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Starship Prototype Unveiled

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Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled

#171

Post by jonstewart »

iblaine wrote: post #169
hoorayimhelping wrote: post #20

380s for ISP for the Raptor vacuum engine seems durn good, considering the tradeoffs between hydrogen and methane. The most efficient engines we've flown, the RL-10 [0] (used on the Delta IV and Atlas rockets as part of the Centaur Upper Stage) and the RS-25 [1], (the Space Shuttle Main Engine) get around 450-460s for their specific impulse. These engines use liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The issue with liquid h…

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.

Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled

#172

Post by sixQuarks »

paragraft wrote: post #144
35787 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow what an incredibly substantive comment. I remember pretty clearly he said that there would be a single seam weld. Maybe I’m remembering wrong. Or maybe they’ll seam weld multiple rolls into a really wide roll and the only weld required to turn the final roll into the shell is that final hotdog weld.

I think the idea's to go like a Pringles can, with a spiraling single seam.

this is the correct answer. They can simply use the 4 meter wide steel no problem.

Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled

#173

Post by NortySpock »

JorgeGT wrote: post #63
hansthehorse wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to wander around the reactor auxiliary building at the nuclear plant I worked at and take pictures of the piping welds. They were works of art. The skill was obvious.

There's always https://www.reddit.com/r/Weldingporn/top/?t=all for nice pictures of welds.

And the NSFW equivalent https://www.reddit.com/r/goneweld , with naughty captions of welding seams.

Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled

#174

Post by woodandsteel »

afterburner wrote: post #110
drchewbacca wrote: post #89

I am so amazed by the genius of making it out of steel. It's just so completely counter intuitive but has accelerated their progress so much. If they told you the stats of the material, better strength at cryo tempertures meaning mass reduction, higher melting point meaning minimal heat shielding and great thermal conductivity it would be easy to imagine it was some new super composite. Then your head explodes when t…

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

If he didn't design it himself, the people he hired and gave overall direction to did. And they are doing way better than anyone else, which means he must have done a better job of hiring and directing than anyone else.

Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled

#175

Post by strainer »

ryanmarsh wrote: post #168
strainer wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the sounds of it steel structure can basically handle much greater temperatures routinely and also even more in rare situations that might mean retiring the ship afterward but not losing everything. In his presentation Elon says that aluminum alloy or carbon fiber structure is basically done for at 300 to 400 Celsius, well that's the temperature at which stainless steel can just begin to get conditioned by heat,…

it doesn't structurally 'melt' until over 1000 Celsius Is this why jet fuel can't mel..... ah never mind.

I thought I felt deja vu :)

Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled

#176

Post by woodandsteel »

AimForTheBushes wrote: post #122
aflag wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe not. That still doesn't qualify him as an Engineer, though.

I doubt SpaceX would be a thing if Elon didn't have engineering capabilities.

I have read that when he gets interested in a technical area, he reads a ton of books at a remarkably fast pace, remembers everything he reads, next analyses everything at a fundamental level, and finally comes up with a radically better plan than anyone else has before. I guess you could call that engineering capabilities.

Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled

#177

Post by trappist »

hoorayimhelping wrote: post #20

380s for ISP for the Raptor vacuum engine seems durn good, considering the tradeoffs between hydrogen and methane. The most efficient engines we've flown, the RL-10 [0] (used on the Delta IV and Atlas rockets as part of the Centaur Upper Stage) and the RS-25 [1], (the Space Shuttle Main Engine) get around 450-460s for their specific impulse. These engines use liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The issue with liquid h…

> 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.

A system of local optimums is an inefficient system. Sort of the self-identified takeaway of the book _The Goal_, and I haven't stopped thinking about this statement since I read it.

Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled

#178

Post by chasd00 »

navigatesol wrote: post #147
narrator wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this illustrates what someone who actually understands the engineering being in charge of a company can really do to revolutionize a field. If a non-engineer is in charge of a space company, they'll look at the popular science articles and assume that single launch is the only way to do things. They'll also assume that we just need to get the material science right to be able to do space elevators. They'll as…

I love how we've suddenly decided that all the solid engineering done in the space industry, for decades, was done by fools reading pop science. But now a "real engineer" is showing us the way. SpaceX is standing on the shoulders of giants.

I'm a real fanboy of SpaceX but, yes, you're absolutely right.

Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled

#179

Post by megaremote »

jniedrauer wrote: post #59
RivieraKid wrote: post #56

I've had to dismiss 3 popups after opening the article on mobile. This is ridiculous.

If you have ublock origin, it redirects you to a "please disable adblocking" page. Blocking scripts prevents the redirect.

Why is spacex trying to show you ads?

Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled

#180

Post by infectoid »

RandomTisk wrote: post #7
discordianfish wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to know the hiring process. There must be many people applying for these positions and I doubt that whiteboard welding is a thing. Or is it? :)

AFAIK it's uncommon skill, you need the steady hands of a surgeon to have a chance. Definitely not work I could do, I know that.

My Dad tried to teach me to weld. It definitely takes a lot of practices to be average at it.

Somehow my Dad managed to swipe that thing around like he was painting or something. It was impressive.

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