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Starship Flight 5: Launch and booster catch [video]

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Re: Starship Flight 5: Launch and booster catch [video]

#971
post #917
post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MIMO and nonlinear control theories are probably some of the hardest topics in all of engineering. SpaceX control system also has to compensate for the fuel moving inside their rockets so the control algorithms probably involve some kind of fast numerical fluid simulation. Another interesting thing SpaceX is doing is to use consumer-grade chips in triple redundancy configurations instead of using $100,000+ radiation-…

I'm not an engineer, but is there a reason why they can't french press (sans filter) the fuel toward the bottom of the tank as it empties?

(Not an engineer either) My understanding is that it's been done before on smaller scales but having a giant piston in the tank requires a good seal, railings to keep it straight, and overall way too much mass and rigidity. Consider that the tank walls are only a few millimeters thick.

Instead, it's more common to use gasses injected at the top of the tank to push the liquid to the bottom. Falcon 9 uses helium. Starship uses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autogenous_pressurization as well as small header tanks for the landing propellants.

Re: Starship Flight 5: Launch and booster catch [video]

#972
post #833

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My thought (admittedly not well developed) is that smashing into a landing pad of concrete can damage that pad but it can be quickly repaired without affecting the ability to launch future rockets. If you damage the launch tower significantly you're going to have to suspend launches from it until you fix it. So the "higher risk" is more critical assets offline in the event of a non-optimal return.

There are already 2 launch towers (2nd one not quite complete but getting there.)

Heh Plus one at Kennedy in Florida, LC-39A

Re: Starship Flight 5: Launch and booster catch [video]

#973

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to look closely at the channel name in a URL and not just the branding signals on the page itself (logos, "presentation name"), etc. What you'll find is that the on-page channel name can be made pretty much anything as well as logos, banner's etc. But when you look at a URL that leads to the channel page, it's not the same and it doesn't have the verification check. There is a real SpaceX channel: https://ww…

This was on the YouTube appleTV app

I don't have any Apple products, so I couldn't give you any advice here.

My experience is that, while YouTube has a lot of content creators that I very much enjoy... I enjoy YouTube stewardship of the platform... less so.

I have an admittedly old Chromecast Ultra and Pixel Pro 8 phone which I usually use to control it. As they continue to upgrade the app and the service, they steadily make it worse and worse. Damn thing is almost unusable.

In the end, I think they may well be poorly product managing themselves into a position where they could be vulnerable to a more able, savvy, and competent competitor.

All this is to say you're probably just out of luck on being able to see these sorts of scams if you aren't already hip to them existing.

Re: Starship Flight 5: Launch and booster catch [video]

#974

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main difference is that this is built by a private corporation who can't afford to throw money away, while the Space Shuttle was build by the government, and moreover it had to fulfill a number of conflicting requirements, and commercial profit was not one of them. But on a more technical level. I think the vertical landing is the main difference. Vertical landing was obviously known and done by NASA, this is how…

What is all this rocketry doing for climate change if they're burning methane? Hopefully it's methane from landfills etc?

burning methane turns it into much less damaging CO2. They probably get it from Natural Gas that the US produces.

Re: Starship Flight 5: Launch and booster catch [video]

#975

The SpaceX engineers did a great job, as did NASA. The media needs to stop blindly attributing this to "Elon Musk". He did well taking the risks NASA was not allowed to take at the start. But these days he is toxic to the media and toxic to reporting, so for that reason alone the media could smarted up a little. Well done SpaceX and NASA engineers.

Elon is the guy who said, "that is the craziest idea I've ever heard, here's billions, let's build it" It's 100% Musk that this happened, literally no one else would have done it. Everyone thought it was dumb until today. No company, no government or sci fi movie for that matter had even thought of it in the first place. SpaceX engineers given the green light by Musk, not NASA, made it a reality. That's not to say El…

Correct, and that's why NASA outsourced funding.

Because if NASA risked billions on "crazy ideas" they'd get shut down, being a government agency.

No point pretending it's all Elon.

Re: Starship Flight 5: Launch and booster catch [video]

#976
post #52

Very inspiring, glad I woke up to watch it. Congratulations to the SpaceX team. This is what competition looks like. It’s funny how last decade SpaceX had to sue the government to get more launches.

Well that may still continue to happen. The wonderful and competent state of California is literally trying to block SpaceX launches over Musk’s constitutionally protected political speech: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/10/california-reject-m... I cannot remember a more explicit case of authoritarian government abuse in a developed nation in recent memory, and it’s especially infuriating given SpaceX and Musk…

But Starship launches from (checks map) Texas.

Re: Starship Flight 5: Launch and booster catch [video]

#977
post #11

Moon by 2030 and Mars by 2040 seems like a winning bet lately

The Delta-V is comparable since you can aerobrake on mars. It's only the difference between the time. Earth to moon without Aerobraking is a delta v of around 13k/s, mars is 13.3

An additional advantage is that it’s theoretically possible to make fuel for Starship on Mars. The Luna lander will need to bring enough fuel for the return trip.

Re: Starship Flight 5: Launch and booster catch [video]

#978
post #874

The SpaceX engineers did a great job, as did NASA. The media needs to stop blindly attributing this to "Elon Musk". He did well taking the risks NASA was not allowed to take at the start. But these days he is toxic to the media and toxic to reporting, so for that reason alone the media could smarted up a little. Well done SpaceX and NASA engineers.

>The media needs to stop blindly attributing this to "Elon Musk". Musk's biographer tweeted the pages from his book https://x.com/WalterIsaacson/status/1844870018351169942 > discussing how in late 2020 Musk suggested, then insisted against considerable opposition from his engineers, that Superheavy be caught with chopsticks instead of landing on legs like Falcon 9. (If this sounds familiar, also according to the book…

Doubtful it was Elon against hundreds of engineers diametrically opposed . He'd of surfaced it as a viable option, great.

Re: Starship Flight 5: Launch and booster catch [video]

#979

The SpaceX engineers did a great job, as did NASA. The media needs to stop blindly attributing this to "Elon Musk". He did well taking the risks NASA was not allowed to take at the start. But these days he is toxic to the media and toxic to reporting, so for that reason alone the media could smarted up a little. Well done SpaceX and NASA engineers.

Musk is the one who makes this possible. There's a reason why neither Bezos, Gates, nor Branson are anywhere close to this achievement, despite also having vast financial resources. I strongly dislike this attempt to erase Musk from the history of what's happening (mostly because people disagreeing with him politically). It is an absolute achievement of all the scientists and engineers at SpaceX. It is also a huge vi…

You can dislike it all you like but he's erasing himself via Xitter.
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