I’m starting to think ‘SABOTAGE’.................
That thought has crossed my mind as well. He has so many workers, it could be anyone from a hands-on technician to a software engineer, or anyone in between. Someone with the knowledge to eff things up.
I don’t think so, I used to build parts for jet and rocket engines. There’s a lot that can go wrong. I’ve been following the Starship closely. I think one of the problems is that they do so many things well, they don’t do the triple redundant thing NASA did in the 60’s and 70’s. Fuel leaks happen. How do you handle it before the LOX or Liquid Methane freezes and cracks everything it touches when you have a leak. First leak detectors, second Pressurized inert gas to flush the leak out a vent, valves to isolate the leak and shunt the gas to a secondary supply system. All this is weight, which means money. Remember though, perfection is the enemy of production, so give up some weight for redundancy instead of expecting a perfect build every time. All that being said, As someone who grew up near Cape Canaveral, where my dad worked. Spacex is an incredible company doing incredible things. Catching a couple of hundred tons at the launch tower is not a trivial physics problem. ( BTW that means Spacex can drop that 200 tons going 18000 kph , figure those joules of force Iran, with a roughly 1 meter CEP from outside the atmosphere) And ever since “Rocky Jones Space Ranger” I had been waiting for ships to be reusable and land like they took off.
My comment wasn’t based upon your comment, but it was the conclusion I immediately went to.
It was a redesigned ship and they were testing it to the breaking point [ test to failure ] - like deliberately removing 100 tiles from a critical area on the ship. Its all about the data, since they have many more launches this year. A successful flight is just a bonus for the data it would provide.
I’ve wondered too, but OTOH, this is probably just a bridge too far problem. EM’s going to reconcile himself to an interim development, or more that one (a nine-engine Raptor-based booster, for example) that can be put to immediate work, proved out, and sufficient for a scaled-down lunar mission. Probably wouldn’t hurt to send one to Mars for a few laps (no landing) and return, while work continues on the Starship systems.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4319264/posts?page=4#4
Whoops, “EM’s going to” shound have been “EM’s going to have to”. [blush]
Shades of “Contact”?