SpaceX Loses Starship Spaceraft During Test Flight • Hacker News Board

Re: SpaceX Loses Starship Spaceraft During Test Flight

#191

Post by mattsan » Mon, Nov 20, 2023, 8:44 PM UTC

bryanlarsen wrote: post #188

saberience wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to assume you made this comment in good faith. Most rockets (almost all) use just a few engines. The Saturn V had five engines, and the Space Shuttle had a total of five engines (including the Solid Rocket Boosters). The Atlas V uses one engine, New Glenn seven engines, etc. Historically, there has only been one rocket that attempted the 'many engine' approach before now: the N1 by the Soviets, which they n…

Falcon Heavy has 27 engines.

9 engines times 3 cores. Unlike Superheavy which is 33 x 1

Re: SpaceX Loses Starship Spaceraft During Test Flight

#192

Post by grecy » Tue, Nov 21, 2023, 6:09 AM UTC

JshWright wrote: post #190

grecy wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you’re not ok with them doing it their way. Like you think you have some say

Where did I imply I have any "say"? I very explicitly said the exact opposite. I also clearly said that risk taking is a good strategy that is clearly working for them. This is just one case where they got it wrong, and the thing they got wrong was 1000% predictable. That literally all I'm saying...

You’re missing the point.

The most advanced rocket company of all time that is literally putting the industry to shame very clearly knew the risk and took it anyway.

You're so excited to point out their MaSsIvE fAiLuRE You forgot to ask why they consciously took that risk.

Re: SpaceX Loses Starship Spaceraft During Test Flight

#193

Post by nick222226 » Fri, Dec 01, 2023, 6:49 AM UTC

panarky wrote: post #159

gavinray wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the genuine response, it wasn't a troll comment.

I was also genuinely interested in your simple question, "what makes the functioning of all the engines so difficult?" You received a response with many words but I don't think it contains a real answer, other than "the Soviets couldn't do it".

Because of combustion instability modes, cascading failures, and finally the simple difficulty of high reliability operation of a piece of machinery that is so highly stressed.

There is a very interesting book about it, called Combustion Instabilities in Liquid Rocket Engines: Testing and Development Practices in Russia.