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  1. #301
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    By the way. Happy new year to all of you.

    I am in the process of making the traditional Berliner Pfannkuchen.

    SpaceX - On to Mars-berliner_pfannkuchen-jpg

  2. #302
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
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    The thanks pile up on your door mat. Your posts are entertaining and informative.

    Here's to another year of your thread and continuing success for Space X and all who sail under it's flag.

  3. #303
    Making people dance. :-)
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    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    continuing success for Space X
    In the last 24 hours Elon Musk has become the richest person in the World, surpassing Jeff Bezos.

    Which might go to help this Mars crusade of his.


    Well done Musky.

  4. #304
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    Quote Originally Posted by Edmond View Post
    In the last 24 hours Elon Musk has become the richest person in the World, surpassing Jeff Bezos.

    Which might go to help this Mars crusade of his.


    Well done Musky.

    Yes. But it is mostly the share value of Tesla, though SpaceX is also highly valued. Tesla with a higher share value than General Motors, VW, BMW and Daimler combined, is a bit over the top, given that Tesla has built 500,000 cars last year. But their target is 20,000,000 in 2030 and their energy business, solar and grid scale battery is growing rapidly as well. Mostly limited by battery production which will grow rapidly too.

    Elon Musk has said Tesla seems overvalued when it was only 20% of what it is now. What I really like is that Tesla short sellers have lost $40 billion last year, more than the losses of the US airline industry due to Covid.
    "don't attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by incompetence"

  5. #305
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
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    Are "the Mars rockets", nearly there dad?

  6. #306
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    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    Are "the Mars rockets", nearly there dad?

    They are on track, but it is still a long way to go. The Raptor engines keep getting better. They have built ~60 of them by now, most of them destroyed in tests. A second test flight up to 12.5km altitude coming in the next days. The problem that caused the crash last time has a temporary fix. An exciting year of testing and development ahead.

    Waiting for February. By that time NASA intends to publish contracts for a manned Moon lander, 3 competitors for 2 contracts, SpaceX being the cheapest by far and the most capable by an even wider margin. But so much more advanced and daring compared to the competitors that first impulse by NASA management is to disbelieve them. Also most likely due to change of the administration the decision will be delayed until the Biden administration has made a decision on their future plans for space.

  7. #307
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    Starship SN9 has not flown yet, despite the intentions of SpaceX. The FAA is busy inventing more reasons to not issue a launch license. They can't keep this up forever, I am confident. So I still hope for a launch soon.

    Meanwhile SpaceX has produced the next Starship in line, SN10 and sent it to the launch site.

    Since SN8 was successful beyond the expectations, they have scrapped SN12 and stopped building SN13 and SN14. SN15 is going to implement major advances and build is progressing well. The first booster stage prototype, which is a lot bigger than Starship, is also progressing well.

    The launch site, an overview. Construction is going on at a rapid pace still. While they prepare Starship for a test, you can see ground preparation and concrete trucks arriving.
    SpaceX - On to Mars-sn9-sn10-jpg


    The 3 test articles at the launch site.
    SpaceX - On to Mars-test-articles-jpg


    To the right, SN9 ready for flight.
    To the left, SN10 which still needs some preparation and tests to be flightready.
    In the middle, a little back is a test tank, they call it SN7.2. They have blown up the previos SN7.1 test tank and intend to blow up this one too. Previous tanks and present Starships have 4mm tank walls. SN7.2 has thinner 3mm tank walls. If qualified by pressure tests they can reduce the weight of future Starships. They have already tested it at operational pressure and it did well. But for human rated vehicles they need to pressurize it 40% higher than operational for safety margin.

  8. #308
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    SpaceX is working on getting us to Mars and establish a permanent settlement there. But SpaceX can not do it all by itself. A lot of basic research and development is needed. This is a very interesting and valuable contribution of Center of "Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM), University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany".

    Frontiers | A Low-Pressure, N2/CO2 Atmosphere Is Suitable for Cyanobacterium-Based Life-Support Systems on Mars | Microbiology

    The full paper is too long to copy and paste. If you are interested you can go to the web site.

    In short, they are working on a biological life support system especially for Mars. Finding a simple and efficient method for producing oxygen and protein to use on Mars, with emphasis on using mostly local resources and minimizing materials needed from Earth. It is using a type of cyano bacteria, also known as blue algae. This type is capable of processing atmospheric nitrogen, so unlike algae it does not need input of ammonia fertilizer. They found that the cyano bacteria need only 10% of Earth sea level pressure to operate at an efficiency like they do on Earth. Which means that cheap lightweight pressure vessels can be used. Very important as pressure vessels need a lot of structural material, if using full sea level pressure. The team used bio reactors to establish conditions for growing cyano bacteria, it is lab equipment. Anything used for the purpose on Mars would look very different. The atmosphere used was almost completely nitrogen, with a few % CO2. Both gases can be sourced from the local Mars atmosphere. The nutrients can be extracted from Martian regolith, the stuff covering the planetary surface.

    The protein produced can be used to feed insects, fish or chicken for human consumption. The present trend for vegan food supports development of novel foods that can prepare the protein for direct human consumption, too. These products are presently getting less horrible and may become part of peoples diet on Mars.

    SpaceX - On to Mars-fmicb-12-611798-g001-jpg


    Figure 1. Cyanobacterium-based life-support systems on Mars: using cyanobacteria fed with local resources to decrease the dependence on Earth-imported materials of future long-duration, crewed missions. The concept was described in detail by Verseux et al. (2016a). Reproduced from Verseux (2020b) with permission from the editor (Figure 12.1, p. 290).

    BTW when cyanobacteria appeared on Earth, they produced the first ecological desaster. They introduced poisonous oxygen into the environment on a huge scale. Life adapted and survived. The end result being humans.

  9. #309
    Thailand Expat Saint Willy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Takeovers View Post
    BTW when cyanobacteria appeared on Earth, they produced the first ecological disaster. They introduced poisonous oxygen into the environment on a huge scale. Life adapted and survived. The end result being humans.
    A rather reductive simplification, but accurate.

  10. #310
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    SpaceX has done a static fire of SN10 Starship. They hope to fly it soon, possibly this week. I hope they have fixed the several problems that caused the landing to fail at SN8 and SN9. They have massively reenforced the landing pad with lots of rebar and concrete. The concrete was poured last sunday. Wonder what mix they used to have it ready for landing this week. A video of the static fire, including preparations and static fire from several angles. First static fire scene is quite early, no need to see the whole if you don't want to.

    Static fires are quite short at the moment. The test pads are not designed to withstand a longer firing. Will have to wait until the full size orbital launch pad is completed. They are working on it.


  11. #311
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  12. #312
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    One of the many videos on rocket construction in Boca Chica. If you are not interested in the whole thing, skip to 9:00 minutes to see how robust and sturdy the tank skin of Starship is.



    Another item in this video. They swapped one of the 3 Raptor engines after the static fire. Another static fire maybe as soon as today.

    At 16:50 the Boston Dynamics robot dog Zeus in action. Also worth watching.
    Last edited by Takeovers; 26-02-2021 at 12:13 AM.

  13. #313
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    I love the sound of those Raptor engines in flight.

  14. #314
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    Next Starship flight is coming up. They have installed the bomb that will blow it up if it goes off course, they do that only when flight is imminent. It is the white box at the right of the vehicle.

    SpaceX - On to Mars-fts-png

    They have also painted the circle and the SpaceX X on the landing pad. Which ensures success.

    SpaceX - On to Mars-pad-x-jpg

  15. #315
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    The flight of SN10 has happened. It did land successfully. Seems there was a small methane leak and 8 minutes later it exploded. The official webcast by SpaceX had ended by then but of course there are plenty of videos available. I saw it all life, it was an inconvenient time for me. I was tired for the next day, but worth it.

    The official webcast has the best pictures by far. Including some sequences taken in the engine bay, showing the engines gimbaling to keep the rocket stable. Needed because they fly very slow to max altitude.



    If you want it very short, the second video has the landing and the explosion.



    They are close to have SN11 ready for flight. Transporting it to the launch site is expected soon.

  16. #316
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    The way it was leaning after it landed, I'm betting a landing leg punched a hole in a tank.

  17. #317
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    Some new info on the reasons for the last failed landing. Basically it was caused by the quick fix they tried to correct the cause for the first failure. Seems they need to spend a little more time for thinking and development for a solid permanent fix for the tank pressure issues.

    Elon Musk made a clear statement that the landing was not successful. The explosion after 8 minutes was the result of a much too hard landing. SN11 on the pad right now will not have a permanent fix. But still, the results so far make him even more optimistic than before. Elon Musk had communicated the will to try an orbital launch by the end of this year. He now has confirmed a much more ambitious goal.

    SpaceX - On to Mars-j8xm4x96kjn61-jpg


    So the present goal is to have an orbital launch in July. To be clear, this is the goal they are working for and the date is very likely to slip. But it means they intend to have built a first stage booster and have the orbital launch pad ready to support a launch.

    If they succeed by October they will be the first to reach orbit of all the new heavy lift launch vehicles presently under construction.

    SLS with its test problems has slipped well into next year, though NASA still refuses to admit it.

    Blue Origin New Glenn is now officially not earlier than end of 2022, which means very likely some time 2023.

    ULA with their Vulcan launch vehicle is aiming for end of this year, assuming that Blue Origin can deliver the flight qualified BE-4 engines.

  18. #318
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    One new extremely massive piece of equipment. This is going to be the launch table of the orbital Starship. All massive steel. The inner diameter is 11m. Looking forward to see it placed on the launch mount.


    Aerial view from a flyby by Rio Grande Valley photography in a Cessna. They fly weekly at least for latest updates.
    SpaceX - On to Mars-launch-table-jpg


    Side view from the highway. Better to see how massive it is.
    SpaceX - On to Mars-launch-table-2-jpg

  19. #319
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    They have stacked the first Super Heavy test tank. This one is not going to fly, just test, possibly to destruction. A short video with compact info.



    First orbital flight still planned for July, very optimistc, if everything goes right, which it never does.

    Latest info from Elon Musk. Before they can stack the booster with Starship, they need to build a tower of 140m. 19 quite massive concrete piles have already been poured. The underground is all mud, 300m deep. Still needs quite a sprint to build in 3 months.

  20. #320
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    I wonder how SpaceX manages to make these photos and videos. Each time I saw the webcast, I can't stop staring at these maneuvers. Who else can't believe that we managed to create such a technology? I can't. I understand that it's not the last Musk's breakthrough: people will land on Mars, people will develop a spacecraft that'll be protected from the harsh environments like Venus's atmosphere, we'll open new planets and new galaxies, etc. But even those things I observe now make me feel proud. Btw, can someone tell me more about the cameras' position on the landing site? Do they use drones or so?

  21. #321
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    An update.

    SN11 exploded, similar to the previous flights. No pictures because it was extremely foggy. Seems they knew the chances were low. Many things are still not completely operational.

    Next up is SN15 with many improvements. Which also means more things to test before flight.

    They are placing more heat shield tiles on SN15 than on previous vehicles. SN20 is planned to be the orbital capable design and will be tiled with over 12,000 tiles.

    The picture is of a section for a later build. SN15 is already on the launch site being tested.
    SpaceX - On to Mars-tiled-section-jpg


    This is a mystery structure. Lots of speculation what it is. Almost the best guess seems they build it just to confuse us fans. Every time we have an idea what it might be, they add something that proves our speculations wrong.
    SpaceX - On to Mars-mystery-jpg

  22. #322
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    SN15 and up will have a new design for the Raptor engine. Here a comparison between the designs. This change is a small part of the reason for the SN11 explosion. They knew there was one engine with some problems but they no longer had an engine of the old design available. The new Raptor looks much more streamlined, more operational than experimental.


    Raptor old left and new right. Raptor still has a long way to go until it is as reliable as it needs to be. Hopefully this is a big step in the right direction.
    SpaceX - On to Mars-raptor-evolution-jpg



    Meanwhile they are building the launch tower. Almost 150m high, with a crane on top that is capable of putting Starship on top of the booster. It has a grip mechanism that centers the bottom of Starship precisely above the booster. Necessary so they can stack them quickly even with a lot of wind. Since they aim for July 1 for the first orbital flight the tower needs to go up very fast. But as always that date will slip. Still they clearly want to launch orbital well before the end of this year, even including slips.

    They also build a catching mechanism on this tower. The plan is that the 60m booster will not land on a landing pad but comes down right beside the launch tower and gets caught above ground. This allows the booster to have no legs and place it back on the launch mount right away. Plan is to enable to refly after ~1 hour. Lots of fan speculation how such a mechanism will look like.

  23. #323
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    After SpaceX received a $3 billion contract for building the NASA moonlander, using a variant of Starship, they are proceeding with tests and continue building up their launch site. Preparations for launch of test article SN15 continue. They do everything to achieve successful landing this time. NASA used to be quite sceptical about Starship only a year ago. But the test sequence in Boca Chica convinced them it is the best offer and most likely to succeed among the bids. Besides it being a lot cheaper and a lot more capable.

    You remember those successful tests.



    They have moved the mystery setup from the production site to the launch site.

    SpaceX - On to Mars-nose_test-jpg

    Fans and experts are all at a loss what is is, probably some test device.

    Latest plausible theory, this is a sacrifice to the rocket gods to ensure SN15 success.

  24. #324
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    SN15 had just have its test flight. Seems the many upgrades did it. It landed on the landing pad.

    SpaceX - On to Mars-sn15-landed-jpg


    There was a small fire after landing that was extinguished. The vehicle looks safe but there still is a little apprehension because of the fire. Elon Musk has tweeted the landing was nominal. A huge success after SpaceX got the contract to land on the Moon with crew, target date 2024. Probably optimistic but we will see.

    During the announcement and later NASA people talked a lot about going to the Moon and then to Mars with Starship.

    Due to clouds there is not a lot coverage from the ground. On board video also had only short clips, mostly transmission was interrupted. But if SN15 does not explode we may get recorded video later.

    Huge success.

  25. #325
    Making people dance. :-)
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    The size of the thing!

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