Space and Science BS Thread

Since Starship has equal habitable cubic area as the ISS, I'd say the possibilities are near endless.

 

Agreed, I just like to speculate on some of the likely possibilities. Think NASA version of family feud: “survey says”…

 

Woah!

 

That’s the pepper!
https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1673509777819967488?s=46

 

Will it really fly in Feb ‘24?
https://twitter.com/spacenews_inc/status/1674017635472748546?s=46

Too bad they’re reliant on ULA and ipso facto, BO.

 

https://youtu.be/e-43x-H4CNY

 

That was my initial thought. Do they even have a second Vulcan with BE-4’s in the pipeline and how far along is it?

 

They’re gonna need a lot of cement trucks.

 

I thought I saw a tweet where they counted 137..

 

Great Spacex mentioned 32 but I expect they’ll still need more. And then some for surrounding slab work. I just hope they’ve figured it out so that the water pressure is distributed proportionately enough to the thrust to prevent some areas from running dry while others emit the excess. Given that they were already working on this prior to OFT-1 I don’t think it was haphazard but it’s still breaking new ground so there’s the potential for another learning experience.

 

They’ll need to elevate the Starship QD in order to accommodate the added length for hot fire staging. Will they add to the end of the arm and increase the work platform height or not so simply just remount the entire assembly 2-4 meters higher up the tower? Anything they do for this will probably take a month or two to complete. Offhand I’m thinking a duplication of the elevated booster QD and raising the work platform would be the lowest risk.

 

Can Dreamchaser fit on an F9?
https://twitter.com/sciguyspace/status/1674133237160091648?s=46

 

It’s under the fairing size of 5.2m. Rtds max to leo is 29,000lbs and the cargo version has a 5,000lb payload so I’d think the total mass to Leo would still work. Adding the shooting star module(additional 10,000 lbs payload) might still fit in the extended fairing but might require a fully expended booster(up to 50,000 lbs to Leo). I couldn’t find the dry mass of either ship or cargo module so I’m guessing but I think there’s enough leeway for it. The crew version is supposed to launch without the fairing I presume for abort capability.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_9
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_Chaser

 

It’s all these delays in ships and launch vehicles that has me still convinced F9 will still be launching even after Starship is available and Crew Dragons will also begin being produced again since they are still the only crew certified pair of ship and booster available. Starship won’t be crew certified for launches for several years even after successful cargo missions commence. Starliner’s future is still in doubt but even if it succeeds there are only a limited number of Atlas 5’s left and all are spoken for and I believe theirs are committed to the ISS. It’s also uncertain that Vulcan will be crew rated before those run out and Dream Chaser is also waiting on Vulcan but doesn’t have the Atlas option. I’d say that 5 years is optimistic for crewed Dream Chaser and next year or never for Starliner unless NASA and Congress decide to pony up to keep Boeing from throwing in the towel. With only 5 crew dragons and a limited number of reuses I can’t help but believe they will make another set at some point.

 

I’m be interested to see how the thermal tiles held up to this latest SF. Finishing the install of those after stacking along with replacement of missing ones is one of the other reasons I think they eventually need more high bays than mega bays. Some of the payload advantages they’re gaining might have to be spent making tiles a bit heavier if they can be made truly reliable.

 

There was 130+ in 10.5 hours. And that was just for the piling cap of 6.2 meters thick.

I watched closely and I didn't see any tiles fall off of S25.

 

It won’t be critical until they start developing descent protocol but that will be as soon as they get to orbit so that’s a better sign than the rapid unscheduled distribution of them on the first launch.

 

I'm betting that starship will be human certified much faster than other rockets. Usually they develop a capsule for an existing rocket, which changes the aerodynamics compared to the fairings they usually use. Starship however is basically the same no matter the payload. It's the interior that changes, so I think it will fast lane certification.

 

That may be true but without any escape system it might still be a hard sell since there’s no way that at any time ever the Starship will be able to accelerate as rapidly away from the booster as a capsule abort system, it’s just too heavy so if the booster fails it stands a good chance of taking the ship with it. And though some instances might allow for a safe separation basically the crew will be in a black zone from the time they board until several seconds after stage separation. I just don’t see it being granted until there’s an absolute requirement for it AND they have the track record to back it up. I don’t see that need arising anytime soon since I’m pretty sure they’d rather do their automated refueling with no crew on board. That would change by the time we’re sending larger groups to LEO, Luna, or Mars but optimistically that’s probably 8-10 years away.

Some decent info on hot staging of rockets.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZziK8llpUrU&pp=ygUGc3BhY2V4