Space and Science BS Thread

Been said before but cannot fathom that emotional roller-coaster for Butch & Suni.

 

Especially given how long they have had to wait!

 

And the number of times going into quarantine and inside of T-7 days

 

FTS is being installed on S29 and B11 today.

 

I wonder if cherry pickers are the long term solution for working on ships and boosters even in the bays or if they’re working on some other more integrated access, especially for when payload bays and crewed models begin testing and cherry pickers don’t have the ability to bring and additional “stuff” to the location. As it is it seems seriously awkward to work from them given the railings and flat sides against a curved shape. I’d like to think that sort of platform is one of the things they might develop inside the Star factory since it would get used first there but closer to the ground.

 

Doesn't the Highbay and the 2 Megabays have platforms at various heights for this? And I remember seeing the HUGE scissor lifts being used in Megabay 1 a few months back. The ones with the like 10'x12' platforms?

 

Came here to post:
https://x.com/nasaspaceflight/status/1796205326745657430?s=46

 

https://x.com/advancedspace/status/1796229245007462624?s=46

https://x.com/advancedspace/status/1796229247520153609?s=46

 

With each station in the bays being determined by a fixed(or rotating) base I’m thinking something like platforms at various heights, at least one that provides payload bay or crew access and one located just above the lower fins that can elevate, both with semicircular cutouts rather than the limited tangential access currently provided by scissor lifts or cherry-pickers. The VAB has these doesn’t it? Not looking for this in the near future but down the road when they have more settled designs and known elevations. For work at the launch site a custom curved cherry picker would be nice for the boosters but I believe I mentioned before that ultimately they will need a service QD higher up on the towers for access to stacked ship payloads and crew hatches.

 

At the launchpad, maybe the final design will include a movable service stucture? It would be massive and probably not just rotatable due to the planned catching of the booster

 

I think the Chinese are serious about Space..
https://x.com/spacedotcom/status/1796482566490325149?s=46

 

Yeah, I agree. They definitely need something. They are light years ahead of tents on a sandbar, but no where near close to the established buildings like the VAB.

I don't think we'll see human launches on Starship for probably close to 10 years. I can see SpaceX using Dragon to ferry astronauts to an orbiting Human-rated Starship. This would allow Starship to launch with more cargo mass to orbit because they won't have to account for the weight of people, chairs, navigational equipment, etc.

 

Or launch abort escape systems so I agree it could take years for NASA to gather enough data to approve launches without one. Suborbital ship launches sans booster could help develop emergency ditching procedures for ships but ships launched in a stack would need to survive catastrophic failure of the booster to have that chance. Talk about hot staging! In any case the tower access will be needed long before then but the progression would I think start in the Star factory before being added to the bay(s) and tower(s). We might even see some kind of test article for suborbital transport access at Massey’s if Elon and DOD is serious about that. That kind of launch support would need to at least vaguely resemble what’s being built there.

 

I really don't think they are going to get anywhere with point to point until well after Artemis...

 

The lifts aren't as cumbersome as you'd think. It allows them to get exactly where they need to be. VAB may sound nice, but it's a lot of work to make and navigate around. And even more work to modify it when you make changes to the ship.

 

James Webb Space Telescope spots the most distant galaxy ever seen (image) | Space

 

Not guessing, I’ve worked from them. They’re like a multi tool, it does what nothing else can while leaving much to be desired. I see them as a stopgap much like the tents but likely to hang around longer. Unlike the Artemis stages, SH is one diameter up until its pointy head so there wouldn’t be a plethora of different size/shape platforms. And it’s not like they’re averse to trying to improve on what they started with.

 

Only took seven months. Off to buy butane refill canisters now.

 

https://x.com/visitbocachica/status/1796660242287145228?s=46

 

Anyone know what causes blockages in the fuel system? You’d think it would be extraordinarily clean to start with so is it something like water ice freezing out and creating slush?