Posted on 02/28/2020 10:23:41 PM PST by Monty22002
BOCA CHICA – An explosion at the SpaceX site in Boca Chica occurred Friday night while testing its Starship SN1. It was posted by LabPadre. It reportedly happened around 10 p.m. According to Valerie Bates, marketing director for the City of Port Isabel, says it was an accidental cryogenic explosion. No injuries were reported and no chemicals were released. Anyone who may have been affected by the explosion is asked to call 956-943-2727.
One word: Science.
Humans can explore the solar system without such reckless largess, as demonstrated. Until we transcend the means of purely chemical propulsion to overcome gravity, exploration beyond the Moon is a suicide mission. Fantasy. Science Fiction.
Thus the whole premise for Musk’s beloved Starship - the one-way trip to Mars - is merely a pipedream...a SCAM...which will siphon taxpayer dollars without end.
Conservatives’ love of Musk is the worst form of hypocrisy, requiring extreme rationale contortions which ignore key facts.
I will not answer predicted Musk cheerleader attacks; you cheerleaders make me sick.
Fire away, girl dogs.
The Saturn V was a one use only vehicle. Musk is designing for repeated use and a long service life.
Tests that blow stuff up are generally done to find structural limits. Good thing. Plus, ya get to blow stuff up.
Insulation and tougher alloys seem indicated then. And more testing.
Such solicitations are probaby due to licensing and insurance requirements.
There are homes in the area. Space X is trying to buy them out, but most won’t sell. Homes have been there over 60 years. Space X is at the end of the road before Boca Chica Beach.
I’m not an aerospace tech, just a half-assed welder and fabricator but what you posted is probably what they are looking at today.
Stiffeners on the pressure tanks might also help, assuming that there was not some sort of control or valve failure leading to over-pressurization. And recall the Apollo 13 explosion, in which insulation on wiring in an oxygen tank sparked and ignited, exploding the tank and aborting a Moon mission.
Need a post mortem analysis as to the failure modality.
Amen to that. After all, Musk is talking about civilian space tourism as an early money-maker for his spaceship.
So did NASA in the early days...John Glenn’s Mercury orbital flight was given roughly a 50/50 chance of the Atlas rocket (converted ICBM) failing/going BOOM! during the launch IIRC...But it all eventually worked out...
New technology has teething problems...We don’t know what we don’t know...Testing is how we find out...
The Boeing software glitch which resulted in too much fuel consumption, which prevented a docking approach of the ISS, resulted in some code hounds checking everything.
They found another little software problem in the reaction control system separation subroutine which could have destroyed the heat shield, resulting in loss of the craft.
Then they ought to be trying to figure out what the shielding tiles were made of....they weren’t stainless
Stainless ain’t going to do that
What would you recommend instead?
They found another little software problem in the reaction control system separation subroutine which could have destroyed the heat shield, resulting in loss of the craft.
Kind of a good news, bad news thing. :^)
allegedly there was not much if any advance communication between the local police and spacex before the explosion. the alleged result was that the local police were somewhat taken by surprise by multiple reports of very loud explosion noises. it allegedly took the local police a couple of hours to get a handle on the situation. local people were disturbed although (hopefully) not hurt.
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