Youtube hearted comments of ke6gwf - Ben Blackburn (@ke6gwf).
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Some observations from someone who enjoys working with metal.
The base section is completely structural. It is using welded heavy wall stainless steel pipe for a bulletproof internal support frame and landing legs, heavy enough to withstand "slight miscalculations" on the suicide burns and punch holes in the concrete if needed.
This looks like it was designed by an engineer familiar with building bridges and roller coasters and other such durable structures, and I see signs of very good workmanship in the welds and little details like the contoured gusset plates and such.
It really looks like it's designed to support a bridge rather than fly. But considering that Elon probably wants something close to actual weight, overbuilding this is not a problem, and makes it more likely to survive heavy grasshopper testing without needing repairs. (landing pad is more likely to need repairs lol)
The shell of the base section is heavy gauge SS as well, and was all bent in large probably CNC plate rolls making perfect curves that fit and weld together. And it is heavy enough not to distort from the welding.
I assume that this will all be polished up to a mirror finish, and was built by a structural engineering team.
The upper sections are built totally different, and I suspect by a different team or company.
They seem to be an open framework with thin sheet metal panels fastened over it.
It makes sense that it is a water tank company, because they would have experience doing such things.
Now the difference is that they normally aren't trying to do compound shapes with thin sheets on water tanks, and it is nearly impossible to do it with flat sheets without lots of wrinkles and divots, just like of you put a sheet of paper over a basketball.
They may have some trick to use heat to stretch the sheet metal and smooth it out after the structure is finished, it's pretty much black magic, but it is used by good sheet metal workers, so I say wait a little while and see what they are able to do.
I also will not be surprised if the company that bid to do it had never done anything quite like this before, and are finding that they are fighting the metal, and it is winning lol
So this may turn out to be a total failure on their part of being able to get a good looking result.
Elon may be fuming about how ugly it is looking as we speak.
On the other hand, as long as it is all attached properly, it is totally flyable as a grasshopper, and once the polishing is done it will be hard to see the surface shape.
So it is possible that Elon decided he wanted something of the right size and shape and shiny to be in the air asap, and so is using his preferred fail fast prototyping method to knock together something that can hop, even if the appearance is wanting.
If that is his goal, this is the way to do it.
If you have seen the videos of that NASA guy who worked with SpaceX, and helped develop the Pica heatshield, (can't remember his name, but it was a series of short interviews), you are familiar with the culture there of being able to order stuff up from McMaster Carr, and put a test prototype together the next day to see what happens, and this seems to fit that profile.
Though they probably didn't get the metal from McMaster lol
So whether Elon is angry at how it looks, or this was the expectation, it is the fastest and cheapest way to get a Starship prototype hopping, and the appearance really doesn't matter for the testing, since it won't be going fast enough to have any effect.
And using stainless steel is just because he wants it to look shiny like the final version lol
As far as tanks, he doesn't need large or super light tanks for this first prototype. For initial testing, he can probably just use umbilicals, or small tanks.
In order to make this shape with stainless steel, you basically need to use the same method that car body panels use, and hydroform or press them, so each panel is already shaped properly for the location it needs to go.
This however requires extensive time and work making the dies for each section, since the sheets change shape and size as it goes up, so this is a big investment, and I can totally see him saying to just wrap it in tin foil to get it flying.
They very likely are currently working on building dies and such, and may replace the upper section as soon as they are done and some hydroformed panels are available.
So let's see what they are able to do to smooth out the tin, and remember that as long as it is being moved around and welded on, any straightening they do will just get messed up again, so they may be waiting until it is stacked before smoothing it.
Oh, and if they were building this for anything other than an actual test prototype, they would NOT be making the top to look like a steam punk Burning Man art installation. The very fact that it is ugly and utilitarian, for something that Elon is doing, tells me that it is for hard science quickly.
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As a hydraulics guy, I just want point out the bits that I recognize lol
On upper side of the upper blue actuator cylinder, you can see a silver rectangle, with a smaller silver rectangle one above it that has white wires coming out.
The larger one will be the 3 position spool valve (extend/hold/retract) with the pressure and return lines coming into it, and the smaller one is the wiring junction box.
It will then either have hard lines running from the valve to each end of the cylinder, or it may have bored channels inside the walls of the cylinder.
Then at the rear end of the cylinders, you can see another box with wires coming out, and that is going to be the linear positioning sensor that tells the computers exactly how far out the cylinder is extended, thus what angle the grid fin is at.
Judging by its position, I would guess that the center of the piston and rod is bored out, and a skinny tube runs down the center of the bore from the rear end of the cylinder. Inside the tube would be magnetic sensors, and there would be a magnet imbedded in the piston, allowing the exact position to be detected.
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I started, well, most of the types of work I do, climbing around on some 637 Scrapers helping rebuild them as a teenager, cracked necks, transmission rebuilds, pin job, line boring, etc, and in later years operating them, so I feel at home here!
Slick method for that repair, maybe you can send a go pro with the next set and get the guy to record it. Lol
And yes, there is a LOT more room in that one than a 637!
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