2 ms·

Could starship float with empty fuel tanks?

• _Microft 7y ago
  No, it has over 100t of dry mass. Its volume, evacuated, would generate lift compensating (this is an educated guess) maybe 5-10t. I'll update the comment when I have better numbers. Update: Using volumes from one of the SpaceX-subreddits [0], I get a total volume of about 2500m³. An evacuated volume displacing 1m³ of carbon dioxide [1] at 1 bar and ambient temperature could lift a mass of 1.8kg. So the total volume of Starship could lift a mass of ~4.5t. It's got a dry mass of far over 100t though. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/fm735a/starship_tanks_and_fairing_volumes/ https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/fm735a/starsh... [1] https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=carbon+dioxide+density+1+bar https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=carbon+dioxide+density...
  • mrfusion 7y ago
    Thanks for doing the math. That’s a shame I thought I was on to something!