4 ms·

It looked like something one would cobble together from a garage opener and weld together a bunch of rebar

NitpickLawyer 1y ago
You should have seen the first tech demonstrator for the Raptor engine (the family that powers Starship). It was basically a water tower (built out in the desert, welded by people specialising in building water towers). But it flew, and it landed, and then it served as a lights & camera mount for the field for a few years.
- m4rtink 1y ago
  Starhopper is still there, on a parking lot next to the launch site. :) https://starship-spacex.fandom.com/wiki/Starhopper https://starship-spacex.fandom.com/wiki/Starhopper
Culonavirus 1y ago
Keep in mind the ship diameter is like 30 feet. It may not seem like that from a camera view, but that pez dispenser is pretty massive.
potato3732842 1y ago
I wonder how many potential designs they considered. You've got the mass of the doors and structure of the ship to consider, the mass of the cargo, actuators for both, the arrangement of cargo in the ship, all of which have interconnected tradeoffs.
- m4rtink 1y ago
  Also add pressure management, warping of the dispenser and ship hull & thermal expansion. And fornlong duration missions also lubricant evaporation, possibility of vacuum welding & atomic oxygen reactions if you spend long in low Earth orbit. :)
  - foobarian 1y ago
    The fun thing is that as long as you have the requirements and acceptance right, this could still be solved with a garage door opener and welded rebar :-D Reminds me of early Google DIY rack PCs. [1] [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/google/comments/1lf6yat/googles_first_production_server_1999/ https://www.reddit.com/r/google/comments/1lf6yat/googles_fir...
    - potato3732842 1y ago
      The garage door opener (literal or metaphorical) is sitting at the end of 50yr of incremental refinement, albeit for a different use. If you can spare the weight and it meets your specs and the use it close enough you'd be a fool not to use it.

You should have seen the first tech demonstrator for the Raptor engine (the family that powers Starship). It was basically a water tower (built out in the desert, welded by people specialising in building water towers). But it flew, and it landed, and then it served as a lights & camera mount for the field for a few years.

m4rtink 1y ago
Starhopper is still there, on a parking lot next to the launch site. :) https://starship-spacex.fandom.com/wiki/Starhopper https://starship-spacex.fandom.com/wiki/Starhopper

Culonavirus 1y ago

Keep in mind the ship diameter is like 30 feet. It may not seem like that from a camera view, but that pez dispenser is pretty massive.

potato3732842 1y ago

I wonder how many potential designs they considered. You've got the mass of the doors and structure of the ship to consider, the mass of the cargo, actuators for both, the arrangement of cargo in the ship, all of which have interconnected tradeoffs.

m4rtink 1y ago
Also add pressure management, warping of the dispenser and ship hull & thermal expansion. And fornlong duration missions also lubricant evaporation, possibility of vacuum welding & atomic oxygen reactions if you spend long in low Earth orbit. :)
- foobarian 1y ago
  The fun thing is that as long as you have the requirements and acceptance right, this could still be solved with a garage door opener and welded rebar :-D Reminds me of early Google DIY rack PCs. [1] [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/google/comments/1lf6yat/googles_first_production_server_1999/ https://www.reddit.com/r/google/comments/1lf6yat/googles_fir...
  - potato3732842 1y ago
    The garage door opener (literal or metaphorical) is sitting at the end of 50yr of incremental refinement, albeit for a different use. If you can spare the weight and it meets your specs and the use it close enough you'd be a fool not to use it.