totm nov 2023 SpaceX Discussion Thread

[Codraroll]

4 hours ago, zolotiyeruki said:

The drone ship is already relaying its video feed via satellite.  The issue is that the landing burn shakes the drone ship hard enough to temporarily knock the antenna out of alignment.  With a second craft around half a kilometer away, that shouldn't be as big of an issue.

Why even use a second craft? Couldn't a buoy on a long line with a reel attached to the barge do approximately the same job?

Edited May 4, 2019 by Codraroll

[tater]

 

[CatastrophicFailure]

And speaking of Starlink, unless I’m missing something, the first operational Starlink launch is actually next in the cue, sometime this month. 

And other than STP-2 and a few others, the rest of this year looks quite dry. 

Edited May 5, 2019 by CatastrophicFailure

[Xd the great]

1 hour ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

And other than STP-2 and a few others, the rest of this year looks quite dry. 

*starhopper hops in.

[RealKerbal3x]

1 hour ago, Xd the great said:

*starhopper hops in.

(apologies for how horrible this meme is. I used MS paint )

[sh1pman]

 

[StrandedonEarth]

5 hours ago, RealKerbal3x said:

(apologies for how horrible this meme is. I used MS paint )

I like to use Paint3D, which has a tool that can crop irregular shapes out of images. It let me create memes like this (keeping it on topic )

[Scotius]

1 hour ago, sh1pman said:

 

Quick and dirty engine test? Perhaps SpaceX is trying to speed up the process of refurbishment, by starting it on board the barge?

[KSK]

13 hours ago, Scotius said:

Quick and dirty engine test? Perhaps SpaceX is trying to speed up the process of refurbishment, by starting it on board the barge?

Nah - paintwork on the barge needed redoing. Step 1:  Remove the old paint.

[Xd the great]

37 minutes ago, KSK said:

Nah - paintwork on the barge needed redoing. Step 1:  Remove the old paint.

You are adding more paint than you are removing...

[KSK]

2 minutes ago, Xd the great said:

You are adding more paint than you are removing...

Huh? I thought nine Merlin engines would do an excellent job of blowtorching the old paint off.

[Xd the great]

1 hour ago, KSK said:

Huh? I thought nine Merlin engines would do an excellent job of blowtorching the old paint off.

Well, the carbon soot is hard to clean off.

[Reactordrone]

Loose line hanging off Dragon but a successful capture.

 

https://www.24live.co/live/Un9tb

 

ETA-Appears to be a small umbilical cable that didn't detach cleanly at launch and got dragged up to orbit.

Edited May 6, 2019 by Reactordrone
added cable detail.

[Scotius]

Wow. That is one seriously strong and well fixed cable I would think anything hanging loose off the rocket, would be peeled off by supersonic airflow. I would be wrong

[Lukaszenko]

2 hours ago, Reactordrone said:

ETA-Appears to be a small umbilical cable that didn't detach cleanly at launch and got dragged up to orbit.

That has a bit of an ominous quality to it 

[Ultimate Steve]

Do you think they will let it burn up on re-entry or go on an EVA to retrieve it?

[Xd the great]

9 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

Do you think they will let it burn up on re-entry or go on an EVA to retrieve it?

SpaceX would want an EVA to collect evidence. Until it turns out to be too expensive.

[tater]

Cool Starship renders (not official, still cool):

 

 

 

Edited May 7, 2019 by tater

[DDE]

2 hours ago, tater said:

 

Wait, will the fins be actuated?

[sh1pman]

1 minute ago, DDE said:

Wait, will the fins be actuated?

Youd didn't know?

Spoiler

 

 

[DDE]

4 minutes ago, sh1pman said:

Youd didn't know?

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

I've an aversion to watching SpaceX videos.

[Cunjo Carl]

The actuated fins still sound really tricky to me. They need to be fast, high torque and reliable. But then, we also need to land on them! That poor bearing.

What else could you use though? Now they have the canards up front, maybe solid fins with deceleron style maneuvering airbrakes? Sounds heavy, but functional....

[zolotiyeruki]

17 minutes ago, Cunjo Carl said:

The actuated fins still sound really tricky to me. They need to be fast, high torque and reliable. But then, we also need to land on them! That poor bearing.

What else could you use though? Now they have the canards up front, maybe solid fins with deceleron style maneuvering airbrakes? Sounds heavy, but functional....

I was just thinking about that.  It's possible that the rear fins are locked in the skydiver position, and only actuate to the equally-spaced position during the final landing burn once the aerodynamic loads are gone.  That way, the actuators wouldn't have to be so beefy.   You'd use the canards to control both pitch and yaw.  I don't think you'd need to control roll, since the rear fins would stabilize the craft in that axis.

[Cunjo Carl]

12 minutes ago, zolotiyeruki said:

I was just thinking about that.  It's possible that the rear fins are locked in the skydiver position, and only actuate to the equally-spaced position during the final landing burn once the aerodynamic loads are gone.  That way, the actuators wouldn't have to be so beefy.   You'd use the canards to control both pitch and yaw.  I don't think you'd need to control roll, since the rear fins would stabilize the craft in that axis.

Oh I see, so the rear fins won't need to provide active control any more, that's all gone to the canards, so instead they can just be locked into one of two positions. That does sound a lot easier!

[zolotiyeruki]

16 minutes ago, Cunjo Carl said:

Oh I see, so the rear fins won't need to provide active control any more, that's all gone to the canards, so instead they can just be locked into one of two positions. That does sound a lot easier!

Don't get too excited--this is just speculation on my part, and I have no supporting evidence for it.  It just sorta makes sense in my mind.  And in KSP.