SpaceX's 60's designer rocket falls over in wind

[ADM-Ntek]

also just to make it clear the final version is not gonna look like that.

[VanayadGaming]

10 hours ago, mr moose said:

So that tin foil looking rocket that could have easily been out of a 1960's space magazine for kids apparently fell over in the wind.

 

It kinda makes me wonder what they were thinking when they designed it and what they hope the general public will think, but according to the verge spaceships were meant to fly not fall.

 

I know next to bugger all about space ships, but it does concern me that if it can fall over in wind then how stable/accurate is it with enough thrust under it to put it in orbit?

 

Well, I see this issue a lot on this forum. A lot of people throwing shit at SpaceX but they understand 0 about what they are doing. 

1. That is not the full scale Starship - this is akin to Grasshopper

2. That is not going to fly orbitally.

3. Maximum fly limit will be around 5000m I think per FAA documents

4. Yes, it is flimsy, because it wouldn't need to face almost any stresses on the fuselage 

5. The actual final version, Starship, will be made more sturdy, with more steel reinforcement and such things won't affect it. 

6. This is a prototype to test some of the avionics/engines. Not to get people/cargo into space.
 

[mr moose]

9 hours ago, ADM-Ntek said:

also just to make it clear the final version is not gonna look like that.

Then I am not interested in this project anymore,   I like my hotrod's, 50's bikini top models (they weren't anorexic) and I like my cartoon classic space rockets.

[Syntaxvgm]

20 hours ago, 79wjd said:

 

That doesn't sound right to me, I think we need to call a rocket scientist to confirm.

 

they are meant to fly then fall. 

[Thaldor]

21 hours ago, mr moose said:

So that tin foil looking rocket that could have easily been out of a 1960's space magazine for kids apparently fell over in the wind.

 

It kinda makes me wonder what they were thinking when they designed it and what they hope the general public will think, but according to the verge spaceships were meant to fly not fall.

 

I know next to bugger all about space ships, but it does concern me that if it can fall over in wind then how stable/accurate is it with enough thrust under it to put it in orbit?

 

Anyway, I look forward to the commentary.

That's actally only the payload part of the rocket that fell and that part was most likely only a mockup to show people what the spaceship would look like when launch ready. Most probably the whole thing was a mockup looking at different pictures of it (here). Even if it was real prototype, tipping over that payload part would be quite easy job for a wind, it being quite early prototype and in public show, it probably had a lot of nothing inside and even if it had, it would still be very "light" because in any case there wasn't any payload inside. Then if that really was the prototype they were going to test out, even still it would have had hardly anything inside appart from diagnostics and control HW and probably very empty watertank for test load. But my moneys are at that thing being a cheap mockup thing made from some beams and foil just to show people what their testing vehicle will look like.

[TheRandomness]

20 hours ago, mr moose said:

then why didn't hey anchor it? it's like leaving your washing on the line, nah it won't rain today she'll be right...

I don't know about you, but I don't want to live in a house that is being blown away by a hurricane either.  Although I think your on to something,  SpaceX could save themselves a lot of fuel money if they use this wind power instead of rockets.

Wind power for a rocket? You mean a glider?
You can't reach the velocities required to escape the atmosphere with wind alone. Rocket motors are the only thing we have currently that can do that, and then get into orbit.

[mr moose]

2 hours ago, Thaldor said:

That's actally only the payload part of the rocket that fell and that part was most likely only a mockup to show people what the spaceship would look like when launch ready. Most probably the whole thing was a mockup looking at different pictures of it (here). Even if it was real prototype, tipping over that payload part would be quite easy job for a wind, it being quite early prototype and in public show, it probably had a lot of nothing inside and even if it had, it would still be very "light" because in any case there wasn't any payload inside. Then if that really was the prototype they were going to test out, even still it would have had hardly anything inside appart from diagnostics and control HW and probably very empty watertank for test load. But my moneys are at that thing being a cheap mockup thing made from some beams and foil just to show people what their testing vehicle will look like.

It's interesting how some people are claiming it's not how it's going to look when finished,  its just a prototype while others are saying it's more designed to show people what it will look like. 

 

 

2 hours ago, TheRandomness said:

Wind power for a rocket? You mean a glider?
You can't reach the velocities required to escape the atmosphere with wind alone. Rocket motors are the only thing we have currently that can do that, and then get into orbit.

 

I think you missed the joke part in all that, in fact I think many people missed the trivial nature of the thread.   

 

I posted this thread because I thought it was funny that classic 60's looking tinfoil rocket fell over on the wind and that rockets probably shouldn't do that, I wasn't expecting a serious discussion and that probably means the joke is on me for being so naive.  I probably should have posted this in off topic. 

 

 

[yian88]

its just a tester for engines it was never meant to fly, maybe after some ground test and a few upgrades they could have tested hovering and hoping but that thing will never fly into space lol  its a test  prototype of the front BFR rocket not even full rocket it cant reach space without main boster core 

[ATFink]

3 hours ago, mr moose said:

It's interesting how some people are claiming it's not how it's going to look when finished,  its just a prototype while others are saying it's more designed to show people what it will look like. 

The final version of the rocket WILL be made of stainless steel (at least part of it will be, whether that be the starship or super heavy... maybe both). Stainless steel at cryogenic conditions gets WAY stronger room temperature steel. The super cooled liquid fuel will probably make the stainless steel rocket both stronger and light than a ceramic counterpart or the design would not be made of stainless steel. Seriously, tensile and yield points of some Stainless Steel alloys can more than double at cryogenic conditions compared to STP.

 

Unfortunately all metals (and almost all materials in general) get more brittle as temperature drops, but I've not done the calculations to see if engine vibrations would crack the steel at cryogenic conditions.

[VanayadGaming]

3 hours ago, ATFink said:

The final version of the rocket WILL be made of stainless steel (at least part of it will be, whether that be the starship or super heavy... maybe both). Stainless steel at cryogenic conditions gets WAY stronger room temperature steel. The super cooled liquid fuel will probably make the stainless steel rocket both stronger and light than a ceramic counterpart or the design would not be made of stainless steel. Seriously, tensile and yield points of some Stainless Steel alloys can more than double at cryogenic conditions compared to STP.

 

Unfortunately all metals (and almost all materials in general) get more brittle as temperature drops, but I've not done the calculations to see if engine vibrations would crack the steel at cryogenic conditions.

They did, there was an article in popularmechanics I think about it. How thye are going to cool the ship, how it's going to be reinforced and all that

[GoldenLag]

6 hours ago, mr moose said:

It's interesting how some people are claiming it's not how it's going to look when finished,  its just a prototype while others are saying it's more designed to show people what it will look like. 

the general shape of the rocket is correct as to emulate the aerodynamics to learn how to fly the damn thing. it is not how the final product will look like in terms of painting and other materials. 

 

they use artistic renditions to show conceptart or designs. i dont see why people would claim it is to show people how it is going to look. them showing of the design is more to do with publicity than anything else

[mr moose]

1 minute ago, GoldenLag said:

the general shape of the rocket is correct as to emulate the aerodynamics to learn how to fly the damn thing. it is not how the final product will look like in terms of painting and other materials. 

 

they use artistic renditions to show conceptart or designs. i dont see why people would claim it is to show people how it is going to look. them showing of the design is more to do with publicity than anything else

Rockets go up and then rockets come down, but sometimes they come down before they go up and that seems to be a slight deviation form the plan.

[Imbellis]

On 1/23/2019 at 8:56 PM, mr moose said:

then why didn't hey anchor it? it's like leaving your washing on the line, nah it won't rain today she'll be right...

I don't know about you, but I don't want to live in a house that is being blown away by a hurricane either.  Although I think your on to something,  SpaceX could save themselves a lot of fuel money if they use this wind power instead of rockets.

Bit of a late response, but yes - they did - but the mooring broke.

[Space_Giraffe]

Well I mean I hate to do this however it was a hopper and like 60s rockets where the uh.... SATURN V and the n-1 also the conceptualized sea dragon.