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SpaceX's giant Starship Mars rocket nails critical 10th test flight

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Re: SpaceX's giant Starship Mars rocket nails critical 10th test flight

#111

Post by BlackjackCF »

nerdjon wrote: post #31
enraged_camel wrote: post #20

Incredible achievement, but what is more incredible is how many people (including almost all of my friends circle) have started rooting for SpaceX to fail due to the shenanigans of its founder. I think as a culture we've lost the ability to compartmentalize. We should be able to criticize and even despise the head of a company, and at the same time celebrate when the intelligence and hard work of the countless smart…

This is something I am finding myself wrestling with a lot right now. On the one hand I am a major space nerd and I see the value of what SpaceX is doing. Especially with it really seeming like no one is anywhere near their level. What kind of scientific advancements will be possible once this thing can be used normally and launches like this become commonplace. But at the same time it is impossible to ignore the Elo…

It’s honestly amazing what SpaceX has been able to accomplish despite Elon. I mean - look at what his interference has done to Tesla and Twitter. The execs at SpaceX seem like they know how to manage Elon so that their employees are actually able to deliver.

Re: SpaceX's giant Starship Mars rocket nails critical 10th test flight

#112

Post by m4rtink »

NitpickLawyer wrote: post #59
foobarian wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looked like something one would cobble together from a garage opener and weld together a bunch of rebar

You should have seen the first tech demonstrator for the Raptor engine (the family that powers Starship). It was basically a water tower (built out in the desert, welded by people specialising in building water towers). But it flew, and it landed, and then it served as a lights & camera mount for the field for a few years.

Starhopper is still there, on a parking lot next to the launch site. :)

https://starship-spacex.fandom.com/wiki/Starhopper

Re: SpaceX's giant Starship Mars rocket nails critical 10th test flight

#113

Post by natch »

MOARDONGZPLZ wrote: post #108
lstodd wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At a cost of indiscriminately imprisoning and killing people (remember Korolyov and von Braun)? Surely. he-he. If Musk does achieve a second foothold for the humanity, then any and all objections to his methods become irrelevant. So far he does deliver. So we wait for the final result. Also, if you don't know, we've got a war in europe for like 3.5 years already. I'm seriously curious how many times a space-x total p…

Setting aside the founder or company itself, philosophically and ethically the “ends justify any means” concept is deeply flawed.

I agree with your general statement, but in this particular case nobody has credibly articulated any real problem with the means.

Re: SpaceX's giant Starship Mars rocket nails critical 10th test flight

#114

Post by hnuser123456 »

baq wrote: post #44
gcanyon wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The explosion was unexpected and (as far as I know at the moment) unexplained, but they flew the mission at the edge of the envelope, and with a variety of different materials/missing bits on purpose, to better understand where the edge is. Everything that happened (maybe even including the explosion, we'll see in the final analysis) was, as far as we know, within the plan. The biggest can't-miss milestone was the fl…

I'd say the payload door situation is a considerable success, at least as big as the relight itself.

I saw one of the dummy satellites bump into the edge of the door on the way out.

Re: SpaceX's giant Starship Mars rocket nails critical 10th test flight

#115

Post by m4rtink »

megaman821 wrote: post #26
Romario77 wrote: post #18

It was a significant progress, but I won't call it "nailed it". As there was an damage or explosion on re-entry where the skirt of the starship got damaged. And we could see pretty significant damage on one of the fins. Nailing it would be without the things above.

I think this launch showed they were very robust. Engines went out on booster and ship which they can compensate for. A small explosion and a half melted fin didn't seem to affect the splashdown sequence or target.

I think there was just one unexpected engine out on the booster during launch. Starship engines worked without any issues on this flight AFAIK. :)

Re: SpaceX's giant Starship Mars rocket nails critical 10th test flight

#116

Post by philipallstar »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #63
fhd2 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it though? I'm not knowledgeable on this at all, but it _seems_ like Space X is blowing up a lot more expensive equipment compared to NASA back in the space race days. Genuinely curious how it compares and how true my outsider impression is.

Not to mention the mountain of prior art to work off of... It's way harder to do it the first time.

There's absolutely loads being done for the first time here. Not least of which: running this r&d off commercial contracts instead of directly off taxpayer money.

Re: SpaceX's giant Starship Mars rocket nails critical 10th test flight

#117

Post by fluoridation »

DarmokJalad1701 wrote: post #60
fluoridation wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wikipedia: > After a multi-phase design effort, on April 16, 2021, NASA selected SpaceX to develop Starship HLS and deliver it to near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) prior to arrival of the crew for use on the Artemis III mission. The delivery requires that Starship HLS be refueled in Earth orbit before boosting to the NRHO, and this refueling requires a pre-positioned propellant depot in Earth orbit that is filled by…

> Can you imagine if to make a sightseeing trip to another city you had to stop in the middle of the highway and then make 14 round-trips with a second car to fill your first car back up? If the alternative was throwing away and building/buying a new car for every trip? Absolutely. They said the same about landing a first stage booster - impossible and pointless to attempt. And it just happened for the 400th time yes…

And yet the boosters are not being reused. They're just making brand new engines for every launch. If we're generous they're being dismantled and recycled.

Re: SpaceX's giant Starship Mars rocket nails critical 10th test flight

#119

Post by m4rtink »

baq wrote: post #97
gtirloni wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand but I'm asking more from a process perspective. If these are planned.

In complex systems testing by perturbing the environment is the easiest, simplest and uncovers most relevant issues with design. They knew something would fail, but not necessarily what exactly or in which sequence. They can now reject or accept their hypotheses and improve their models.

Testing to destruction is used quite often to discover the final limits of materials and machines.

Re: SpaceX's giant Starship Mars rocket nails critical 10th test flight

#120

Post by stetrain »

fluoridation wrote: post #117
DarmokJalad1701 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can you imagine if to make a sightseeing trip to another city you had to stop in the middle of the highway and then make 14 round-trips with a second car to fill your first car back up? If the alternative was throwing away and building/buying a new car for every trip? Absolutely. They said the same about landing a first stage booster - impossible and pointless to attempt. And it just happened for the 400th time yes…

And yet the boosters are not being reused. They're just making brand new engines for every launch. If we're generous they're being dismantled and recycled.

They were talking about Falcon 9, which is absolutely being reused.
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