Here's SpacePadreIsle's take on the upcoming schedule: Systems tests begin on Wednesday Nov 13. These will apparently include pressurization tests of the tanks and plumbing. (Some explosion risk, hence the road closures.) The Nose still has to be mated to the Cylinder at some later date which involves lots of connections since header tanks and batteries are up there. So there will be lots more system tests after that. SPI has apparently heard comment from within SpaceX that an actual flight is unlikely before late December. (I'm guessing even that might be optimistic.)
There's still discussion of how many times it will fly (assuming it doesn't blow up or crash). Some talk that it might only fly once, like Hoppy, up to 60,000 feet and back down to evaluate aerodynamics of its sideways 'skydiver' descent and then the last seconds landing maneuver. Then attention would move on to the Florida Mark2 and the two new planned prototypes (3 and 4) that haven't really appeared yet. (They might be waiting to see how this one does so as to learn what design changes might be necessary.)
Others say that would be a waste of all the effort that went into it and they should fly it more and more aggressively until it breaks. The one-flight group say that the effort won't be wasted since all the lessons learned constructing this one will go into subsequent ones. Redesigning this and that, better construction techniques (this Boca Chica one is pretty crude) and so on.
Concrete work on the launch/landing pad areas continues.
YazataNov 12, 2019 12:18 AM (This post was last modified: Nov 12, 2019 07:42 AM by Yazata.)
Nov 11, 2019: Both bottom fins are now attached to the Boca Chica Cylinder. Work is progressing on installing steel aerocovers over the piping and cable-runs in the vertical raceways. They appear to be getting closer to mating the top and bottom halves. That will probably come after the upcoming tank pressure tests, provided they turn out satisfactorily.
Nothing much to report from Florida. One observer there notes that the Florida Cylinder looks taller than Boca Chica's
One (of many) of Mary's Boca Chica photographs, this one showing them working on attaching the bottom fins. Others show tankers arriving delivering liquid oxygen. Site preparation work at the launch area continues. Very busy.
You can see a raceway extending down the right side of the Cylinder underneath the root of the right side fin. And you can see the smooth steel plating going over it up on the upper right. This will create a ridge (the tech-term is a chine) on both sides of the vehicle from the top fins to the bottom fins. (The bottom fins will receive fin-root fairings.) The shape of the raceway covers appears to be cunningly designed assymmetrically to contribute to the desired aerodynamics.
Road closures scheduled for tomorrow and the next day have been canceled. SpacePadreIsle attributes it to anticipated bad weather on its way. Now it looks like they are shooting for November 17th, 18th and 19th, along with the 25th, 26th and 27th. Pressurizing the cylinder should expand it a bit and maybe smooth out the surface a little. If it doesn't leak too badly or blow up like an overinflated balloon. Even a small low-psi pressure will be lots of force, given the size of this thing. (Lots of square inches.)
C CNov 12, 2019 10:46 PM (This post was last modified: Nov 12, 2019 10:46 PM by C C.)
(Nov 12, 2019 07:02 PM)Yazata Wrote: . . . You can see a raceway extending down the right side of the Cylinder underneath the root of the right side fin. And you can see the smooth steel plating going over it up on the upper right. This will create a ridge (the tech-term is a chine) on both sides of the vehicle from the top fins to the bottom fins. (The bottom fins will receive fin-root fairings.) The shape of the raceway covers appears to be cunningly designed assymmetrically to contribute to the desired aerodynamics. ...
With respect to the future space traveling and reentry versions, I can't recall anything about the fins being covered with tiles in spots like the vulnerable parts of the trunk. But I guess that's the case or else their stainless steel alone along with their angling adjustments can endure the reentry drama. Not that months ago I ever imagined that the now abandoned "cyrogenic bleeding" approach to protecting the overall ship could have been applicable to the fins -- probably would have been wondering back then, too.
(Nov 12, 2019 07:02 PM)Yazata Wrote: . . . You can see a raceway extending down the right side of the Cylinder underneath the root of the right side fin. And you can see the smooth steel plating going over it up on the upper right. This will create a ridge (the tech-term is a chine) on both sides of the vehicle from the top fins to the bottom fins. (The bottom fins will receive fin-root fairings.) The shape of the raceway covers appears to be cunningly designed assymmetrically to contribute to the desired aerodynamics. ...
With respect to the future space traveling and reentry versions, I can't recall anything about the fins being covered with tiles in spots like the vulnerable parts of the trunk. But I guess that's the case or else their stainless steel alone along with their angling adjustments can endure the reentry drama.
That's a good question.
I don't know what their official thinking is on that. The impression that I have (very possibly wrong) is that the current thinking is to fold the fins more or less 90 degrees on reentry and only unfold them when the thing is going slow enough and is skydiving down through the atmosphere. I suppose that the fin root fairings will have tiles and the fins themselves will effectively be hidden, tucked in behind them.
One advantage that they have is that this thing is made out of steel, which handles heat far better than composites. So they can afford to let it get hotter than the Shuttle could safely get.
Quote:Not that months ago I ever imagined that the now abandoned "cyrogenic bleeding" approach to protecting the overall ship could have been applicable to the fins -- probably would have been wondering back then, too.
My impression is that they are kind of making it up as they go. The concepts that we see illustrated on this Mk.1 Boca Chica prototype might end up being different from what we see on the production versions. It will all depend on what experience teaches them does and doesn't work, I guess.
In Florida progress on the Mk.2 prototype seems to have stopped, at least as far as can be seen from a distance. The upper fuel tank bulkhead has been sitting next to the Florida Cylinder for weeks, but no sign of any attempt to install it. Speculation is that they are waiting for results to come in from the Mk.1 prototype in Texas, before they complete their version, in case problems with the Texas test flight(s) motivates last minute design changes.
Additional speculation suggests that many of the Florida crew have been flown to Texas to expedite Mk.1's completion. There are still cars in the Florida parking lot though, and yesterday the daily camera drone spotted what looked like a barbecue taking place next to one of the Florida buildings.
Last night was rainy and windy at Boca Chica, but today was nicer. But only a few workers were seen out.
In What the Hell is This Thing??? category, Mary contributes this photo of something that was placed on a flatbed truck this morning and trucked from the shipyard area to the launch area a mile away. Speculation is that it's probably part of the ground support equipment, since it's late to be adding more plumbing to the Cylinder. (Due to begin pressure testing Sunday.)
Notice that the worker in the orange vest has had his face blacked out. SpaceX obligingly allows Mary to get up-close-and-personal with her photos, but have asked her not to show people's faces or automobile license numbers.
YazataNov 14, 2019 10:22 PM (This post was last modified: Nov 14, 2019 11:14 PM by Yazata.)
Lots of discussion of the mystery plumbing fixture among the engineers. (They live for this stuff.)
Opinion seems to be trending away from this just being a ground support water manifold for fire suppression or something relatively mundane like that (which seemed to be the initial idea), towards it perhaps being the crucial LCH4 liquid methane distribution manifold under the fuel tanks and above the engines that delivers fuel to the engines. Not as simple as one might think since the tanks will probably be filled from the base, and fuel will be coming to the engines from both the main tanks and the header tanks. That requires multiple valves and snaky branches.
One of the engineers is a guy named John who just seems very knowledgeable and experienced and when he speaks everyone else shuts up and listens.
Here's his annotated interpretation of the mystery object as the fuel manifold
Adding to the mysteries, copious outgassing was observed coming from the bottom of the top-half in the shipyard area last night. Some kind of test of the header tanks and/or the lines that travel from the headers down the raceways? The vapor did seem to be coming from around the bottom of the nearside raceway (where a descending pipe from the header is).
And in Cocoa Florida news, the top fuel tank bulkhead has (finally) just been installed on their Cylinder. So while things are moving much slower there, they haven't stopped entirely.
Not clear that they filled it with LOX (liquid oxygen) and LCH4 (liquid methane) this time. I believe that the pressurant was LN2 (liquid nitrogen). Less chemical explosion and fire risk but able to produce the desired pressures inside the tanks. (There was still some danger that the pressure might make the Cylinder pop like an overinflated balloon, hence the road closures.
Edit 4: Mary reports that workers are back at the launch site, so that's it.
(Nov 18, 2019 08:49 PM)Yazata Wrote: And in Cocoa Florida news, the top fuel tank bulkhead has (finally) just been installed on their Cylinder. So while things are moving much slower there, they haven't stopped entirely.
The fuel tank bulkhead's intended position is lower than it was pictured yesterday. But... it appears to be stuck. Workers were observed today doing what anyone would do when something is stuck -- pounding on it with hammers! High-tech spaceship construction methods!
Nov 10, 2019 04:49 PM
(This post was last modified: Nov 10, 2019 05:30 PM by Yazata.)
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