SpaceX’s Starship rocket system reached several milestones in its second test flight before the rocket booster and spacecraft exploded over the Gulf of Mexico.

  • @iterable
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    -37 months ago

    So they don’t have a physicist on staff? Or several? We have known the math for rocket science for some time. What data is it they need? When even NASA in the sixties has simulators.

    • @JohnDClay
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      57 months ago

      I’m sure they have tons. But we don’t know the full thermo areo dynamics at hypersonic speeds and complex geometries, especially their effect on unconventional control surfaces across huge temperature and speed ranges. Some military companies have even bought flights on electron to get high altitude hypersonic velocity data on how the air behaves in that regime.

      • @iterable
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        -47 months ago

        So rocket science…the thing the world has been doing since the end of WWII. Weird how other rockets don’t have this problem…

        • @JohnDClay
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          67 months ago

          You know of any other companies doing a belly flop maneuver? Or a reusable first stage with hot staging?

          • @iterable
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            -37 months ago

            How reusable? NASA had recoverable boosters How does math and physics change based on goals?

            • @JohnDClay
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              57 months ago

              NASA has never used hot staging.

              • @iterable
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                -37 months ago

                I repeat math or physics changed?

                • @JohnDClay
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                  57 months ago

                  No, the constants and dynamics in that flight regime are just not well understood.

                  • @iterable
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                    -37 months ago

                    So you are telling me PhD physicists don’t know?

        • @[email protected]
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          fedilink
          57 months ago

          Yeah it’s super easy that rocket science. Just plug some numbers into a simulation and off you go. It’s not exactly brain surgery.

          • @iterable
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            -37 months ago

            Tell that to Robert Goddard