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Starship SN8 : THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING

Yup, literally everything.

 We have returned after a long time....
(sorry for that)

Starship is the rocket that gets me excited about our future, and space in general. However, it has never really demonstrated its feats. But, it could happen as soon as tomorrow- the 15 km hop is very close.


 Even though we have'nt been blogging recently, we are following the space industry very closely and one thing is for sure- no matter how successful or unsuccessful the hop goes, it will be spectacular.

 

well, if you dont know how big the starship is , here is a size comparison


Notice how big it is from that car below it.

 


 What is this 15 km hop about?

 Welllllll, just see the tweets.


 

This will be the first time when a life size starship lifts off (unlike SN5 and SN6, which were basically just steel cans flying in air). The body Flaps are the main things to test during this flight- SN8 will go to about 15 kms, then it will "skydive" and navigate its way to the landing pad.

Starship Skydiving

But here’s the thing that’s truly going to be absolutely insane to see. Starship will still need to land using its sea level raptor engines. If you recall, those engines are on the bottom of the rocket.  At this moment they are facing sideways, completely horizontal.

and this is where the most dangerous part comes in- the landing.

Starship has large flaps that i like to call ELONERONS.

EloneronsThese ELONERONS will help the starship to do the "Belly Flop Manouver"

The “belly-flop” maneuver


So what is the solution to this situation? A wild, daring, and potentially hard to nail down “belly-flop to tail-down” maneuver. This is something that I’ve found to be just bonkers since the day we first saw it.
This maneuver will make the Falcon 9 landing look like a walk in the park in comparison. It’s a maneuver that would make the best stunt pilots poop their pants.

The first attempts at this will look a little different than the eventual system. This is because the cold gas thrusters on early prototypes aren’t very powerful. As a result they can’t aid too much in the flip maneuver. Eventually, when they are replaced by the hot gas thrusters on later vehicles, this maneuver will look different.

For the initial prototype landings, the rear elonerons will tuck in to aid in the rotation. At the same time the 3 Raptors will light up while going horizontally. However they’ll be at maximum gimbal angle, pitching the rocket’s nose up as quickly as they can.

Of course in doing so, it’s going to inject a large amount of horizontal velocity during this process. So, in order to negate that and land on target, it will need to over correct. This means swinging back over to the other side. In doing so, it will cancel out the horizontal velocity before straightening out and touching down softly.

 I FULLY expect to see a crater in the test stand , because this has never been done before. Even Elon says that there is a 1/3rd chance of successful landing. either way, it will be incredible to watch a 10 story large building flip in the air and land perfectly (or crash in the dirt.)


Conclusion


Starship is simply a massively ambitious proposition. But there are few physical barriers which would make it impossible, other than it’s never been done. And just as with anything that has never been done before, the unknowns are unknown. 

This huge thing is going to go airborne tomorrow- and this could be humanity,s biggest spaceflight achievement this year. you can watch it streamed by Everyday Astronaut  HERE:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjDmMWV0q7tAhVvwjgGHY1lDDoQFjAAegQIAhAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fchannel%2FUC6uKrU_WqJ1R2HMTY3LIx5Q&usg=AOvVaw07_QTusFSnekAc-MU_qIP8

I fully expect Starship to have some stumbling blocks along the way and some valuable lessons will be learned too. There’ll likely be many more explosions along the path to orbit, and even once in operation. Remember the Falcon 9 history has not always been smooth sailing either.

Nothing is when you’re pushing the boundaries. But now the Falcon 9 is one of the most reliable and most flown rockets. What used to be an experimental landing is now expected and almost mundane.

After all, Elon has said in the past he hopes these landings become so routine, that they become boring. Although I’m personally not quite to that point yet, it is getting close.

Starship might have a rocky start. There are many people who critique it and say that it will never work. Those same critics have been around the whole time constantly saying SpaceX won’t be able to do something. Then they get proven wrong over and over and over.

Thank you for reading till here. If you are as interested as i am, check out this video by Everyday Astronaut.


by Dhravya Shah

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