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PearsonArtPhoto

01:05

I've got ahold of some footage that isn't public, yet. There's all kinds of interesting things in the footage...

I think I count 8 engines out maybe a minute after launch...

Probably closer to 2.

Most of them on one side of the ring, almost all of them.

It's tricky, but...

TheMatrix Equation-balance

01:40

@PearsonArtPhoto - they say 6

PearsonArtPhoto

That was at one point in time. It's kind of obvious that engines continued to fail.

I think the graphic showing what engines were working stopped updating at some point in time.

1 hour later…

Erin Anne

02:57

but THEY say it

who's they? who cares, they say it though

nevermind that on the picture where Matrixy circled six spots before, there's visibly fewer engines running in the picture he just posted

six is the number they said

I absolutely believe 8 or more failing as the rocket spins out of control. EverydayAstronaut's stream has a really good shot at the back of the rocket as what I think is #7 eats itself, and then there's evidence of continued engine failures as things get further out of hand

Erin Anne

03:25

There's 3 engines in the center triangle at the bottom of SuperHeavy, 10 more in the middle ring, and 20 more in the outer ring

In that most recent picture, there's 14 lights on the outer ring (6 out), all of the middle ring is lit, and 2 lights in the center (1 out there, total of 7 out)

and of course that's not the end of the flight

mfw i'm counting lights now

XKCD

03:45

Yeah, my math teacher back in high school set up the system to try to teach us something or other, but the 100% rate was unbelievably good, so I engineered a hostile takeover of his bank and now use it to make extra cash on the side.

fyrepenguin

03:58

@ErinAnne ok that’s one’s good

10 hours later…

PearsonArtPhoto

14:04

Starship Test Flight 4K Slow Mo Supercut w/ Tracking and Incredible Audio

►

1 hour later…

Rory Alsop

15:12

@PearsonArtPhoto that shows really clearly various failures/explosions, and before engines throttle back up around 9 mins, perfect view of which engines are on/off

beautiful footage

PearsonArtPhoto

Yup.

Rory Alsop

15:36

The bit I really love is that section where she starts to tumble, and the flowing shockwave/flame front just looks amazing. I mean that bit of a normal launch where the engines are at full throttle in upper atmosphere looks great anyway, but this was so pretty. Before the big boom :-)

3 hours later…

Erin Anne

18:16

agreed. For all the complexity / interaction issues that large numbers of engines pose, the ability to gradually fail while engines shred themselves really makes good dramatic visuals

PearsonArtPhoto

18:29

I think this first test was already better than any N1 test;-)

Rory Alsop

18:51

@ErinAnne Science! With fire!

Erin Anne

probably why I like this Youtube channel youtube.com/watch?v=elR5vcAJ-PA

TheMatrix Equation-balance

19:12

If Space Exploration becomes a $1 trillion private business venture is being decided right now. If it does, you guys will be rich.

PearsonArtPhoto

Not sure who you are talking about there...

Erin Anne

yeah I don't think anybody here owns SpaceX

if anybody here wanted to be rich and had the means we would've started a small launcher business, taken a ton of VC money, and then burned it to the ground because small launch was a dumb idea ever since Falcon 9 tempo picked up

but most of us actually love the space and science, so we don't talk about things as though we were writing for Forbes

TheMatrix Equation-balance

You still have to go to work. And when the government is in competition with private business, salaries tend to rise.

I also have a skin in the matter. Elsevier journal sent my 'crazy' article for review on the same day when Starship with Super Heavy were launched.

Erin Anne

19:32

did you correct any of the evident issues with it or are you still just sending it to people hoping someone will like it

TheMatrix Equation-balance

The whole article - is an issue - from the normal science point of view. But this article is about technical aspects of asteroid mining. And this subject is not considered a science, not yet.

Erin Anne

you're still just sending it to people hoping someone will like it

that's what I'd guessed, but I thought I'd ask

TheMatrix Equation-balance

I reduced the size of the article in 1/2. If they reject it, I'll come back to ask you to have a look. If you don't mind.

Erin Anne

I'm not touching it with a ten foot pole

literally nothing I've seen from your posts here makes the article sound interesting or useful

TheMatrix Equation-balance

You are - normal. :)

You can check, 'normal' researchers don't write articles about asteroid mining. I am the only one (I am The One).

Erin Anne

19:40

normal researchers write articles about things they understand so that other people can understand new things. I suspect you've written about things you don't understand

TheMatrix Equation-balance

Albert Einstein - did not understand black holes. But he still wrote about it.

Erin Anne

if that's your impression about what he wrote about, you also don't understand what he wrote

TheMatrix Equation-balance

Some people have an 'abnormal' purpose in life. I have this kind of purpose. God gives me energy and ideas for that. Will see what happens.

PearsonArtPhoto

Wait, you are writing articles about asteroid mining?

I'm working on a video for my channel about asteroid mining, and have been looking for articles about asteroid mining...

And I'm even toying with a game focused around asteroid mining.

TheMatrix Equation-balance

If you try to search for manuscripts about technical aspects of asteroid mining - on Google Scholar - you will see an empty space.

No budgets (in academia) - no research. This is the case with asteroid mining. Even though Starship will make asteroid mining on NEO asteroids - possible.

I am focusing on the problem of carving out a solid slab from an iron-nickel core of M-Type asteroid.

Erin Anne

20:22

something that just occurred to me, which has probably been pointed out before: as much as folks complain about SLS throwing away reusable engines (and I've also made the "it belongs in a museum" joke), it'll take 10 SLS launches before they've thrown away as many engines as in the Starship orbital flight test.

PearsonArtPhoto

M-type eh.

There are a few near-scholar level articles out there, but not a ton...

True, but the SLS engines are a lot more expensive;-)

Erin Anne

I was about a second from asking "how many SSMEs were built" when I stumbled across upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/… on the RS-25 Wikipedia page and remembered that the engines and powerheads are somehow separate things and so the answer is a little complicated

though I think the column width of that table suggests that there were really were never that many RS-25s. Maybe add a few for initial testing, and also for however many RS-25Es Aerojet is going to build

I should've used this link instead en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RS-25#/media/File:SSME_Flight_History.png

Erin Anne

21:23

@uhoh today I've learned there's a paper on arxiv answering a "prematurely closed" Physics SE question about "what if the Earth was replaced with an equal volume of blueberries" arxiv.org/pdf/1807.10553.pdf

PearsonArtPhoto

22:12

It seems like the bits of asteroid mining that have been researched are minimal, but there is at least some feasibility-wide studies.

TheMatrix Equation-balance

22:47

@PearsonArtPhoto - this is my problem. Most of the researchers understand science as a strictly incremental business. You are supposed to stand on a Giant Shoulders. And if you don't and you are not Albert Einstein, you get a rejection. :)

Erin Anne

neat fireball just after F9 landing on today's Starlink launch youtu.be/-5EX1u0fA78?t=1025

looks like a brief LOX vent onto a engine bay/landing leg fire? goes out real fast though

TheMatrix Equation-balance

@PearsonArtPhoto - most of feasibility studies on asteroid mining say it would be impossible to bring a couple of tons of asteroid rock into the Starship's cargo bay and make this business profitable, even if asteroid rock contains 5% of platinum group metals.

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