I would 100% be down there if I didn't have, ya know, responsibilities. As much as I'd love to see the first, my plan is the same as yours.
Source? That date seems about 10 days too early for Musk. Maybe they are working toward the 10th knowing there will be delays because you know he wants it on the 20th. As for watching, based on permits, by the time this thing is consistently flying and worth a trip knowing you'll actually see it go, they may be flying it more frequently from KSC. I think they are only allowed to launch 5-6 a year from Boca
Absolutely wouldn't be surprising for it to move to the right - already some reports that overnight it moved at least a week out. That said, there was/is definitely indicators that they were shooting for the 10th. https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace/status/1643363784017453057?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^tweet Nasa's WB-57 is slated for "imaging" April 10th-12th. This plane has been expected to be used to help document the re-entry. Current Operations Plan Advisory (faa.gov) - Starship listed on the 10th with backup days Marine notices - https://twitter.com/Alexphysics13/status/1642028439539425283
Thanks for the additional info, my post was sort of tongue in cheek to say Musk likes weed but the NASA plane means it's getting serious for sure. I took the Marine notice and tried to draw a straight line on the globe to see it's path to Hawaii. My attempt seemed like they had to make some corrections to get there. My straight line starting from Boca out along the centerline of the Gulf marine bulletin put it more over Australia and south of Hawaii. Projected path looks to put it mostly over water on it's way to and from Africa.
4/20 does seem inevitable! Here is an estimation done by Jonathan McDowell on the trajectory - https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1642283054780522497?cxt=HHwWgoCxzZbvx8otAAAA
As in, payload? Nothing to the publics' knowledge. There's not really any way to deploy a payload on this specific article. And they just got their launch license, so the 17th is going to get an attempt!
Don't you need some sort of ballast payload to truly test the flight parameters? As I understand it, this was the original reason Musk loaded his Tesla in a rocket a few years back. No reason to let an opportunity to showboat slip past.
Frequently that's just done with cement, though like you said, elon enjoys making it interesting. Could be something inside the ship they have cameras on, but that seems to be the limit of what they could do.
Maybe a payload of 20 billion dollar bills, to represent how much he over-spent on Twitter, just because he can.
Is the ballast weight just for balance under thrust? I think the directional thrusters that let it land standing up could compensate? Idk
I don't think it matters if they can compensate or not. You want to test under the real conditions to avoid surprises.
yeah makes sense…. Though what I meant was that the ship was designed for repeated flights/trips/landings each with probably varying payloads? And with the landing electronics keeping stability on descent in strong winds with less weight on the way down? Idk… I have to be wrong…. But I’d think stabilizing the rocket with payload weight would be much easier on the way down. Especially if the ballast weight is added toward the bottom end? Wouldn’t you want to have the landing control units getting the most range of acceptable instability on the initial test flights to get data on suboptimal landing scenarios?… like say if crew members had to suddenly bail from mars or the moon without payload? And their emergency landing has to happen with unfavorable weather? or if there’s a slow fuel leak they couldn’t fix and they have to shed weight to make it back? Do I sound stupid? Honestly? cannot brain right now. Haven’t had my bucket of coffee
Definitely right about the balance! Ballast would be towards the top end of the ship where the payload bay is. Bottom is all fuel tank. Given the engine weight, they've actually had to move one of the header (landing fuel) tanks to the tip of the nose to help with balance. You're right of course about checking edge cases but they'll have dozens of flights (at least) before a human gets on one. They also aren't testing the flip and landing burn on this flight, just reentry. Frankly, if it makes it all the way through descent without disintegrating that would be amazing.
Tweet from Musk was something like: "Success possible. Excitement guaranteed." If I knew 100% sure definite absolutely going to without a doubt happen at a given time I'd make the trip down to see this live in person, but I just don't have time to take a week off for such a fluid situation.
Those header tanks that contain the landing propllant are separate in order to have greater insulation and minimize boil-off, avoid sloshing on entry and not have to press up the whole main tank. Balancing may indeed be a benefit but that’s not the reason for the current placement.
