3 ms·
Awww I’m disappointed his solver started in a bellyflop position. Would be interesting to see if a vertical position at higher altitude and higher velocity coul
by forrestthewoods 5y ago
Awww I’m disappointed his solver started in a bellyflop position. Would be interesting to see if a vertical position at higher altitude and higher velocity could discover the bellyflop maneuver.
That would also require a variable initial fuel. Which is itself dependent on takeoff.
Ok so now solve the full loop from launch, peak altitude/position, and return. :)
- ludocode 5y agoThis would require adding the force of drag to the dynamics timestep, since the purpose of the belly-flop (after re-entry) is to minimize terminal velocity by maximizing drag. Currently his solver assumes no drag. Calculating the drag on an ideal cylinder is non-trivial to begin with. It gets vastly more complicated once you start adding the flaps, which are what Starship uses to get itself into the belly-flop position in the first place. Simulating the whole belly-flop maneuver isn't going to be feasible on the scale of a blog post.