The Pod Bay

« first day (2851 days earlier) ← previous day next day → last day (1386 days later) »

Feeds

04:58

stackoverflow.blog/2021/05/07/…

9 hours later…

Feeds

14:00

stackoverflow.blog/2021/05/07/…

geoffc

14:22

They totally need a new leg design... SN15's even on that nice landing, (It did bounce though) they seem to have deformed somewhat...

twitter.com/starshipgazer/status/1390494084498853890

I.e. They worked, but not what you want for fast reuse.

PearsonArtPhoto

14:43

I mean, that's not really a surprise.

1 hour later…

peterh

16:08

@geoffc Maybe some very little mechanism to vent out LM and burn it would be useful. Somehow I feel it dangerous, venting out LM and LOX out of the rocket in the same time.

Rory Alsop

17:01

I don't suppose it's that important for a test vehicle that you realistically expect may blow up :-)

peterh

@geoffc I think it is not a big problem. A little increase in the raptor power at the very end and it will arrive softer.

geoffc

17:24

@peterh It is worth mentioning that the LOX and Ch4 vents are close to 20 meters apart. That is not really mixing... The header tank venting, which has most of the LOX is almost 50 meters away from the methane vent. Not exactly combustion range.

And most of the methane for the fire is not from venting, but the leftover methane in the engines. The pumps and cooling channels have methane left at shut down that has to go somewhere.

Others have pointed out that the fire was mostly contained in the area where it is designed to take the full thrust of 3-6 Raptor engines... A simple methane fire is just not that hot in comprison.

@peterh Control issue. You solve that by trying and practicing and learning. SN15 must fly again! And again! And again!! :) SN16 is getting ready to move to the pad, so now we are back to limited pad space.

BN2/BN3 are almost not worth assembling yet, since they need to big launch stand and integraton tower to be tested, and the new storage tanks they are building. It is all coming together (as if there was a plan! Who would have predicted that they had some grand idea of how to do this all? Wild!)

Side note: When Starhopper was first being assembled everyone said it was just a water tower. After all Caldwell, a water tower building company was building it. But then they flew it. Now it has become a water tower.
The orbital pads LOX/CH4 storage tanks, are now being built. Turns out they know how to quickly whip out 9m wide tanks of basically any height up to about 70m tall.
and they also are making a 12m shell layer. So thinking is, install 7 tanks 9m wide, (No word on height yet, or I have not seen it) then drop the 12m shell on top, and dump in pyrlite insulation. 1.5m on eith…

forum.nasaspaceflight.com/…

The very big crane (crane of enormous proportions?) is moving to the pad! That likely means they will be lifting megalifts of integration tower sections. Woo Hoo! (Crane to lift SN15 has already arrived yesterday, so not for that!)

2 hours later…

geoffc