And US mil. will get a super cheap way to deploy kinetic bombardment system with cost per rod on par with cruise missile.
Starship Prototype Unveiled
281–290 of 342 posts
Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled
#282Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://youtu.be/Sdwy9fzQzl4 Scott Manley does a great job explaining such things!
I'm surprised the guy being a youtuber. He is the codecs guy at Apple Computers
He started out (or at least found fame) doing Kerbal Space Program tutorials and play throughs, that's how I first came across him. He's also a pro DJ with an awe inspiring music collection and knowledge of music, though I'm not sure how much of that he still does. Oh, and he's also a fully qualified Astrophysicist and has worked in the field.
Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled
#283Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't he an astronomer / astrophysicist? You must be talking about another Scott Manley.
Nope, same guy. Scott Manley has a degree in astrophysics (I think) and worked as an astronomer for a while, then got a job coding at Apple. He's a smart guy
Technically he got a job at a startup, which was then bought by Apple.
Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled
#284Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I had three peers in my entire engineering classes like that. Two became PhDs, one has changed fields and applied himself rapidly.
I wasn't like them, but that ability to understand on a fundamental level, not forget, and then very quickly tackle more and more complex problems so fast was like a superpower. It took me much much longer, without the detailed understanding.
Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled
#285380s 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…
There won't be much literature because Raptor is essentially the first production methane engine. Everyone in the past seems to have decided to optimize strongly for either Isp, bulk density, or storability, and methane is the best at nothing.
Right, because in the past we were building first stages which had to be optimised for operations in the lower atmosphere, and upper stages which had to be optimised for vacuum. Hence the Saturn V had an RP-1 powered first stage and Hydrolox second stage.
But the raptors on the second stage have to operate efficiently in a vacuuum, but also work well and sea level for the landing. So even taking Mars out of the equation (which we really shouldn't, but just for sake of argument), it's requirements are quite different to anything we've built before.
Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled
#286Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is there any reason to believe it would be happening now if he didn't exist?
Maybe not. That still doesn't qualify him as an Engineer, though.
he's intimately involved in every aspect of the design of the vehicles. For example, he's personally responsible for the change to steel construction and had to convince the rest of the team to switch from composites.
Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled
#287Earlier quoted context omitted.
From this[1] article: "Musk said in 2018 that SpaceX was “all hands on deck for Crew Dragon,” and it would be making trips to the ISS by December 2018. After that, he said, “most of our engineering resources will be dedicated to BFR, and I think that will make things go quite quickly,” he said. BFR was the earlier name for Starship." "All hands on deck" is not some subjective term, it is naval and means get everyone…
He said, today, that 5% of SpaceX was working on Starship.
Both statements can be true, depending on which portion of space x is engineers and how Elon uses the word resources here
Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled
#288Earlier quoted context omitted.
How come no one thought of using steel before?
Steel was used before for the early Atlas rocket models. But the skin was too thin and collapsed on its own weight. You can see YouTube videos of this.
Those were balloon construction, which is a bit different. They were designed to be kept rigid by the internal pressure of the propellant. Actually the Centaur[0] is still built this way, using stainless steel.
Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled
#289> This is the rocket that will launch ... a handful of artists on a trip around the moon in the 2020s.
... and so programmed to crash just like Golgafrinchan Ark Fleet Ship B?
Re: Starship Prototype Unveiled
#290Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm no rocket scientist, so bear that in mind, but something has been bugging me about the flight paths for this vehicle [0]. It has to make some very large, specific orientation changes several times during descent, using the heat shield on one side of the vehicle, and then only rotating to upright orientation in the lower atmosphere, after quite a lot of falling sideways. The orientation maneuvers seem much more co…
It’s actually similar to the shuttle, In a couple of ways simpler, and a couple of ways more complex. The shuttles body was also designed to both generate lift and be a blunt body - with a transition of mode between them. The blunt body allowed it to survive reentry while the lifting body allowed it to glide. However that glide was way more complex then NASA generally talked about. The shuttle pulled some aggressive…
Also they plan to land where there isn't any atmosphere, or an atmosphere too thin to brake significantly.
So they need propulsive landing.