SpaceX are going for it



looks like they are going for it. No ETA though, it could be 20 mins or it could be 4 hours time. The fuel tanks on the ground are venting which is where fuel it put before loading onto the vehicle, it means they are full. Fuel is then loaded on and that starts venting when it's taking on fuel. The stream says that has started but I can't see it.


What are they currently testing, mate?

We went to the Kennedy Space Centre a few years back, and it was fantastic. Especially all the crack about SpaceX.
 
What are they currently testing, mate?

We went to the Kennedy Space Centre a few years back, and it was fantastic. Especially all the crack about SpaceX.

so the current live rockets are the falcon 9 and falcon heavy. The falcon 9 is the single 3m wide booster that we have seen plenty of times land back at the launch site or on the drone ship. It’s took men to the ISS and done loads of satellites. Because of the recoveries it has become a very affordable way to put things into space. At least one falcon 9 has been used 8 times. It’s been through various iterations to get to where it is now, so much so that the extra oomph it’s upgraded engines give have negated the need for its big brother, the falcon heavy.

The falcon heavy is basically 3 falcon 9s strapped together (it’s not the centre core is quite different due to the extra loads placed upon it.) This is what we’ve seen land two boosters side by side. It’s probably going to fly only about 10 times total.

Falcon 9 and falcon heavy are great for low earth orbit, so satellites and ISS trips. They are less good for further away stuff and the payloads aren’t massive. I certainly wouldn’t want to spend 6 months travelling to Mars in a Dragon capsule.

These are SpaceXs work horses. They bring the dollars in.

Enter starship where those dollar are spent. At 9m wide and 120m tall it is designed from the ground up to travel to Mars. This is what is being tested.

It is to be made of 2 parts. The booster, called super heavy, and the top part called starship. They are testing the top part at the moment.

They are doing the same playbook as the falcon9. Reusability. The idea is if you built a plane to fly once then chucked it away the price of a flight ticket would be massive. This is exactly what they’ve been doing in the past with rockets. Those Saturn5 launches cost about a billion dollars each and each were thrown in the sea. So Starship will be totally reusable.

With this test they are testing a few things.
-the engines. Do they work correctly, and are able to restart mid flight
- the aerodynamics, showing down using a engine used fuel, fuel you have to carry. If you can scrub off speed with aerodynamics, that’s less fuel. Think falling with style.
-the tanks/propellant, there are some G forces placed on it, when they relight they need to be able to suck in fuel as it flips to go engine first then fire them.

Another thing to bare in mind is these engines burn methane rather than the usual RP1 (refined kerosine), purely because it can be made from the atmosphere on Mars. So when they get there they can make the fuel to get back, rather than carry both ways worth of fuel.

I’ve probably rambled on for too long, there are some good YouTube videos on it that explain it better than I can.
 
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so the current live rockets are the falcon 9 and falcon heavy. The falcon 9 is the single 3m wide booster that we have seen plenty of times land back at the launch site or on the drone ship. It’s took men to the ISS and done loads of satellites. Because of the recoveries it has become a very affordable way to put things into space. At least one falcon 9 has been used 8 times. It’s been through various iterations to get to where it is now, so much so that the extra oomph it’s upgraded engines give have negated the need for its big brother, the falcon heavy.

The falcon heavy is basically 3 falcon 9s strapped together (it’s not the centre core is quite different due to the extra loads placed upon it.) This is what we’ve seen land two boosters side by side. It’s probably going to fly only about 10 times total.

Falcon 9 and falcon heavy are great for low earth orbit, so satellites and ISS trips. They are less good for further away stuff and the payloads aren’t massive. I certainly wouldn’t want to spend 6 months travelling to Mars in a Dragon capsule.

These are SpaceXs work horses. They bring the dollars in.

Enter starship where those dollar are spent. At 9m wide and 120m tall it is designed from the ground up to travel to Mars. This is what is being tested.

It is to be made of 2 parts. The booster, called super heavy, and the top part called starship. They are testing the top part at the moment.

They are doing the same playbook as the falcon9. Reusability. The idea is if you built a plane to fly once then chucked it away the price of a flight ticket would be massive. This is exactly what they’ve been doing in the past with rockets. Those Saturn5 launches cost about a billion dollars each and each were thrown in the sea. So Starship will be totally reusable.

With this test they are testing a few things.
-the engines. Do they work correctly, and are able to restart mid flight
- the aerodynamics, showing down using a engine used fuel, fuel you have to carry. If you can scrub off speed with aerodynamics, that’s less fuel. Think falling with style.
-the tanks/propellant, there are some G forces placed on it, when they relight they need to be able to suck in fuel as it flips to go engine first then fire them.

Another thing to bare in mind is these engines burn methane rather than the usual RP1 (refined kerosine), purely because it can be made from the atmosphere on Mars. So when they get there they can make the fuel to get back, rather than carry both ways worth of fuel.

I’ve probably rambled on for too long, there are some good YouTube videos on it that explain it better than I can.

Fascinating stuff, mate. Really appreciate the reply.
I watched the launch last year when they relanded part of the rocket onto the platform in the sea.
I’ll take a look at some videos of the new ventures.
 

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