Comment by SJMG
2 days ago
I'm concerned about the cracking clearly visible on the heat shield tiles. It doesn't bode well for rapid reusability.
2 days ago
I'm concerned about the cracking clearly visible on the heat shield tiles. It doesn't bode well for rapid reusability.
I thought the tiles were designed for easy replacement, so not a big concern with replacing cracked ones.
The tiles ablate. The shuttle returned from every mission with missing tiles.
Shuttle's tiles not being durable as hoped is what killed it's turnaround time.
The problem was never solved and turned what was supposed to be a few days into weeks or months. Every mission the shuttle had to go back into the assembly building and have all tiles inspected and potentially replaced.
Shuttle tiles were also unique per position and starship tiles have a few base forms that are interchangeable
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Total 6 shuttles built over 35 years. SpaceX already crashed 12 over 5 or so years.
Obviously doesn’t guarantee they’ll find solution, but fast iteration will definitely help.
The tiles are not supposed to ablate - they're supposed to be ~fully reusable. That said I think it's plausible that the much higher iteration speed and lack of a need for human-rating (at least during reentry, for now) will allow for more success than the space shuttle saw with its similar approach.
Starship’s tiles are not designed to ablate. They are intended to last multiple flights.
The shuttle required long expensive refurbishment after each flight.
Just made me realise, this is just like the F-35.
Its turn around time is ridiculous, it has to be maintained with specialized equipment/hangers, along with external contractor assistance.
Compared to the Gripen, as an example, which can land on a freeway and be up in the air again in a few minutes.
One was designed to be used in war, in desperate scenarios, with no ability to coddle it. The other, the F-35? Is designed around milking the taxpayer as much as possible, and employing people in as many politician's states as possible.
The shuttle was like that, I think. Which is really sad.
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Well, every mission that it returned from it had missing tiles. That is not the same thing as returning from every mission.
That wasn’t cracking.
I mean ... step 1 is probably fixing the part where it lands in the ocean, falls over and explodes. Once they've done that and can get their hands on the tiles I'm guessing they can continue to iterate there until they get a more easily reusable design.
That part was intentional
Dang, a random HN user solving all the world's problems yet again, what would humanity do without you random HN guy?