The SpaceX Rocket called Starship thread

[William Gaatjes]

It's from a cartoon called WALL-E, where humans waste the earth & then have to move to space, leaving the robots behind to clean up haha

View attachment 119546

I see.
I have seen the movie, but forgot those details. I remember the fat people that are unable to walk but need floating carriage , and the white shiny robot girlfirend , Wall-E has a crush on and the garbage dump. Very nice movie.
I even have a little WALL-E plastic character puppet with movable head and arms.

 

[William Gaatjes]

This video from Space zone is about the rocket engine :

Titel : SpaceX’s Explosive Vacuum Engine Problem!

 

[William Gaatjes]

News about the crew swap mission , astronauts were standed on the ISS for some time, mote than nine months.
This time a dragon ship mounted on a falcon 9 rocket.

See website for full text about the astronauts, SpaceX and the ISS (International Space Station) :

Crew launch to ISS paves way for 'stranded' astronauts' return

Not long to go now: After more than nine months on the International Space Station, two astronauts are a step closer to returning home following the launch of a crew swap mission on Friday.

phys.org

Small excerpt from text :
"
Not long to go now: After more than nine months on the International Space Station, two astronauts are a step closer to returning home following the launch of a crew swap mission on Friday.

A Falcon 9 rocket with a Crew Dragon fixed to its top blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:03 pm (2303 GMT), carrying a four-member team bound for the orbital outpost.
"We celebrate the countless individuals all over the world that have made this journey possible," said astronaut Nichole Ayers, the designated pilot of the Crew-10 mission, just before launch.
But the real focus is what their arrival enables: the long-overdue departure from the ISS of NASA duo Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.

Image from website :

"


edit :
More information about the SpaceX crew dragon from NASA :

The SpaceX Crew Dragon: A New Ride to the Space Station – Commercial Crew Program

blogs.nasa.gov

and the BBC science website :

https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/everything-you-need-to-know-about-spacexs-crew-dragon

small excerpt form text :
"

What is the Crew Dragon?​

The Crew Dragon is SpaceX’s first human-rated vehicle. Its design is based on the Dragon cargo module which SpaceX uses to run supplies to the International Space Station (ISS). In March, it went through its first flight tests in orbit, a step closer to NASA approving it for human flights.
When in operation, the Crew Dragon and rival Boeing’s Starliner will act as taxis, carrying astronauts to and from orbit. They were developed as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development programme, which aims to provide a way to launch humans into space from US soil.
Read more:

• How does SpaceX Falcon compare to other rockets?
• Watch a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket land in full 360-degree video

Since the end of the Space Shuttle in 2011, NASA’s relied on Russian Soyuz capsules to reach the ISS. As well as the political ramifications of the US being solely dependent on Russia, using a single transportation system is unreliable.
This was highlighted in late 2018, when a series of issues led to all Soyuz spacecraft being grounded for several months. The issues were quickly solved, but the incident almost ended up with the ISS being abandoned for the first time since 2000.
"

 

[William Gaatjes]

This is nice to watch.
The evolution of the rocket engine :

 

[Kaido]

Pretty epic milestone: SpaceX lands a Falcon 9 booster for the 400th time. Looks CGI lol:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1901047655293124649

 

[Kaido]

Great shots. Starship vs. Falcon 9 notes:

Starship VS Falcon 9: SpaceX Spacecraft Comparison - Orbital Today

Falcon 9 vs Starship comparison: which SpaceX spacecraft is better and do they have any equal competitors?

orbitaltoday.com

https://twitter.com/x/status/1901068355085459516

https://twitter.com/x/status/1901137553916342770

 

[Kaido]

SpaceX Dragon docks with Space Station:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1901151139447349513

SpaceX Dragon ship arrives at the Space Station:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1901149221610271099

They've been stranded up there for more than 9 months:

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'm sure they'll be glad to come back home. Being on the ISS would be awesome, but I'm sure the novelty also wears off after a while especially when you initially only mentally prepared to be there for a short time.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I'm sure they'll be glad to come back home. Being on the ISS would be awesome, but I'm sure the novelty also wears off after a while especially when you initially only mentally prepared to be there for a short time.

I have the same feeling. Being in space would be fun. But without gravity for a prolonged time, all the possible dangers like meteorites, and limited freedom it would feel cumbersome.

 

[Brainonska511]

They've been stranded up there for more than 9 months:

They weren't stranded. They ended up taking the place of 2 other astronauts in the mission cycle, and there was always a return vehicle docked for emergency use.

 

[Brainonska511]

SpaceX thinks it knows why Starship exploded on its last test flight

A sustained fire triggered a self-destruct.

www.theverge.com

SpaceX Has Finally Figured Out Why Starship Exploded, And The Reason Is Utterly Embarrassing

This should never have happened.

www.planetearthandbeyond.co

I believe these articles may be slightly dated (eg, not counting the latest failure), but I suspect the latter isn't so far off the mark in the speculation. SpaceX doesn't seem to be doing something right in their testing and prep work to lose so many vehicles in a row.

 

[K1052]

I've read an increasing amount of speculation that Starship may be a fatally flawed design. I'm not entirely on board with some of the thoughts but if SpaceX can't stop them from exploding then I'm more inclined to the idea. Even if they do the implication is that the performance of the launcher may end up being be far less than originally designed.

 

[William Gaatjes]

SpaceX thinks it knows why Starship exploded on its last test flight

A sustained fire triggered a self-destruct.

www.theverge.com

SpaceX Has Finally Figured Out Why Starship Exploded, And The Reason Is Utterly Embarrassing

This should never have happened.

www.planetearthandbeyond.co

I believe these articles may be slightly dated (eg, not counting the latest failure), but I suspect the latter isn't so far off the mark in the speculation. SpaceX doesn't seem to be doing something right in their testing and prep work to lose so many vehicles in a row.

From the text:
"
Fires in the aft section of Starship, located between the bottom of its liquid oxygen tank and rear heat shield, caused “all but one of Starship’s engines to execute controlled shut down sequences” leading to a loss of communication and eventually the spacecraft’s safety system triggering its own destruction.
"

That communication shuts down is strange. As if there is no electricity.
That makes me wonder if electricity stops when the turbine pumps from the engines all shut down. As if there is an electrical generator connected to the turbine pumps or at least to one turbine pump from one rocket engine.
Batteries are heavy. Lithium-ion batteries for example would not work in the cold of space, having a minimum and maximum temperature operating range at -20C to +60C (celcius).
These Li-ion batteries must be heated to work in the optimal temperature range of about -20C to +60C (celcius). That makes the rocket or spaceship more complex.

See the space zone videos for more explanation, how rocket engines work.

 

[Brainonska511]

Starship Was Doomed From The Beginning

The fatal flaw SpaceX can't overcome.

www.planetearthandbeyond.co

Maybe Starship is just a big con that is ultimately set for failure from the start.

 

[Roger Wilco]

But… Elon just said we’d be sending humans to Mars by 2031 at the latest.

He must know something we don’t know. He so smart after all. What a blessed nerd, I wish my brain could do stuff.

 

[William Gaatjes]

Starship Was Doomed From The Beginning

The fatal flaw SpaceX can't overcome.

www.planetearthandbeyond.co

Maybe Starship is just a big con that is ultimately set for failure from the start.

That is quite the revelation about all problem points in the design of starship. I hope for Elon Musk sake that the journalist is a bit off. The journalist does seem to have a dislike for Elon Musk.
It is strange that all the starships build, constantly have a problem with (explosive) fires happening.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Are tax payers actually funding Starship? I would have figured it would be up to SpaceX to get it in working order on their own dime, then once it's proven, then they could be awarded contracts that use it.

 

[William Gaatjes]

SpaceX thinks it knows why Starship exploded on its last test flight

A sustained fire triggered a self-destruct.

www.theverge.com

SpaceX Has Finally Figured Out Why Starship Exploded, And The Reason Is Utterly Embarrassing

This should never have happened.

www.planetearthandbeyond.co

I believe these articles may be slightly dated (eg, not counting the latest failure), but I suspect the latter isn't so far off the mark in the speculation. SpaceX doesn't seem to be doing something right in their testing and prep work to lose so many vehicles in a row.

I was reading the article about the vibrations as the cause, and remembered a youtube video where it was presented how vibrations can unscrew nuts and bolts that are not sealed with some threadlock glue like material for example loctite makes. Or not using any lock washers or locking nylon nuts.
Add the effects of thermal expansion & thermal contraction.

Perhaps the same thing is happening with some part of the rocketengine too. It is amazing too see how vibrations can completely unscrew nuts and bolts.
In this video a motor with on the shaft an asymmetrical balanced weight rotates and the created vibrations are enought to unscrew the nuts and bolts.

 

[William Gaatjes]

While watching this video about, do you guys and gals also wonder if cavitation in the liquid fuel lines is at play here ? Cavitation caused by vibrations ? Like standing waves in the liquid fuel pipes and the liquid oxygen pipes ?.
Anyway, there seems to be a solution according to Space Zone.

 

[William Gaatjes]

New video about starship from Space Zone :
And a short moment about Z93C55, a protective coating from Alion corp, i f am not mistaken.
Used as a protective outer coating on the hull of the space vehicle.
Great stuff, Nasa even has a presentation in pdf format with an explanation.

 

[William Gaatjes]

News from the launch with a reusable falcon 9 rocket carrying what it seems a classified US military satellite .
But the rocket left a spiral shaped plume high in the air visible with the naked eye.
See website for videos.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c241073v66jo :
"

A large glowing spiral visible in the night sky on Monday is believed to have been caused by a SpaceX rocket launch in the US.
The Met Office said the shape was likely produced by a frozen plume of fuel from the rocket's exhaust, which reflected the sunlight and appeared to spin in the atmosphere.
The cloud-like shape was visible for several minutes above the UK and elsewhere in Europe before fading.
The Falcon 9 rocket from Elon Musk's space company lifted off at around 13:50 local time in Florida (17:50 GMT) on a classified US government mission.
"

 

[William Gaatjes]

This old thread i made years ago is about what the voyagers space probes have to encounter and endure in the ddeep cold of space.
One voyager has already left our solar system if i am not mistaken.
Very useful thread and a lot to learn from.

Voyager is at the edge :

It is not highly technical(perhaps as events unfold), but interesting nonetheless... http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110615/full/news.2011.370.html Seventeen and a half billion kilometres from Earth, mankind's most distant probe seems to be on the edge of interstellar space. The...

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