Posted on 01/13/2019 12:01:55 AM PST by vannrox
Elon Musk and SpaceX's ambitious plans to reach around the moon and all the way to Mars require a big effin' rocket. Now we know what it looks like.
Musk tweeted out an image on Thursday of an assembled early version of the SpaceX Starship, which was once known in polite company as the Big Falcon Rocket.
Starship test flight rocket just finished assembly at the @SpaceX Texas launch site. This is an actual picture, not a rendering. pic.twitter.com/k1HkueoXaz — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 11, 2019
"Starship test flight rocket just finished assembly at the @SpaceX Texas launch site. This is an actual picture, not a rendering," Musk wrote.
He first teased us in December with an image of the prototype rocket under construction.
The assembled version looks like a stainless-steel Airstream trailer mated with a space shuttle. A person or mannequin in a spacesuit stands nearby to give us a sense of scale. Starship is a monster.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnet.com ...
Load up the test rocket up with water and MRE’s and send it to Mars and put it in a parking orbit. Eventually someone will use it.
‘star’ship?
It looks like the design was based on Chesley Bonestell’s illustrations.
Musk has accomplished some very impressive things, but I think he's starting to become a lunatic.
I got yer booster stage right here. C'mon, do it! Doo iiiit !!!
Really? I don’t think so.
Yeah, and a lot of the digital battlefield was first envisioned in science fiction, particularly Robert Heinlein’s “Starship Troopers”.
That’s a Warner Bros cartoon rocket circa 1950s. Period.
Musk is nothing short of a force of nature.
Me Too
Suicide trip.
1950-1960 approach to X-project development done by engineers with a slide-rule. Skunk Works through-back type operation.
I just got into old radio shows about 10 years ago, and can’t stop my addiction. There are tens of thousands of old shows out there for free download. Start at archive.org. I just finished a fun episodes Crime Does Not Pay from 1938.
No windows????
The rocket is only 3ft tall with a toy soldier beside it.
Photo on the left looks more accurate as it appears to be wrapped in tin foil, with a metal strut frame supporting the structure.
IMHO, it is a foolish design, likely to breakup as the weight changes from fuel consumption and different modes of vibration are induced during flight. This is one of the major design issues addressed in US structural designs of rockets in the 60s and 70s.
IMHO, Musk is more used car salesman pretending to be genius than an intellect. He fits the role of Wehrner Von Braun held in the 50s, though Von Braun was not held as a serious intellect by his associates who came over with him in the 60s and 70s.
Some commentary alluded to this second stage as perhaps capable of making orbit with dry tanks and no payload—SSTO.
Flying water tank test bed is for evaluation of avionics, software, and new engines. Never intended for high velocity, aerodynamic loading, or pretty pictures.
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