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Starship Prototype Unveiled

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Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled

#191

Post by kfrzcode »

Paperweight wrote: post #136
afterburner wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Imo Elon is starting to get into contention for greatest engineer of all time. I don't know man, did he design it himself?

Meta-engineer? Engineering executive? At least he's trying to advance humanity instead of squandering it all on yachts like almost all the rest of the world's billionaires.

I think visionary is the best descriptor and there aren't too many of those folks alive at a given time that are properly placed to execute, and even fewer who actually DO execute.

I was as entranced with the possibility of a permanent extraterrestrial base while watching the presentation last night as I was when I saw the boosters land tandem style in 2018.

What an amazing thing to see happen, the people Elon has brought together have done amazing things on the shoulders of already incredible work.

Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled

#193

Post by MR4D »

balfirevic wrote: post #141
hinkley wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recall quite a while back, when titanium started first showing up outside of aerospace, that someone had created a titanium-titanium composite by layering plate titanium with titanium cloth and welding it together somehow. Was supposed to be stronger. Wonder if there's a steel equivalent possible. I think the military was looking at a similar material to replace depleted uranium with something non-radioactive (depl…

> I think the military was looking at a similar material to replace depleted uranium with something non-radioactive I thought the point of depleted uranium projectiles was simply the density of uranium, giving them large impact energy for a given volume. If that's the case, titanium (4.5 g/cm^3) will not even be as good as steel (8 g/cm^3), let alone uranium (19 g/cm^3).

Tungsten.

https://www.military.com/dodbuzz/2018/05/14/air-force-debate...

Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled

#194

Post by starpilot »

jonstewart wrote: post #171
iblaine wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Musk thinks like a software engineer. Create simple, reusable, components that can scale efficiently. I’m taking some liberties in saying this, but the gist remains the same. Musk keeps it simple and focused.

Agreed! Only a software engineer would risk a product launch delay because of an uber-bikeshedded pet feature (Model X doors) or wait until the last minute to ship and then construct a makeshift “factory” in a parking lot and make staff go through a death march, QA be damned.

The Model X doors are terrible. It's an SUV that you can't put a roof rack on. Does seem like a case of geek myopia over usability.

Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled

#195

Post by caconym_ »

philwelch wrote: post #31

I suspect that Starship will fly to space before SLS ever will. I also think Starship has a significantly higher chance of flying at all than SLS.

To me the SLS is like Brexit: obscenely wasteful and short-sighted, seemingly inevitable, but somehow I still don't believe it will ever leave the ground.

The Artemis thing is like a joke for real, though. After the last 30 years of bullshit we've seen from the US government's manned space exploration efforts I think I'll be living in a SpaceX-manufactured igloo on Titan before Richard Shelby and his obstructionist, pork-slinging ilk manage to put footprints on the moon.

Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled

#196

Post by chriselles »

I’d be interested to learn if advances in digital computing/controlling potentially solve most of the problems that were seemingly unsolvable in the Soviet era N1 rocket failures.

I’m assuming the inability to control and harmonise 30 rocket engines on the N1 first stage for pitch/yaw contributed significantly to the N1 failures and cancellation.

Will digital computing/control advances control for that and the 42 rocket engines on the SpaceX starships 1st stage?

Or are there other major engineering problems(such as aeronautical/mechanical) to solve as well?

Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled

#197

Post by hwillis »

ryanmarsh wrote: post #166

How do they plan to get 100 tons of cargo from atop the starship down to the surface of Mars? Do you use a crane? I mean, cranes are heavy, right?

Its a two stage rocket. The top bit separates.

Cranes are far and away the lightest way to move something up and down. Wires are incredibly strong for their weight; five times stronger than normal mild steel. Thats due to the stress exerted when they are made affecting the crystal structure.

Not only that, but tensile stress is the strongest mode in general. Structures holding up mass have to resist buckling from all directions. Tensile structures can use every bit of mass budget to hold force going precisely down.

Not only that, but you dont need all of rhe structure to hold a crane up, since its just sticking out the side of the rocket.

Not only that, but you dont even need a motor since you just need to slow things down a bit as they descend.

Yes, they'll use a crane.

Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled

#198

Post by 4684455 »

emilecantin wrote: post #148
allannienhuis wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the material isn't the question, it's why they had to weld it together in a patchwork quilt. Elon talked about the next version would simply have rolled coils with a single seam weld (although the cylinders would have to be welded together too), which would be better structurally and cosmetically, and likely lower cost of production. Sounds like they just didn't have the rolling machines to do the job, or perhaps the…

> although the cylinders would have to be welded together too No, they'll do a helical weld, exactly like large pipes (like this: http://www.xysteelpipe.com/upload/201512118145340710.jpg ) You basically need to do that as the steel rolls off the press, though, which is why they didn't do that for Mk I. They'll need to cold roll the steel onsite.

They will not do a helical weld because the steel's thickness varies from the top to the bottom of the cylinder, according to Elon Musk. https://twitter.com/HarryStoltz1/status/1162595874561617920 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1162601447235604480?lang...

Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled

#199

Post by anonytrary »

ryanmarsh wrote: post #166

How do they plan to get 100 tons of cargo from atop the starship down to the surface of Mars? Do you use a crane? I mean, cranes are heavy, right?

I think you're getting downvoted because of your flippant tone, but I am also curious how the cargo would get on/off the ship.
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