SpaceX has a new version of the SpaceX Starship and Super Heavy Booster. The version 2 has different heat shield and flap placement. The Starship and the Super Heavy booster have both been made longer.
In the picture above, the version one Starship nosecone is on the left and the new version is on the right. The flaps are moved forward and are attached near the midline of rocket instead of closer to the bottom. The bottom of the rocket when it is coming in for a landing is the heatshield side.
The rocket flips at the last minute to land on its rocket engines.
Here is what the rocket looks like in the belly flop position (image from Everyday Astronaut).
NASA Spaceflight shows what a flip and tail first landing would look like. The actual flight would have the booster and the Starship landing tail first after the flip and then getting caught by mechazilla towers.
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I wonder, given the weight and complexity of keeping these tiles on…Remeber the hairdresser that had the “magic” substance that put on an egg would protect it from a torch. I saw a youtube video where someone replicated it with baking soda that released carbon dioxide to form a protective film. They already have lots of methane. Could they make a “segmented” thin metal heat shield with lots of holes in it. Pump methane in the segments, with each segment monitored for heat. Important that it’s segmented, with more methane pumped into the hotter areas. This methane would burn, creating a carbon dioxide film. I suspect, but have no real data, that the CO2 would cling close to the ships boundry layer limiting the amount of methane needed. Burning fuel protected the end of Saturn 5’s rocket engine bell. Could not the same be done with Starship?
It would also look cool. The methane would flame up and glow.
Sure, you can do that. They might even end up doing it in the worst areas. But doing that weighs more than the tiles, and the refractory alloys they’d have to use are crazy expensive, so they don’t WANT to do it that way.
Musk said that coming back from Mars would be too hot for dissipating films.
Wonder why they’re still using tiles , would thermal coverings be better, less maintenance
Agile engineering rules!
Ok, so are having more and more specialized tiles that only fit in a specific place.
Ok, I guess its still a far cry from the SpaceShuttle where EACH tile was individual and only fit there. “There were about 27,000 tiles used to protect the skin of the Space Shuttle, of these about 24,300 were unique. Each tile had a serial number so the proper tile could be used if one was missing”
But STILL, the less individual tiles to check and replace the better.
After the mountain of data they got from the first quasi-orbital test, some important changes were to be expected.
Such a frenzy of changes would be unthinkable on any government program, possibly resulting in its cancellation, but for SpaceX is just a matter of doing it and building a new Starship with them.
It will cost them a bit of time, effort an money, but the good part is it’s their time, effort and money. So it’s OK.
That’s the issue… A private company can be more efficient than the best government.
totoally agree…because it is “their money” and they lose every time they fail but also unlike government they dont have endless cash to fund their failure. fail fast and iterate is only way unless your boeing who can just keep failing and getting contracts and then the door blows off the airplane or the space vehicle cant return… what do we expect from a company more interested in making sure shaniqua is hired to install rivets on the vehicle as opposed to just hiring competency