Hey guys, I’m Lukas and welcome at kNews.space.
This is a rather short logbook type video
where I want to share my thoughts on SpaceX
latest invention, the Starship Hopper.
It’s a 9m wide shiny stainless steel rocket
that looks like it came straight out of a
movie.
It was build open air in the south of Texas
near Brownsville at the Boca Chica beach.
It’s kinda crazy but they really did it.
The hopper was weld together layer by layer
on a concrete stand.
The stiff legs were added and so was an extremely
shiny fairing.
Those rather flimsy looking sheet metal plates
are really only for the looks and have no
other purpose it seems.
My guess is SpaceX wanted to build something
really affordable that looks inspiring and
is still able to do some first ground tests
using their new Raptor engines.
They mounted three of these below but according
to Elon they aren’t the final Raptor engines
yet only a weird Frankenstein - I mean Frankenstein.
Once the hopper was finished they posted some
nice images of it and I’m convinced that
Brownsville is going to become an Eldorado
for SpaceX enthusiasts and the next couple
of months and years will be really exciting
to witness at their new test and future launch
site.
Now you might wonder what it is they want
to test and I can only speculate at this point.
Boca Chica is right next to Mexico so maybe….
nah.
Just kidding!
Important to know is SpaceX wants to build
an even bigger rocket capable to reach orbit
by the mid of the year already so prepare
yourself for a LOT of testing.
What I believe they have yet to develop is
a fully autonomous landing system that does
not rely on GPS or any other convenient earth
technology.
Their rocket has to be able to land on the
moon and other planets where there simply
is none of this - yet.
So I therefore suspect they will initially
try to get the basics right, launch, hover,
maybe go a little to the sides.
Once they are sure the rocket works as intended
they’ll launch it really high.
They have a permission to launch up to an
altitude of 5 kms and they could even extend
it in case they need more.
This altitude will allow them to simulate
a final approach and landing on another body.
This particular hopper has stiff legs and
a rather flimsy fairing as mentioned so they
can’t really come in super fast without
going out of control and possibly losing the
shiny cap.
It will therefore likely be a rather slow
descent - with training wheels so to speak
- to test and maybe also play with some new
developments and generally let SpaceX engineers
go crazy on it.
What they’ll need in particular is some
kind of ground scanning and penetrating radar.
Most important for landing are the topography
of the ground but - considering the size and
weight of the Starship - also its solidity
to be sure not to sink in on one side and
tip over once they land on the moon.
That would be really tragic!
I think that’s actually the biggest disadvantage
of such a big and heavy ship.
I’m not sure how well they can measure the
ground’s solidity using radiation only but
here an idea I had recently.
This is only my idea so don’t take it too
seriously please.
They could in theory shoot many tiny metal
bullets towards the ground which would penetrate
and dig into it.
The more solid the ground below the less deep
they would dig inside of course.
Now, metal is excellent at reflecting electromagnetic
radiation so what they could do next, is to
shot radar at the ground which would first
bounce off the surface, but then also off
the bullet layer.
The two 3-dimensional maps would allow the
lander to figure out the safest spot to put
it legs on just before landing.
I think probing the ground with actual hardware
like this is the easiest and also one of the
safest methods especially for the first landings
where there are no paved landing sites build
yet.
The location at Boca Chica is perfect for
test landing on rough and soft terrain btw..
Coincidence?
Maybe but it could also be all planned as
SpaceX seems to be sure their lander won’t
stay in tact for very long, otherwise they
had probably spent a little more time building
it.
It was an incredibly fast speed build within
just a few weeks.
And lastly I want to showcase what I think
the next version of the Starhopper could look
like.
It will be able to reach space and that means
they will likely test heir new steam heat
shield idea.
The wind side of the orbiter will have a hollow
multilayer wall with pores that will leak
fluids during reentry.
It will basically sweat.
The resulting off center mass distribution
may also force them to land with a slight
tilt.
What seems ludicrous would be a happy accident
because it would benefit its reentry profile
a bit assuming the test vehicle’s legs won’t
fold like the final design.
However, that’s obviously very speculative
at this point and I just wanted to throw out
a design idea I had.
It’s always important for me to make a prediction
because when I’m wrong I can learn from
the false assumptions I made.
Anyways, with that I want to conclude this
short logbook entry for January 24th 2019.
In the end as always a big shout out to my
kNews boosters who support my little channel
financially.
If you want more original content like this
please consider to become a booster as well
or help me by sharing my video.
I’m also always open for suggestions and
do polls on Twitter once in a while so feel
free to join me there if you like.
Auf Wiedersehn and thank you for watching.
