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Skylon

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It's a little bit off-topic but I thought this post from the latest Ars Technica Starship thread might raise a chuckle or two...

 

Can someone explain how is this tall Starship going to land perfectly vertical and stay stable on moon dust.

I am an expert on this matter so allow me to enlighten you:
First off, your first lander is gonna tip over. There is simply nothing you or anyone else can do about that; that’s just physics

But that’s also why you gotta build a second lander. Lander 2 has retractable landing gear extending from its sides so it can hook onto Lander 1. So you land Lander 2 on the moon within 200 m of Lander 1 and then literally walk Lander 2 over by carefully tilting it back and forth. And just when the two are finally united, you run out of battery power. So now there are two landers stuck on the moon.

Which is where the third lander comes in. This one is a beast. You add a mulch ton of batteries and propellant on it just in case. So much weight in fact that it never makes it out of LEO.

So on to the fourth lander. This time, you add a further sixteen solids and some more liquid tanks for good measure. And this baby makes it to the moon with fuel to spare. You slow walk it next to Lander 1 and have the crew from the Lander 2 hop inside Lander 4. Then you extend the sideways landing gear on Lander 4 to hook onto the first lander as best you can. And finally you max thrust and pray your two landers stay cobbled together as they go for lunar orbit. And amazingly they make it to lunar orbit just before... running out of fuel.

And this is why you need a good space tug. It zips over to the moon, does and lunar orbit rendezvous with your two landers, extends out the equivalent of a catcher’s mit made from landing gear (because you have not researched real docking yet), and then slowly pushes both landers back towards your home planet. Now keep in mind that 90% of the time, one of the landers is going to come undone while being tugged back to earth, so you’ll probably need a second space tug. Maybe more...

But, at a very high level at least, that is how it is done. I know all this due to my long and illustrious career with the Kerbal Space Agency

Edited by KSK
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18 minutes ago, KSK said:

It's a little bit off-topic but I thought this post from the latest Ars Technica Starship thread might raise a chuckle or two...

....


But, at a very high level at least, that is how it is done. I know all this due to my long and illustrious career with the Kerbal Space Agency

It's sort of like building a castle in a swamp....

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28 minutes ago, KSK said:

And amazingly they make it to lunar orbit just before... running out of fuel.

This sounds... familiar.

Funnily, this is exactly what happened to me in my recent career playthrough, lol. A tug was necessary too.

Back on topic: nitrogen or actual fuel? I'd say nitrogen. The last test was probably ended prematurely. They fixed the problem with a hammer and now started filling it up again.

Edited by Wjolcz
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5 minutes ago, Wjolcz said:

How the hell did that happen? They must have seen it coming, or something. Maybe it's intentional? Just like with the carbon fiber tank?

Very much a RUD.

Welds not strong enough on bulkhead, apparently.

8 minutes ago, RealKerbal3x said:

Do you think they’ll be able to repair it?

Probably from the next bulkhead up they would replace the rings. The fins, etc look fine, and the entire nose is not even attached.

Perhaps they can use the new rings (1 seam) and repair it quickly.

Hmmm, or maybe just the fins and thrust structure...

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