Friday, January 29, 2021

A View From the Future Here in the Present

From SpaceX:

6 comments:

Entropic man said...

A pity they are just atmospheric flight propulsion prototypes. A steel shell fitted with engines, pumps, tanks and guidance systems.

No space capability and no provision for payload or crews. They look good, but they are a very long way from a viable spacecraft.

Entropic man said...

Not necessarily a bad thing. You can learn a lot by building a number of cheap prototypes and having them fail revealingly.

David Appell said...

Thanks, I didn't know this was a mock-up. In any case, I liked the picture because it looked like something from a sci-fi movie, but one that tries hard to look real.

Entropic man said...

Not quite mockups, not quite the real thing.

This is what they can do.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/science-environment-55255161

Entropic man said...

Interesting to see the difference between the clean engine burn on launch and the uneven burn from 1.10 during the landing. Space X said it was a low fuel pressure problem, which is why you test.😕

Entropic man said...

Scratch the 9th prototype. Looks like one engine failed to restart.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-55911384