Eldorado Posted January 23, 2019 #1 Share Posted January 23, 2019 SpaceX is facing a bit of a setback in the development of its Martian rocket prototype, after high winds blew over the top half of the vehicle. Full report: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/23/elon-musk-spacex-starship-rocket-blew-over-a-few-weeks-to-repair.html 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piney Posted January 23, 2019 #2 Share Posted January 23, 2019 Very sturdy..... 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zep73 Posted January 24, 2019 #3 Share Posted January 24, 2019 It's like the programmer is saying: Don't go! I'll have to upgrade! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MWoo7 Posted January 24, 2019 #4 Share Posted January 24, 2019 (edited) They were thinking " What the <snip>! " X D they might as well be those funny guys on youtube:::: Model Rocket Battle 2 | Dude Perfect 22,856,564 views : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPCi5Rs7EuA Oh warning don't click unless you've a bit of time. cnbccnb what the? p*** poor site, <snip>!!!!! popping up all over the monitor and in my face,<SNIIIIP!!> I for one will never stop there again. Some sites have to go down and later they scratch their heads wondering why oh why us, the woe. Sorry Eldorado, I simply had to remove my likey happy heart thingybobber icon. I know, end of the world. Edited January 24, 2019 by MWoo7 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrLzs Posted January 24, 2019 #5 Share Posted January 24, 2019 Hmm. Not only are Elon's behavior and claims getting odder by the week, apparently his engineers aren't aware of how to design tie-downs strong enough for high winds.... ?? Not sure I want to be first to go on one of their spacecraft. When I once started a mech eng diploma (never finished, went in other directions) that sort of stuff was the first sort we did - tie downs and wind strength resistance calculations are really basic stuff. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freetoroam Posted January 24, 2019 #6 Share Posted January 24, 2019 Quote "Every year there are some moderately big dust storms that pop up on Mars and they cover continent-sized areas and last for weeks at a time," https://mars.nasa.gov/news/1854/the-fact-and-fiction-of-martian-dust-storms/ Oh dear, this danage was caused on Earth, they are going to have to make it a lot less flimsy if it is going anywhere near Mars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Willis Posted January 24, 2019 #7 Share Posted January 24, 2019 The reports say it was the fairing - i.e. the nose cone - that blew over. It seems this was standing in an upright position on the ground (not on top of the rocket) and was tied-down with moorings. Unfortunately the moorings weren't strong enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Willis Posted January 24, 2019 #8 Share Posted January 24, 2019 5 hours ago, ChrLzs said: Hmm. Not only are Elon's behavior and claims getting odder by the week, apparently his engineers aren't aware of how to design tie-downs strong enough for high winds.... ?? Not sure I want to be first to go on one of their spacecraft. When I once started a mech eng diploma (never finished, went in other directions) that sort of stuff was the first sort we did - tie downs and wind strength resistance calculations are really basic stuff. A number of comparisons have been made between Elon Musk and Howard Hughes. Hughes - who was always a bit loopy - went completely loopy because he tried to expand TWA too fast. Until the late-1950's TWA was earning decent profits, but Hughes wanted it to become the most super-dooper airline in the world. So he placed a huge order for for jet aircraft. There were delays in the delivery and TWA ran out of money. Within a few years Hughes was forced to sell his majority holding in TWA to prevent the company going bust. Fortunately for Hughes, he owned the Hughes Tool Company, which continued to fill his pockets with tens of millions of dollars each year. I wonder if Musk is pushing too fast. The "BFR" could bust Space-X if he is not careful (staff are already being laid-off). Also, Tesla isn't bringing in the profits yet, so he doesn't have a fountain of money to fall-back on like Hughes did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie_Dwarf Posted January 24, 2019 #9 Share Posted January 24, 2019 10 hours ago, freetoroam said: Oh dear, this danage was caused on Earth, they are going to have to make it a lot less flimsy if it is going anywhere near Mars. It's not going to go anywhere near Mars. This is simply a test vehicle to prove that it can hover and land successfully. It is only designed to go a few hundred metres into the air. SpaceX had a similar programme, called Grasshopper, that proved the Falcon 9 could lander after launch. That vehicle was eventually destroyed when one of the tests went wrong, but Falcon 9 first stages are now routinely recovered and reflown. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freetoroam Posted January 24, 2019 #10 Share Posted January 24, 2019 7 hours ago, Waspie_Dwarf said: It's not going to go anywhere near Mars. This is simply a test vehicle to prove that it can hover and land successfully. It is only designed to go a few hundred metres into the air. SpaceX had a similar programme, called Grasshopper, that proved the Falcon 9 could lander after launch. That vehicle was eventually destroyed when one of the tests went wrong, but Falcon 9 first stages are now routinely recovered and reflown. Am i understanding it correctly that it is part of the process being build for Starship, which one day may trsnsport humans to Mars? So is it part of the trial and error stages like Grasshopper? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Willis Posted January 25, 2019 #11 Share Posted January 25, 2019 3 hours ago, seanjo said: Musk has explained the use of Stainless Steel in an article this may not just be a publicity stunt rocket. Certain molecular configurations of steel actually get stronger when you cool them. So you fill this rocket with fuel at cryogenic temperatures and it gets stronger by 100% (in some cases)...vid...go to 3:50 for the meat. People seem to think Elon Musk has invented everything to do with rockets. The Atlas missile developed in the 1950's - and later used as a satellite and spacecraft launcher - was made of stainless steel. The tank walls were very thin, in fact so thin they would collapse under their own weight had they not been pressurized. Musk and Space-X have made some fantastic innovations, such as the recovery of rocket stages, but please give some credit to the rocket scientists who were developing amazing technologies over half a century ago! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eldorado Posted January 25, 2019 Author #12 Share Posted January 25, 2019 (edited) Some pics of the damage.... https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6630847/PICTURED-Elon-Musks-badly-damaged-Mars-Starship-prototype.html Edited January 25, 2019 by Eldorado Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie_Dwarf Posted January 26, 2019 #13 Share Posted January 26, 2019 On 1/24/2019 at 10:24 PM, freetoroam said: Am i understanding it correctly that it is part of the process being build for Starship, which one day may trsnsport humans to Mars? It is a semi-scale vehicle to test some of the concepts which will be used in Starship. It is not designed for, or capable of spaceflight and is not built to anywhere near the specification that an actual Starship will be. On 1/24/2019 at 10:24 PM, freetoroam said: So is it part of the trial and error stages like Grasshopper? Yes, but trial and error wouldn't necessarily be the correct term, test-bed would be more accurate, 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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