Latest posts · Page 2366

@bluemoondance74 @DanAloni @Kell31213876 @Vadim15258417 @DJSnM @Erdayastronaut @sasor098 @AdamHugo @WayCharMar @fan_of_racing @bkent136 @macodiseas @katlinegrey Merlins. The max chamber pressure run damaged Raptor SN 1 (as expected). A lot of the parts are fine for reuse, but next tests will be with SN 2, which is almost done.

@DanAloni @Kell31213876 @Vadim15258417 @DJSnM @Erdayastronaut @sasor098 @AdamHugo @WayCharMar @fan_of_racing @bkent136 @macodiseas @katlinegrey Anti-matter production would require vast amounts of energy. No need though. We have a super reliable, massive, free fusion reactor called the sun.

@Kell31213876 @Vadim15258417 @DJSnM @Erdayastronaut @sasor098 @AdamHugo @WayCharMar @fan_of_racing @bkent136 @macodiseas @katlinegrey Exactly. Super money move is anti-matter drive, especially if you solve capturing antiprotons in deep space.

@DJSnM @Erdayastronaut @sasor098 @AdamHugo @WayCharMar @fan_of_racing @bkent136 @macodiseas @katlinegrey You can see the streaks on the vacuum Merlin nozzle in flight videos

@DJSnM @Erdayastronaut @sasor098 @AdamHugo @WayCharMar @fan_of_racing @bkent136 @macodiseas @katlinegrey Pinter injector tends to have hot & cold streaks. Hot streaks burn a rut at the throat that accelerates erosion.

@benoitdenayer @navincho @katlinegrey Essentially, yes. Great engineering talent, but should focus on reusable rockets for purpose of a permanent human base on the moon and self-sustaining city on Mars.

@RichPitre_CO @katlinegrey We are constrained by the accredited investor rule, but will think about how this could be done

@Erdayastronaut @sasor098 @AdamHugo @WayCharMar @fan_of_racing @bkent136 @macodiseas @katlinegrey Yeah, that was a bit embarrassing ☺️High engine chamber pressure and ablative don’t get along. Ok for low pressure, expendable upper stage.

@sasor098 @AdamHugo @WayCharMar @fan_of_racing @bkent136 @macodiseas @katlinegrey That’s true 😀 Merlin 1A was terrible. 1C was ok, 1D good, but block 5 Merlin (should probably be called 1E) is something special. Took about 15 years to get there.

@Erdayastronaut @MarekCyzio @katlinegrey Actually, they received (and still receive) almost a billion dollars a year for “launch capability”. Even if they do zero launches, US govt still gives them that.

@Geopilot @katlinegrey Don’t know

@katlinegrey SpaceX commercial 🚀 launch market share went from 0% in 2010 to 65% in 2018. Despite massive subsidies to Boeing/Lockeed, they have never won a fair competition against SpaceX for several years. https://t.co/sqAYCCcJtd

@martinengwicht @macodiseas @katlinegrey Exactly. That’s the critical point for Starship/BFR: more payload than the biggest rocket ever made, but for less money per launch than the smallest (orbital) rocket. Without something that lowers orbital flight cost by 100X, humanity will never be a multiplanet species.

@fan_of_racing @bkent136 @macodiseas @katlinegrey SpaceX Merlin architecture is simpler than staged combustion (eg SSME or RD), but it has world record for thrust/weight & thrust/cost engine. Raptor has better Isp, but I’m worried it may fall short on those two critical metrics.

@wonderofscience So true 🤡 John Clarke 👌

@macodiseas @katlinegrey Not true. Limiting factor in any staged combustion rocket engine, liquid/gas or gas/gas, is pressure & temperature in oxygen preburner

@Tom_Heats @coindesk Whoever owns the early BTC deserves a Nobel prize in delayed gratification

@coindesk That said, I still only own 0.25 BTC, which a friend sent me several years ago. Don’t have any crypto holdings.

@katlinegrey I have been chief engineer/designer at SpaceX from day 1. Had I been better, our first 3 launches might have succeeded, but I learned from those mistakes. https://t.co/3r6ZqEc30A

Meant to say annualized production rate at end of 2019 probably around 500k, ie 10k cars/week. Deliveries for year still estimated to be about 400k.