Falcon Super Heavy/Starship - General Development Discussion

[ecarfan]

Eric Berger: SpaceX may begin testing its Starship spacecraft this week

 

[e-FTW]

Eric Berger: SpaceX may begin testing its Starship spacecraft this week

And he links to a good wrap up of that tweet storm: Elon on Twitter : First (really short) hops with one engine. Suborbital flights with three. : spacex

 

[ecarfan]

Hoping those first hops occur in a few days...

 

[e-FTW]

The tweet below makes sense to me, now that I have watched: KSP Doesn't Teach: Rocket Engine Plumbing

Raptor is *very* complex, even for a staged combustion engine. We’re simplifying as much as possible with each iteration. Throttling down to ~50% is hard, but manageable. Going to 25% would be extremely tough, but hopefully not needed.

The ratio of turbo pump pressures V chamber pressure, versus what power you are running the engine at can create power levels that don't work well. If that makes sense.

 

[e-FTW]

The tweet below makes sense to me, now that I have watched: KSP Doesn't Teach: Rocket Engine Plumbing

Raptor is *very* complex, even for a staged combustion engine. We’re simplifying as much as possible with each iteration. Throttling down to ~50% is hard, but manageable. Going to 25% would be extremely tough, but hopefully not needed.

The ratio of turbo pump pressures V chamber pressure, versus what power you are running the engine at can create power levels that don't work well. If that makes sense.

He explained as much here: You can deep throttle on single shaft system by choking flow of fuel or oxygen between pump & combustion chamber. Problem is more with the tiny rocket engine that powers the pump, called a gas generator. That has to throttle *way* deeper than the main chamber.

 

[Grendal]

SpaceX is testing the heat shield:
Elon Musk on Twitter

 

[Yggdrasill]

I hope they can get away with something like 10 different shaped tiles, rather than every tile being different (like the space shuttle). For the sylindrical parts of the Starship, they can probably get away with just one shape. The nose cone and the control surfaces will be a bigger challenge.

 

[HVM]

Guesses from NSF: Hexagons are made from stainless steel and have some insulator inside, shaped like SS cake pans. And first iteration test subjects are literally stainless steel cake pans ; P

SpaceX is testing the heat shield:
Elon Musk on Twitter

Are those metallic or ceramic?
More possible types of TPS (from NSF)

European Space Agency's version:
2006ESASP.631E..23F Page 23.2

NASA's version for X-33:
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20040095922.pdf

 

[HVM]

Meanwhile we wait the first Starhopper hop; wallpapers from Gravitation Innovation:

Missing Hexagon TPS and landing legs/fins ; P (SpX iterates too fast...)

 

[Cosmacelf]

Missing Hexagon TPS and landing legs/fins ; P (SpX iterates too fast...)

When a rocket company iterates faster than artists can draw, that's saying something!

 

[winfield100]

Meanwhile we wait the first Starhopper hop; wallpapers from Gravitation Innovation:

Missing Hexagon TPS and landing legs/fins ; P (SpX iterates too fast...)

Not quite Chesley Bonestell quality illustration but very nice.

 

[e-FTW]

A SpaceX video was shown when Elon visited students in Flint Michigan this past week: Jay L. DeShetler on Twitter

Someone enhanced sections to show off some interior details of Starship

 

[ecarfan]

Okay that’s cool but looking at the video title I was hoping for a video of his talk! But that’s not what I saw.

A SpaceX video was shown when Elon visited students in Flint Michigan this past week: Jay L. DeShetler on Twitter

Someone enhanced sections to show off some interior details of Starship

 

[Mobius484]

There is a link to the video of his talk in the investors round table forum, watched it last night.. I’ll try to find a link...

 

[Mobius484]

@ecarfan
Here u go, quality stinks but it’s a pretty relaxed Elon.

 

[ecarfan]

@ecarfan
Here u go, quality stinks but it’s a pretty relaxed Elon.

Thanks! What an amazing thing for Elon to do; basically he took a day off to fly to Flint to go to that school and talk to those kids. What cracked me up is that he didn’t really talk down to them, he just talked like he usually does.

To get back on topic for this thread...now I understand what was mentioned upthread, after the Starship animation video was shown there were some stills of the interior that I had not seen before.

Of course it’s just an animation. But everytime I watch Starship animations I want to get onboard and go!

 

[ecarfan]

 

[ecarfan]

If NASA was ever allowed to do a “competitive, commercial program to build a moon base that is outcome-oriented” SpaceX would crush the competition. Could probably get the start of a moon base in place for a few billion dollars. Peanuts.

Unfortunately, I doubt Congress will budget the funds for a program structured like that.

 

[Grendal]

The reason the Everyday Astronaut posted that was because of this:
NASA on Twitter
"It is the stated policy of this Administration and the United States of America to return astronauts to the Moon within the next five years,"
"If commercial rockets are the only option, then so it will be".
From VP Mike Pence at the latest National Space Council meeting.

 

[ecarfan]

The reason the Everyday Astronaut posted that was because of this:
NASA on Twitter
"It is the stated policy of this Administration and the United States of America to return astronauts to the Moon within the next five years,"
"If commercial rockets are the only option, then so it will be".
From VP Mike Pence at the latest National Space Council meeting.

Yes, and when that administration is gone in less than 2 years policies will change. It’s impossible for NASA to set a goal and maintain a funded program to reach that goal unless the program is really a barrel of pork spread across multiple states. That’s how it gets funded.

There is really no chance that SpaceX can get the funding needed to establish a moon base. Senator Shelby will not allow it.