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1 minute ago, RealKerbal3x said:

Shiny!

And when is Starhopper going to do its untethered hops? I can't wait for that :D

I think they are going to begin testing on June 24th and are going to fly it in July.

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2 hours ago, magnemoe said:

Who weird shape? Only i noticed in the BC one is the top hole for the rcs block looks a bit dented. 

And yes finish on west looks better. Note that this might be because of lighting or angle as irregularities stands out very well on an mirror surface.

If you look closely you can see it appears slightly bent. But it it could very well be an optical illusion.

1564303.jpg

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6 hours ago, magnemoe said:

And yes finish on west looks better. Note that this might be because of lighting or angle as irregularities stands out very well on an mirror surface. 

I presume you mean East here?

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I wonder what can be done to make it even faster. Test everything at once and once that is done piece everything together when its done, rather than doing it step by step?

Also, 'Martian Technocracy' sounds epic.

Edited by NSEP
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37 minutes ago, NSEP said:

I wonder what can be done to make it even faster. Test everything at once and once that is done piece everything together when its done, rather than doing it step by step?

Also, 'Martian Technocracy' sounds epic.

You want to test stuff who can be tested individually one by one that way, engines is an obvious one. 
For systems who can only be tested assembled you develop and test multiple variations in parallel as you assume some works. High number of RUD is an expected part of design process. 
Wartime and archetype is Manhattan project, you build cities to build two types of nuclear bombs as one is likely to work. 
You primary goal is to speed up development, cost and failures is less important. 
 

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5 hours ago, magnemoe said:

You want to test stuff who can be tested individually one by one that way, engines is an obvious one. 
For systems who can only be tested assembled you develop and test multiple variations in parallel as you assume some works. High number of RUD is an expected part of design process. 
Wartime and archetype is Manhattan project, you build cities to build two types of nuclear bombs as one is likely to work. 
You primary goal is to speed up development, cost and failures is less important. 
 

Also brain interfaces so people can create things with the speed of thought @_@!

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2 hours ago, tater said:
 

 

No way to make methane on the Moon, sadly. Meaning that Moon missions will require a LOT of tanker launches and refueling in high orbit (how much fuel can a Starship tanker bring to high orbit?).

Maybe they should switch to hydrolox and buy some RS-68 or BE-3 variants for their Moonships. 

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7 minutes ago, sh1pman said:

No way to make methane on the Moon, sadly. Meaning that Moon missions will require a LOT of tanker launches and refueling in high orbit (how much fuel can a Starship tanker bring to high orbit?).

Maybe they should switch to hydrolox and buy some RS-68 or BE-3 variants for their Moonships. 

Where's the will, there's a way. Moon Cow Farm TM to the rescue! First build hydroponic fodder farms. Then bring calfs from Earth. Start filtering cow gaseous waste products from the air. Now you have plenty of methane AND Moon cheese to sell on Earth for a tidy profit.

:sticktongue:

 

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5 minutes ago, Dale Christopher said:

I’m not a rocket scientist, but wouldn’t u just need hydrogen and carbon and energy to basically make methane?

Where would you get carbon on Moon? There’s iron and aluminum silicates, titanium oxide, magnesium and calcium silicates and water ice. Any carbon will have to be brought from Earth.

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35 minutes ago, sh1pman said:

Where would you get carbon on Moon? There’s iron and aluminum silicates, titanium oxide, magnesium and calcium silicates and water ice. Any carbon will have to be brought from Earth.

That's interesting. I suppose there might be dry ice deposits in the permanently shaded craters on the moon as well as water ice? I thought carbon was common as dirt which is why I didn't think it would be a big deal.

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58 minutes ago, sh1pman said:

Maybe they should switch to hydrolox and buy some RS-68 or BE-3 variants for their Moonships. 

They should be fine with methalox.  We had a discussion in this thread about Starships payload capacity to the moon a little over a month ago. 

Eg in https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/159887-spacex-discussion-thread/&do=findComment&comment=3600985 I calculated that using two fully refueled Starships (one for the lunar landing and return, and another as a tanker to refuel the first in elliptical Earth orbit, with both already refuelled in a 250 km LEO) they can land and return around 125 tons of cargo to the surface of the moon.  (Most of my Starship performance figures were assumptions from an earlier post by someone else in the same discussion).  125 tons of cargo is a lot, and obviously margins improve with smaller payloads.

 

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31 minutes ago, Dale Christopher said:

That's interesting. I suppose there might be dry ice deposits in the permanently shaded craters on the moon as well as water ice? I thought carbon was common as dirt which is why I didn't think it would be a big deal.

Carbon is very common, it's the 4th most common element in the universe. It's very abundant across the solar system, with the exception of two bodies (that we know of): Mercury, and the Moon. Both bodies are depleted in lighter compounds, but the Moon is highly lacking in hydrogen and carbon. 

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