scott Manley, who also has nearly 2X the subscribers. So there'd be better questions, a better conversation, frankly, and more reach.

 

 

 

[Deddly]

2 hours ago, tater said:

Scott Manley, who also has nearly 2X the subscribers. So there'd be better questions, a better conversation, frankly, and more reach.

I'm sure Scott would do a great job. Some of it would be over the heads of many listeners, but it would still be great. As for subscribers, well...

On Youtube, Scott has 1.13 million subscribers vs 779 thousand, which is far from double.

On Twitter, Scott has 136 thousand followers vs 238 thousand.

I don't have any figures for actual viewership, but I think it's clear that either of them will be able to reach a great many people. The fact is, it's Tim who is making the effort to actually get down there and be in place, and I'm sure Scott will make a video on anything new that is revealed from this interview. I don't think there's reason for anyone to be disappointed here.

Edited October 25, 2020 by Deddly

[sh1pman]

Yeah, but the main reason why it’s going to be Tim is because Tim asked Musk for the interview and got it. It’s not like there was a selection process for the interviewer. If Manley (or anyone else) wants to ask some other questions, he can try asking for it too. Elon is in Boca every week.

[kerbiloid]

Did Manley interview somebody? Or he is a lonely wolf narrator? Maybe, that's the only reason why he didn't.

Edited October 25, 2020 by kerbiloid

[Deddly]

@kerbiloid Scott Manley has interviewed people plenty of times.

[RealKerbal3x]

NASASpaceflight recently released a 5-page, 8000-word article about Starship's conception, design and construction. I'd highly recommend you give it a read:

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2020/10/the-continued-evolution-of-the-big-falcon-rocket/

[SOXBLOX]

Starship is looking good. Now, it's a fancy grain silo with a fancy dome.

Anyone know what that white-painted NASA nosecone is for? I heard it was probably a mockup; do we know anything about the manned interior?

[computercat04]

20 minutes ago, SOXBLOX said:

Starship is looking good. Now, it's a fancy grain silo with a fancy dome.

Anyone know what that white-painted NASA nosecone is for? I heard it was probably a mockup; do we know anything about the manned interior?

I heard in Twitter that the white nosecone is part of the Lunar Starship mockup.

[tater]

1 hour ago, SOXBLOX said:

Starship is looking good. Now, it's a fancy grain silo with a fancy dome.

A fancy silo with 6,600kN of thrust, an RCS system, and control surfaces.

 

 

[magnemoe]

4 hours ago, computercat04 said:

I heard in Twitter that the white nosecone is part of the Lunar Starship mockup.

Yes they probably paint an early bottom white too and join them, Its no interior although you could jump it.
 

[tater]

You have to wonder of they are going to make an interior. It would be fairly straightforward to create one (a series of stacked deck areas) as a stand alone, then lower the nose on top of it.

[RealKerbal3x]

SN8 was detached from the crane!

[KSK]

19 hours ago, SOXBLOX said:

Starship is looking good. Now, it's a fancy grain silo with a fancy dome.

Nah - it’s got to be some other kind of silo. Can’t be a grain silo cos it’s liquid fuelled not solid.

[Codraroll]

1 hour ago, KSK said:

Nah - it’s got to be some other kind of silo. Can’t be a grain silo cos it’s liquid fuelled not solid.

Apparently some grain silos use the fluidized bed effect when emptying, to make the grain behave like a fluid. Wonder how much wizardry would be required to pull that off in a rocket, and whether it would count as a solid or liquid fuel.