Earlier quoted context omitted.
Minor: Boeing is BA, if that was the reference
BO = Blue Origin
That makes more sense!
Starship Prototype Unveiled
241–250 of 342 posts
Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled
#242One of the worst GDPR blocks I've encountered in the wild.
Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled
#243Earlier 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?
Depends how you define "design". Most engineers I know are not involved in the bog-standard design, but rather when the decisions get outside the comfort zone of the designers (either engineers or engineering techs themselves). From all accounts ("Switching to stainless steel is one of the best design decisions I've ever made"[1], comments from Tom Mueller about Elon leading the design team on Raptor[2]), Musk is per…
Dan Rasky's description[1] of the make-or-buy decision on the PICA heat shield perhaps illustrates a bit of it.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P06X2TZUKZU&list=PLpEqMkxe7X... (From the "Dan Rasky: SpaceX's Collaborative Design Approach" video of the "COTS: Dan Rasky" playlist of "Knowledge @ NASA".)
Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
And if you want to get a lot more detail on what makes a "full flow staged combustion engine" so special, this article from Everyday Astronaut goes into some amazing detail on this and many other engines. https://everydayastronaut.com/raptor-engine/
This was AMaZING. Exactly the kind of content I want to consume on HN
This guy is amazing. Look out for his interview with Elon Musk that should be released in the next 24 hours on his YT channel [1].
[1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6uKrU_WqJ1R2HMTY3LIx5Q/vid...
Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled
#245Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This is basically how SpaceX seems to operate: rather than optimizing a single part of the system (like trying to get the most efficient engine), they try to optimize from a systems level. They're optimizing for "real" reusability, as in eventually aiming for airline-like turnarounds. None of the earlier engines you noted were reusable except the RS-25, and given how long it took to turn the Shuttle around one coul…
> But raw performance on a single trip doesn't matter much if you can just deliver the same payload in two trips to orbit instead. Except that you're doubling the cost if you have to do two trips.
Entirely valid point, but doubling 1% of the cost of a single use system is still pretty good, comparatively speaking.
Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled
#246What I loved the most was the optimistic outlook, the forward looking focus and the implicit belief that any problem will be solved and we'll advance.
This is exceedingly rare in a pessimistic world drowning in the voice of Luddites and backwards-looking preservationists.
Like always, technology solving real world problems versus politicians (professional or amateurs) creating (and never really solving) self-serving perpetual issues.
Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
Geostationary orbit is further away than the most distant part of the Earth. If you have a way to transmit power efficiently over that distance, it’s still going to be cheaper to put the panels on the ground in Nevada, the Sahara, Saudi Arabia, the Gobi, and Australia, and transmit the power from there. (Microwave towers, LEO satellite relays, superconducting wire, whatever). It’s likely to be really hard to make it…
Why not PV on the ground: because wire antenna is a lot cheaper. Why people don't have to trust us: because the technology isn't physically capable of maintaining even that low energy density at the target, without the reference signal from the ground. Why put the PV in space instead of on the ground: because there's 5.4X as much energy available and it's 24/7. There's real engineering behind this design, detailed in…
> Why people don't have to trust us: because the technology isn't physically capable of maintaining even that low energy density at the target, without the reference signal from the ground.
From what I see that’s a design choice not a fundamental aspect of reality, but even if it isn’t: what stops a hostile actor creating their own guide signal, either to direct the power towards an vulnerable location, or to directed away from the receiver, causing wide-scale power outages in the process?
> I'm not aware of any real engineering studies for things like transmitting power via LEO satellite relays from the Sahara. Personally I don't find it plausible, but if you can provide such a study I'm willing to change my mind.
This is because beamed power in general is a bad idea compared to simple wires, however the Sahara is a lot closer than Geostationary orbit and therefore any technology that works for Geostationary orbit will also work for the Sahara, and at guaranteed lower cost regardless of the technology.
Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled
#248I 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,…
Just as a comment: I really hate seeing Brexit dragged into every conversation.
We're talking about rockets here, which should be a million miles away from any discussion of Brexit.
Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled
#249What I loved the most was the optimistic outlook, the forward looking focus and the implicit belief that any problem will be solved and we'll advance. This is exceedingly rare in a pessimistic world drowning in the voice of Luddites and backwards-looking preservationists. Like always, technology solving real world problems versus politicians (professional or amateurs) creating (and never really solving) self-serving…
I suspect that having a sense of urgency and limited resources contributed to this phenomenal pace of development, it's in stark contrast to the glacial pace of the SLS project (Boeing/Nasa) which is much better funded.
Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled
#250I would love to know what the "Day-in-the-life" of a welder working on those ships would be. Did they train specifically for aerospace welding? How did they land that specific gig. Must be so inspiring to wake up and work on that.
I think the prototype was built by a company that normally builds water towers, so probably not that different from normal industrial welding.
And as I saw someone else say, the welds on a water tower also have to be good under pressure, otherwise the water tower bursts and dumps all its water.