7-25-23: Update to post of Jul 24, 2023
The flyover reveals that the dome caved in on S27. Perhaps that is the reason why it is being scrapped.
the original post:
Ship 27 was never fitted with heat shield tiles. It may not have undergone any other testing either. It has been suggested that it was intended as a test article for the lunar lander. If so, then why cut it up? Is it intended for other purposes, or is it intended to be scrapped?
It may be jumping to conclusions, unless those who say this have a reliable source, who says that it will be scrapped.
If it isn't being scrapped, then it is intriguing to speculate about the decision to cut it in half. Presumably, the bottom half is where the tanks and the engines are located. The upper half would contain the crew and cargo sections.
A tantalizing thought would have them outfitting the halves so as to be able to detach them from each other once in lunar orbit. It makes a lot of sense to not carry all the excess cargo all the way down to the surface. The extra weight will serve no purpose, and will require extra fuel to get it landed and back into lunar orbit.
SpaceX may not care about that. It is kinda of an inelegant solution, though. Furthermore, a ship that can detach like that would have a lot more capability. With the fuel savings, it could propel itself from lunar orbit back to Earth orbit, or so it would seem. That means a single Starship could be reusable. Now that would be elegant.
Maybe they will make no changes at all. But it is fun to speculate on what SpaceX will do with it now.
No comments:
Post a Comment