Nikxice
Active Member
How come I see Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse? Guess must old!
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It's being claimed as such, but it looks far too small to provide that. I'd be inclined to think that it's another building for the school. Here's a tweet of it under construction back on September 7 (and here's the 4K image). Amazingly, it is a 3D printed structure. I guess Elon wants to get some experience with such structures in anticipation of his Mars visit.
Thanks, interesting photo. Clearly being 3D printed. I’ve seen similar equipment used to build houses. I wonder why NSF thinks it is a “Mission Control” building. I’m skeptical of that supposition.
I find that at times the NSF crew can be somewhat credulous.
I find that at times the NSF crew can be somewhat credulous.
It’s unclear to me as to why SpaceX is building a massive wall part way around the suborbital launch site. The wall shown below is between the road and the suborbital tank farm. The wall has already been completed far to the right of this image. My personal speculation is that perhaps the suborbital launch area is going to be converted into a second Stage Zero. This will take a few years, of course.
Here's the launch site, courtesy of RGV Aerial Photography. Could the suborbital GSE area hold as much infrastructure as the current orbital area?
Before answering that, this is supposed to be a map of the area of land that SpaceX owns. Purple is the developed area. I can believe the map because I recall people running into signs well out on the sand marking the limit of SpaceX property. I'm a bit confused about them developing outside their property limits along the road. Perhaps that's some county easement they've obtained.
And this was how they wanted to develop it.
Again, for reference, that thin purple line is the area that has been developed to date. Note the two big landing pads (indicating an out of date plan), but also the two launch towers in the bottom right.
Edit: I originally proposed two reasons for not converting the suborbital site, but it really boils down to one: you're launching over your launch site, which could do a lot of damage if there's a failure. By launching from the east end of the site, you're departing the site as quickly as possible.
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My completely uneducated eyes say “yes”.
Thanks for that reminder. SpaceX has a lot of land to expand onto. But that land is not stable and would require a massive amount of fill and then years of settling before building on it. That’s what SpaceX did with the currently developed launch area
Yes, I can see why that second launch tower was planned to be in that location. But now I suspect (my guess!) Elon wants to start second tower construction ASAP and that long ago planned location would requires years of preparation before any construction would start. Is he willing to wait that long?
Certainly a possible risk.
True, but that risk exists only for what, the first 20 seconds of the mission? If all goes well we could see 10+ Starship flights in the next year and a half and if none of them fail in the first 20 seconds then one might conclude that risk is very low. But certainly not zero.
Though I concede that there is also a risk of the vehicle exploding during prop loading before T-0.
So I return to my initial question; why is SpaceX investing significant resources into building that massive wall partway around the suborbital tank farm?
The wall doesn't cover the side away from the road, so the only thing I can think of is that the county wants them to avoid putting debris on the road. Or they want to avoid putting debris on the road. They put the cargo container wall up pretty early on, and only along the road. The only other purpose that I can think of is that it discourages casual camera coverage. I guess it works as a wind break as well, cutting down the sand and crap that blows across SpaceX's hardware. We'll have to see if dunes pile up anywhere around the walls.
Edit: I saw mention of sound suppression. Perhaps the wall on the west end will help to reduce the overpressure that reaches Boca Chica village.
TunaBug
Member
So the purpose of the wall is to hold the sign? 
You may be correct.
So the purpose of the wall is to hold the sign?
Latest NSF video shows lots of activity at Starbase.
Attachments
I just checked the livestream. They're up to "GA WAY TO MARS".
I think it's gonna say "GALWAY TO MARS".
We have to go to Ireland first.
No, that's it. A gat is a pistol. Gang wars start tomorrow. Survivors go to Mars.
Typo? They're selling Martian vacation timeshares? "GETAWAY TO MARS"
It would have been hilarious if they had swapped those letters.
A lot happening at Starbase: S28 getting its final tiles, massive tank farm expansion and some new subcoolers, mystery structure foundation at Sanchez, work on the OLM and chopsticks, and more.
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