totm nov 2023 SpaceX Discussion Thread

[KSK]

And that's just the second stage. Whole thing is eventually going to be sitting on top of a Superheavy.

Mind. 

Blown.

[CatastrophicFailure]

1 minute ago, Wjolcz said:

That square hole in the side looks hella ugly (and dangerous as it's a square). They will probably weld a plate on the inside, or something.

I think that’s on the exposed skirt below the tank, where the engines and thrust structure are. I agree it’s odd to have such sharp angles tho. Maybe it’s an eventual hookup for GSE?

2 minutes ago, KSK said:

And that's just the second stage. Whole thing is eventually going to be sitting on top of a Superheavy.

Mind. 

Blown.

And then just imagine that Superheavy coming back down, glinting in the sun, disappearing into a hellscape of flame and smoke only to emerge unscathed moments later like some unsullied hero. 

[tater]

1 minute ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

I think that’s on the exposed skirt below the tank, where the engines and thrust structure are. I agree it’s odd to have such sharp angles tho. Maybe it’s an eventual hookup for GSE?

Dunno, I think it's above the thrust structure as a possible ingress for welding ops?

[KSK]

3 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

And then just imagine that Superheavy coming back down, glinting in the sun, disappearing into a hellscape of flame and smoke only to emerge unscathed moments later like some unsullied hero. 

So Prometheus they say.  Brought god's fire down to man.
And we've used it, tamed it, feared it, since our history began.
Now we're going back to heaven. Just to look Him in the eye.
There's a thunder 'cross the land and a fire in the sky.

Edited February 22, 2020 by KSK

[CatastrophicFailure]

1 minute ago, tater said:

Dunno, I think it's above the thrust structure as a possible ingress for welding ops?

But them corners, tho... seems very strange on anything meant to hold pressure. The Mk’s always used an oval hole for that. 

[tater]

3 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

But them corners, tho... seems very strange on anything meant to hold pressure. The Mk’s always used an oval hole for that. 

OK, so I looked at some images on NSF, and I suppose you could be right under the assumption that the bowl of the lower dome is right at the very top of the lower section. The trick is that the square hole is in the top ring of the lower section.

[Elthy]

3 hours ago, tater said:

 

The position of those COPVs is strange, is all that stuff simply on the outside of the prototype? You cant hide all of this under a wing-root...

[tater]

Assuming this is right, the square would need to be in the second or third ring down, it looks like it's the top ring on the LabPadre stream.

Not that it is on the 3rd ring down in that pic in the tweet, but that was a test fit, or maybe there is another square hole as well?

[RCgothic]

If you drill small holes in the corners of a square feature it takes much of the stress out and you wouldn't spot them at this resolution. Got to assume they know what they're doing.

[tater]

You can see it's the top ring (of the bottom section) in this view:

 

[magnemoe]

5 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

I think that’s on the exposed skirt below the tank, where the engines and thrust structure are. I agree it’s odd to have such sharp angles tho. Maybe it’s an eventual hookup for GSE?

And then just imagine that Superheavy coming back down, glinting in the sun, disappearing into a hellscape of flame and smoke only to emerge unscathed moments later like some unsullied hero. 

The holes is in the skirt, the skirt has reinforces U steel on the inside as its not presurized and has to hold the weight of an loaded starship under high trust. Because the reinforcements it don't matter so much, just found it weird they did not made the entire skirt in one go with full lenght U beams. On the other hand number 1 will not getting vacuum engines so it can not be fully loaded anyway. Nor will it be pushed by superheavy trough max-q. 
Only weird thing I found was putting valves on the outside under the cowl for the fins rater inside the engine bay there it would be easier to inspect I think. 

[tater]

 

[Wjolcz]

So since F9 boosters have been landed and reused so many times I'm assuming the Starship booster will be the easy part of the whole system. They just need the engines.

[KSK]

For rocket science values of easy, yes. I'm mindful of Starpopper and other learning experiences they've had with Starship so far. Historically, SpaceX has been good at the 'learning' part of their learning experiences but that's still a mighty big rocket stage to put together.

[tater]

In the vid link I posted above they are adding the downcomer through the top.

That guy standing on top hooking and unhooking (and hence free to fall) his safety gear... had to not watch.

[StrandedonEarth]

1 hour ago, tater said:

That guy standing on top hooking and unhooking (and hence free to fall) his safety gear... had to not watch.

Hopefully some safety officials are seeing that 

[tater]

5 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said:

Hopefully some safety officials are seeing that 

There was a secondary clip I later saw on him attached to the tank itself, so maybe it was fine the whole time.

[tater]

DM-2 looks like it will be extended to a longer, ISS crew mission.

 

[tater]

 

[StrandedonEarth]

 

[tater]

Thought this might be a joke, but checked labpadre, and it's gone, lol.

[StrandedonEarth]

 

Edited February 25, 2020 by StrandedonEarth

[RealKerbal3x]

This is what killed Mk1...

There's only one thing they can do now...

[sevenperforce]

Think they'll do a static fire before they attach the nose cone? Or are they transporting it in piecemeal for assembly at the launch site?

[magnemoe]

1 hour ago, sevenperforce said:

Think they'll do a static fire before they attach the nose cone? Or are they transporting it in piecemeal for assembly at the launch site?

Unlikely, however they do an pressure test now, then they assemble the rocket, then I assume an second pressure test as design because you have changed and welded a lot. 
next will be an wet dress session as in fueling starship before emptying it again. Then they do the static burn.