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SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

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Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#51

Post by m4rtink »

Cogito wrote: post #27
mitchellgoffpc wrote: post #6

Man, I saw that thing moving sideways right after liftoff and I thought it was a gonner! Huge congrats to SpaceX for landing with an offset engine like that on their first try!!!

In addition to the other replies, it is also standard for rockets to 'clear the pad' as soon as possible, to avoid damaging the ground support equipment as much as possible. The amount of kick to the side is almost certainly due to the offset engine, but they would definitely design the flight path (with that in mind) to clear the pad as fast as reasonable as well.

Yep, pretty much every rocket is much much cheaper than the often one-off launch infrastructure.

From what i remeber some Soviet rockets had after a string of pad destroing failures any abort commands disablee for the first 30 seconds of flight - regardless of what happens, it must not hit the pad, or Barmin (the chief designer of most Soviet launch complexes) will be angry and you don't want that.

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#52

Post by themgt »

llboston wrote: post #43
zizee wrote: post #33

No one has seemed to have mentioned it yet, but the game changer of Starship will be full reusability of both the first and second stage of the rocket. Falcon 9's reusability of the first stage was a huge step towards making access to space a lot cheaper. If SpaceX can realize full reusability with Starship it will enable things like large scale moon bases, space hotels and mars colonization. They still have a lot of…

Another significant thing is that Starship is designed to be mass manufactured at a relatively low cost. SpaceX can crank out thousands of Starships, fly them to Mars and build a million people colony. Starship is truly a game changer!

Yep, and in addition to both of these, Starship is also designed:

* to be fueled / ignited such that it can be refueled in-situ on Mars & then launched back to Earth, without advanced rocket fuels or the TEA-TEB chemical igniter.

* to be able to refuel from another Starship in-orbit

The combination of all of this, if they pull it off, will be the ability to send truly massive payloads to Mars, faster and cheaper than anyone could have imagined just a few years ago.

To me it does really show the benefit of taking a systematic approach, working backwards from the goal "get to Mars and stay" in a resource-constrained environment. They've very strategically targeted the technology/engineering required to bring the costs down to something reasonable, while NASA's approach for 50 years has basically been versions of "can you give us one trillion dollars?" (or "we can put a couple humans on Mars for 3 days for $100 billion")

Today's Starship hop is getting very near the nail in the coffin for SLS. I still have some concerns about their crazy re-entry flip, but the speed SpaceX is moving is leaving everyone else in the dust.

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#53

Post by thinkcontext »

dencodev wrote: post #30
ekimekim wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a prototype to test the materials, engine, process etc. Since it's only ever going to do little hops like this one, it doesn't need to be aerodynamic.

It's not clear to me why you need to spend so much fuel hopping around on Mars or the moon.

They are testing on a path to be able to land from orbit. Starting with short hops by prototypes that get iteratively improved is the same methodology that allowed them to be able to land their currently operating Falcon 9.

They are the only one to ever achieve this. It's a big deal because everyone else builds a $100M rocket and then throws it away because it can't land. Reusable rockets have the potential to make açcess to space much cheaper.

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#54

Post by m4rtink »

app4soft wrote: post #23
rwcarlsen wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a prototype for the upper (second) stage of spacex's next-gen rocket [1] they are developing that uses their new full-flow staged combustion raptor engine [2]. This is the ship they plan to use for upcoming mars, moon, etc. missions that will basically replace all other spacex rockets as soon as they can figure out how to get it operating. This prototype is missing the nosecone, control surfaces, and other de…

This is a prototype of the bottom part for the upper (second) stage of SpaceX 's next-gen rocket — Starship .

While it does not look that way without the pointy nose cone, this is the prototype of the second stage.

The first stage will be a bit longer than this & its build enclosure is already being uilt.

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#55

Post by bfieidhbrjr »

Does anyone else get super depressed by this?

I did some great work today. I coded something pretty cool and useful. I built a little deck to explain it. My coworkers loved it. My job security went up. I enjoyed it. The journey is the reward.

But these guys are making rockets in tents.

Should I be rethinking life? Because that's how it feels. I love it. I admire them. But it feels unobtainable. I want to make that kind of a dent in the universe. And yes I know it's thousands of people working there.

But still.

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#56

Post by modeless »

api wrote: post #14

So much less sooty with methane instead of kerosene!

It's not just the fuel but the way it's burned. The older Merlin engines don't burn all the fuel, by design. The new Raptors do, and it's actually quite an achievement. More information than you ever wanted to know about it is here: https://everydayastronaut.com/raptor-engine/

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#57

Post by m4rtink »

bfieidhbrjr wrote: post #55

Does anyone else get super depressed by this? I did some great work today. I coded something pretty cool and useful. I built a little deck to explain it. My coworkers loved it. My job security went up. I enjoyed it. The journey is the reward. But these guys are making rockets in tents. Should I be rethinking life? Because that's how it feels. I love it. I admire them. But it feels unobtainable. I want to make that ki…

Not at all, rather I see every step on their journey as making easier for people who like space and rockets to get involved in the future, without having to win the "astronaut lottery".

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#58

Post by gorgoiler »

Diggsey wrote: post #25

What you don't get a sense for in the video is the size of this thing... It's absolutely bonkers. 9m (30 ft) in diameter 50m (160 ft) in height (or would be with the nose-cone) That's the height of a 12-story building. And this is the upper stage of the full rocket.

Oh my goodness. I had heard of Starship from the initial PR, and from those photos I had somehow assumed it was about the same size as a train carriage (~60ft.)

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#59

Post by gorpomon »

bfieidhbrjr wrote: post #55

Does anyone else get super depressed by this? I did some great work today. I coded something pretty cool and useful. I built a little deck to explain it. My coworkers loved it. My job security went up. I enjoyed it. The journey is the reward. But these guys are making rockets in tents. Should I be rethinking life? Because that's how it feels. I love it. I admire them. But it feels unobtainable. I want to make that ki…

I hear you friend, it is disheartening to see, but also heartening to see.
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