Japanese billionaire invites y'all to apply for an all-expenses-paid Moon trip in a SpaceX Starship – like the one that blew up today Japanese tycoon Yusaku Maezawa this week opened an application process for eight people to accompany him to the Moon aboard SpaceX’s Starship. Breaking news... Yes, that's the same Starship that just an hour or so ago blew up on the landing pad after a test flight in Texas. SpaceX flew the serial number 10 of the prototype …
Poor #10, mostly landed, then mostly scrap. Will be interesting to find out what happened, ie if it's legs didn't deploy properly or it landed too hard.
But I guess a free trip would be fun, but having travelled all that way, I'd want to land on the Moon. There's also been some great pics coming back from Mars. Think that will be a better tourist destination once it's been terraformed though.
" ie if it's legs didn't deploy properly or it landed too hard."
It looked like it almost landed, throttled up and then shut down which made it hit hard. That can happen with a "cup" engine compartment and a MEMS IMU. Been there, got the mission patch.
Beyond the landing, there is still a lot of venting. That tells me they aren't managing tank pressures very well. With pump fed motors, the problem is usually making up volume in the tanks, not excess pressure. I still see strange gimbaling of the motors and brief fires in the engine compartment.
At least the flip seems to have been programmed more than 3 meters from the ground.
That can happen with a "cup" engine compartment and a MEMS IMU. Been there, got the mission patch.
MEMS as in micromirror arrays? They're possibly one of my favorite components, even though I never got my pseudo-hologram generator working.
Beyond the landing, there is still a lot of venting. That tells me they aren't managing tank pressures very well. With pump fed motors, the problem is usually making up volume in the tanks, not excess pressure. I still see strange gimbaling of the motors and brief fires in the engine compartment.
Yep, I thought SN10 vented more than previous launches, with something seemingly venting during the launch and descent. I've also been curious about those fires under the skirt, both in flight and after this one landed. I guess SpaceX may need to consider some form of Starship pad bidet to get water into it's undercarriage, if the skirt's preventing the fire supression jets from reaching those bits.
At least the flip seems to have been programmed more than 3 meters from the ground.
That part's a bit disconcerting wrt manned flights, ie what forces on the people inside would experience during that manoeuver. Seems a tad agressive given the flip & braking forces, and presumably adds stresses via ullage. And I guess a more gentle flip & descent would mean reserving more fuel for landing and a reduced payload.
"It looked like it almost landed, throttled up and then shut down which made it hit hard."
I don't know enough to agree or disagree re the engine throttle, but it certainly seemed to bounce at touchdown indicating to me that hit ground harder than planned and the legs sprung back or the engine didn't shutdown quite soon enough.
I wouldn't mind taking a stroll on the regolith, but we're talking an entire different kettle of frozen fish and the amount of possible issues are likely an order of magnitude greater than by just flying over it.
I think that, for a first try, a successful flyby and safe return will already be a major achievement.
I just binge-watched The Expanse S5 for free on an Amazon Prime trial, so I was impressed when it reversed direction like something from the show!
I am waaaaay too claustrophobic to ever go up in one though.
Even plane takeoffs make me uncomfortable . . . or maybe that's just cattle class . . .
"Musk stated that everything was on track, and that Starship will have "reached orbit many times" before Maezawa’s planned launch date in 2023."
Given the track record, I'm also very confident that starship will have reached orbit many times by then. The prospective passengers may want to see many successful landings though.
I've been a bit unsteady on my legs of late - the legs have visibly wasted. Lockdown has meant much less walking. I mentioned this to my Sister the other day - she said "you have Bungalow Legs" - apparently it is a well known condition, especially in less active elderly living in.. Bungalows. Whilst I would not normally be classified as "elderly" (may be old git), I do live in a Bungalow.
>https://www.chilled-out.co.uk/bungalow-legs-a-condition-suffered-by-the-elderly-is-growing/
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