Posted on 09/14/2020 4:39:04 PM PDT by amorphous
Elon Musk, head of SpaceX, has announced via Twitter that the company's SN8 rocket will take a test flight sometime next week. The plan is for the rocket is to soar up to 60,000 feet (18,300 meters) and then return to Earth in a controlled landing.
SN8 is one in a line of SpaceX's Starships that are predecessors to vehicles for missions to the moon and Mars. SN5 and SN6 recently completed tests of 500 feet each, which the company calls short hops, before returning to Earth. They were meant to test the integrity of the steel walls of the rocket. Both were launched at SpaceX's launch site in Boca Chica, Texas, and both had just one Raptor engine pushing them into the air. SN7 was intentionally destroyed in a test tank to determine the strength limits of the design. SN8 will launch from the same site and will have three of the Raptor engines to give it the power needed to reach the much higher altitude. The test next week will be the first time three of the Raptors will be tested together as a single unit.
Before the rocket can be launched, it must first undergo a few more tests. They are called static fires (in which the rocket is held down as the engines fire) and ground checkouts. SN8 (unlike its predecessors) will also be fitted with flaps to assist with steering and a nosecone, which will be used in the future to hold cargo or people. The addition of both, Musk notes, will give the rocket a look much like the final design. The plan also calls for turning off the three engines during the initial stage of a descent and controlled landing—the rocket will perform a belly flop routine to slow its descent for several minutes and then the engines will be restarted, allowing the rocket to land in an upright position.
Musk has suggested in the past that his Starships will be able to carry as many as 100 people at a time to the moon (or 100 tons of cargo). The ultimate goal, however, is carrying people and their cargo to Mars and back.
Three hydraulic rams will simulate thrust of gimbaling engines, to apply flight level skew forces to the thrust puck at the lower bulkhead of the tank. The tank will be at the temperature and internal pressure loading expected of flight maneuvers with full loading.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_u7HPZX_8A
That actually looks like something out of Buck Rogers.
*ping*
its still standing, so no boom till tonight
Reminds me of the Rocket from the Movie “When World’s Collide”, where they used a horizontal to vertical Ramp to Launch it.
Wonder why they never used that method to Launch Rockets, but I was a Middle Management Logistics guy, not a Rocket Scientist. #;^)
Nowadays we have Electro Magnetic and Hydraulic Technology that could possibly accelerate the Rocket on a horizontal to vertical Launch Ramp saving Fuel and Weight.
I’ll wait for NASA or SpaceX to give me a call. LOL
It would take a massive ramp or rail system to support all of that weight. Imagine the NASA Saturn V pr Space Shuttle transporter traveling fast enough to achieve the needed velocity to make such a system worthwhile. And then there is the upfront cost of construction. And yes, the rocket could weigh less, but the launch system would necessarily need to be extremely strong, powerful, and long to avoid excessive G forces. :)
Form follows function... Elon intends to cram 100 people inside that ship for a journey to Mars!
Yeah, but it looked cool in the Movie.
In the Movie “Moon”, they used a Ramp with a Magnetic System to launch Payloads of Helium 3 back to Earth which makes sense (to me).
Yep, that sounds like a great plan to me too!
That’s the cool thing about SpaceX lately...There’s usually always something new and interesting to watch. Elon has almost 4 prototypes built and in the hanger and two and have hopped (plus Starhopper), and usually has something on a pad ready to test. Meanwhile NASA is still wheeling around the same old SLS booster. It’s the difference between a serious business and a bureaucracy.
Thanks for the info markman and nice to see you amorphous.
Back at you, cabojoe! It must be exciting working at the Boca Chica SpaceX facility. There’s nothing quite like an explosion now and then to get the adrenaline pumping! I ‘pity the fools’ working for boring ol’ NASA... Lol
My thought too...this looks like a ‘50s representation of a rocket ship.
I think of him as a 21st century Howard Hughes.
I’m not sure the rocket would weigh less, the notion would require beefing up the rocket body substantially due to side loading.
That is a reasonable comparison, but...maybe he isn’t quite as batsh*t crazy as Howard Hughes was...
I spend a lot of time a Nasaspaceflight.com and the LabPadre cam. to see what SpaceX has going on
Not batsh!t crazy, but definitely eccentric.
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