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SpaceX discloses cause of Starship anomalies as it clears an FAA hurdle

arstechnica.com

281–290 of 420 posts

Re: SpaceX discloses cause of Starship anomalies as it clears an FAA hurdle

#281
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their own streams are now only on Twitter, but 3rd parties like NasaSpaceFlight run their own streams, usually with worse visuals but better commentary

Yeah I disagree on NasaSpaceFlight being "better commentary"...

Big time. Just wish they'd be quiet half the time.

Re: SpaceX discloses cause of Starship anomalies as it clears an FAA hurdle

#282
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it weren’t for his extremism, none of this would be happening. Maybe stop looking for reasons to hate on him simply because it’s popular to do so? His works speak for themselves.

I don't hate him, I simply find his views on most (?) topics reprehensible, naive and/or delusional. I think he's doing great harm to his businesses by oversharing them. I particularly despise his pathetic bothsidesing of the war in which fascists are invading and murdering my relatives in my country of birth.

Name any private individual who has done more for the defense of Ukraine then Musk.

Suggesting that a civil war will end in a cease fire along battle lines is a very common way for civil wars to end. Even if during those wars both sides absolutely are convinced that they will have total victory.

Re: SpaceX discloses cause of Starship anomalies as it clears an FAA hurdle

#283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mini-factories in space could become a thing, supposedly a lot of industrial processes are only difficult because of friction and gravity.

Asteroid mining I think is one of the most interesting initial space industries. Something silly like a single asteroid having metals with current valuations of a million times the global GDP. Obviously you can't sell for that much but asteroid mining could make a lot of commodities become insanely cheap, and that would enable some pretty amazing things here at home, and in space. Like what if steel were cheaper than…

> Asteroid mining

Think of all the science you could do with asteroids! Peer into the early history of the solar system . . . see what precursors to life existed before Earth was habitable. . . and all people think about is how fast they can strip-mine our extraterrestrial heritage. . . All that belongs in a museum!

/s

Re: SpaceX discloses cause of Starship anomalies as it clears an FAA hurdle

#284
post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The downside is that rapid iteration doesn't always give the same insight in terms of scientific understanding. E.g., Design_A fails. We quickly pivot to Design_B, which works. However, we don't spend the time ultimately understanding why Design_A failed. This can be operationally great, but it can also risk conflating being lucky with being good. If you don't fundamentally understand why the thing failed the first t…

That's just your assumption. SpaceX is actually doing all that. They invested early in good simulation tools and they are developing their own. They have great material science teams and engineering teams. They do invest a lot in actually understanding the fundamentals and they make good use of the data from things that failed. Take for example the work on the failure of Amos 6. They went really deep into that one an…

Nah. If you read my response to the comment above, you can see it’s based on actual experience. Maybe your conclusion is based on assumption?

Re: SpaceX discloses cause of Starship anomalies as it clears an FAA hurdle

#285
post #252
post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To put a finer point on it, those seem like rather blunt instruments for prediction compared to how risk is typically measured by aerospace reliability engineers.

I'm sure some aerospace professionals are wondering how it's possible to predict stock behavior on an exchange, but have no problem with educated predictions of launcher performance.

That right. The point being, they are very different systems with different information inputs. Meaning what works for one may not be a good method the the other.

Re: SpaceX discloses cause of Starship anomalies as it clears an FAA hurdle

#286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't hate him, I simply find his views on most (?) topics reprehensible, naive and/or delusional. I think he's doing great harm to his businesses by oversharing them. I particularly despise his pathetic bothsidesing of the war in which fascists are invading and murdering my relatives in my country of birth.

Name any private individual who has done more for the defense of Ukraine then Musk. Suggesting that a civil war will end in a cease fire along battle lines is a very common way for civil wars to end. Even if during those wars both sides absolutely are convinced that they will have total victory.

It’s not a foregone conclusion that it is a good thing. Some strategists like Peter Zeihan think if Ukraine “wins” it will prompt a defensive nuclear exchange from Russia. In that case, history might look at Musk differently.

Re: SpaceX discloses cause of Starship anomalies as it clears an FAA hurdle

#287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure we're referring to the same "antics". You cannot deny that Elon has changed as a person ever since he got hooked on Twitter. A lot of his personality and how he acts these days is very much focused on trying to get the most likes. Pre-Twitter "fame", it's true that he disregarded what others thought, but he also wasn't so focused on maximizing his likes either. Twitter was like heroine for him, and he now li…

Is it really so hard for you to accept that he's just being like any person and sharing what he finds to be worth sharing? He was always like this. He started SpaceX because he thought putting a dome on Mars within which plants would be grown would be inspiring. The only reason it wasn't on social media was because it wasn't really much of a thing at the time. He didn't care about the optics and tried to buy an ICBM…

Yeah, or look at Tesla history. Any “normal” ceo would’ve just cashed out and doomed that project, but Elon… I remember that time when he asked Engineers to make sales calls. What normal CEO does that? Whatever people think of them at least it is interesting and fun to live during these times.

Re: SpaceX discloses cause of Starship anomalies as it clears an FAA hurdle

#288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why they're fun. I always got the impression they're making fun of the usual management euphemisms. No one is under any illusion about what an "energetic engine failure" or "rapid unscheduled disassembly" is.

"Engine-rich exhaust" is another one that gets a chuckle. For those wondering, it refers to when a rocket engine is literally burning itself into oblivion—so the exhaust plume is compromised less of fuel particles and more of, well... engine :)

Typically, you want to keep your engine fraction of the exhaust pretty low.

Re: SpaceX discloses cause of Starship anomalies as it clears an FAA hurdle

#289

How do investigators find leaks in a craft that has exploded? I imagine it’s difficult to determine (though evidently possible) whether a defect is in the design, or if it has been introduced by a defect in manufacturing/installation of parts like with Boeing.

Unlike a normal aircraft flight, rocket launches constantly broadcast telemetry data and are watched with tracking cameras. Large leaks would be visible in the video footage, and the type of leak (fuel or oxygen) can be determined by the change in flame color. Also, telemetry such as various tank pressures and propellant levels would indicate if (and where) leaks occurred.

Determining whether it was a design defect or a manufacturing defect would likely require ground testing. After CRS-7[1] exploded during launch, SpaceX tested a batch of struts from a third party manufacturer and found they failed at 2,000lbs of force instead of their rated 10,000lbs. Their solution was to switch to a different type of strut and implement more rigorous QA processes on their hardware.[2]

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_CRS-7

2. https://web.archive.org/web/20150721152601/https://www.space...

Re: SpaceX discloses cause of Starship anomalies as it clears an FAA hurdle

#290
post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what way is it not sustainable?

Without constant replacement it's gone pretty fast.

Sure, but that's true of a lot of business models, many of which have proven to be quite sustainable. Grocery stores, for instance.
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