Wiki Super Heavy/Starship - General Development Discussion

[HVM]

Spotted from Reddit:
SpaceX engineers were at the Cali Science Center in LA looking at the Endeavour shuttle

"I was talking to Bill while standing underneath Endeavour at the California Science Center in LA this last week. Bill was a structural engineer on the shuttle program as well as the SSMEs. We had been geeking out about space stuff for a solid 2 hours and Bill was complaining about ULA SLS "Throwing his engines into the ocean" when I asked about how reentry heating effected the gaps in the bottom of the shuttle where control surfaces and landing gear panels all met up. He got excited and he told me that not only had a large group of 20+ SpaceX engineers been there last week but that they had been almost exclusively looking at the spots where the control surfaces joined the rest of the structure on the shuttle. I mentioned to Bill that they probably were cheating off his homework for the starship's control surfaces and his face lit up like it finally clicked as to why they took so many photos of the seams.

Sorry for formatting I'm on my phone figured this group would enjoy this information more than most. If you have the chance go to the science center and talk to the retired engineers that are floating around. They absolutely love talking to people about their baby."

 

[ICUDoc]

(O/T, soz: one of the greatest moments in my life was (at the Udvar-Hazy museum) walking past the SR-71 (OMG OMG OMG) and then walking the length of the Shuttle until you get to the stern and look up to see those mammoth engines....
My boys and I still reminisce about the joy and amazement we felt seeing those....)

 

[Bobfitz1]

(O/T, soz: one of the greatest moments in my life was (at the Udvar-Hazy museum) walking past the SR-71 (OMG OMG OMG) and then walking the length of the Shuttle until you get to the stern and look up to see those mammoth engines....
My boys and I still reminisce about the joy and amazement we felt seeing those....)

@ICUDoc , if you ever have a chance to visit West coast of U.S. I recommend you spend a day or two at the Museum of Flight near Seattle Washington. Aircraft & Artifacts | The Museum of Flight

The web site lists all the planes on display. The variety of aircraft is amazing and of course they have a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird.
When I visited 8 - 10 years ago it was possible to take a flight of stairs up to the cockpit, climb into the cockpit and sit behind the controls a minute or two. That was amazing! One thing that struck me was how rudimentary all the gauges and controls seemed for a legendary aircraft which held title of world's fastest plane for decades. Everything was analog of course, lots of toggle switches, etc., so different from what evolved after the sixties. A good comparison would be going from your Tesla and getting behind the wheel of an early sixties VW Beetle. Brings home the incredible amount of scientific and technology progress those of us near retirement age have seen in our lifetimes.

 

[e-FTW]

(O/T, soz: one of the greatest moments in my life was (at the Udvar-Hazy museum) walking past the SR-71 (OMG OMG OMG) and then walking the length of the Shuttle until you get to the stern and look up to see those mammoth engines....
My boys and I still reminisce about the joy and amazement we felt seeing those....)

Agreed. My favourite office on the road moment. Reminds me that we have such fantastic engineering talent out there, and I trust they can do amazing things on Starship and the like with today’s materials, technologies and pocket protectors:

 

[HVM]

Barrel on dome:

Elon Musk on Twitter

 

[ecarfan]

Wow, thanks for posting that amazing twitter exchange! And I love hearing that the new Tesla Plaid motors will be used in Startship to power the flaps. Amazing to watch this all come together in real time.

 

[bxr140]

bxr's latest random thought on what to do with a rocket that is going to be oversized [for most applications outside of internal use] for a long time: clean *sugar* up.

Iridium would pay to deorbit its 30 defunct satellites — for the right price - SpaceNews.com

 

[Grendal]

Don't ever say Elon isn't ambitious.

 

[Cosmacelf]

Nah, he’s only trying to take over the entire passenger vehicle segment. And trucking. And subway/urban transport. And worldwide energy production. And artificial intelligence with brain implants. And multi world colonization including all transport to/from.

The scary thing is that he’s succeeding.

 

[e-FTW]

While we wait for SN1 to do its thing, I also built a SN1 of my own:

Sadly, Simple Rockets 2 will not allow me to put as much methalox in it as SpaceX plans to (am short by 50%, super-chilling is not the reason as that is about 10% per Elon this week). I followed published sizes and engine thrust from SpaceX’s site.

But hey, it flies and I mostly landed it on Luna on the first try:

 

[e-FTW]

Ring stacking! SPadre on Twitter

 

[Grendal]

From Elon:

 

[e-FTW]

From Elon:

Hey that’s the tent my car was made in!

 

[e-FTW]

Some updates from Elon last week after the IFA press conference:

• Notes on Crew Dragon re-usability V Cargo Dragon (donut-shaped bilge area and pump around crew compartment, etc.)
• Leads into Starship discussion
• Raptor development at SN20 right now. Each SN has development updates planned, all the way to SN50
• Primary structure is harder then engines. Domes specifically and their mating with everything else.
• The big thing will be making in-orbit docking and re-fueling work (“It’s like the Space Station docking wiht an other Space Station)”
• Cargo and Crew program docking with ISS helped SpaceX a lot in figuring out that part

A good listen.

 

[ecarfan]

Pretty cool!

 

[Bobfitz1]

Test tank was moved to Boca Chica launch pad yesterday by transporter.
Has SpaceX given any details on how the two tanks will be installed and supported in the new Starship body?

 

[e-FTW]

If you want to go and geek out on steel alloys, crystals, and welding check this out: https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/ev0mu0/stainless_steel_strength_and_why_it_matters_to/
One tl;dr any failures seem to not be related to the welding conditions and environment according to that poster, but mostly a question of design (of the metals and weld placements and doublers).

 

[Grendal]

According to Elon, they got test tank 2 to 8.5 Bar!

 

[Cosmacelf]

Man, Elon sure likes destructive tests!

 

[ICUDoc]

If you want to go and geek out on steel alloys, crystals, and welding check this out: https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/ev0mu0/stainless_steel_strength_and_why_it_matters_to/

great link, many thanks