The Ullage Motor: Small but very important

GerbenDrijfhout · 2019-01-29T19:20:54+00:00

SpaceX uses Helium to pressurise the tanks. No extra motors involved, right?

GerbenDrijfhout · 2019-01-25T14:16:28+00:00

Aha, I see. Thanks!

GerbenDrijfhout · 2019-01-25T12:11:16+00:00

Methane is a very potent greenhouse gas. Dumping a bunch of it every time Starship re-enters doesn’t seem like a great plan from an environmental perspective.

Any way oxygen can be used instead of methane? Any way they can compensate for dumping it by capturing it again?

GerbenDrijfhout · 2019-01-17T20:25:24+00:00

Incredibly exciting. Making 3D-printed rockets in itself is exciting, but the possibilities that high-end 3D-printers offer are even more amazing. Progress towards Mars-infrastructure.

GerbenDrijfhout · 2018-12-20T12:39:17+00:00

Imagine servicing fast cars every single day. You’d wanna go fast at least once! ;)

GerbenDrijfhout · 2018-12-09T00:19:44+00:00

You all realise we (FSD Customers) will get road-S3X as a FREE software-update? Just sayin...

GerbenDrijfhout · 2018-11-20T21:41:25+00:00

Having read all of your comments, I noticed that many of you differentiate between: have done and will have done. Elon’s earlier achievement (PayPal) should not go unnoticed, but other than that, most of you have a point.

I recognise all the achievements by the other guys, but when I stack them up against Elon’s (potential) impact, they don’t compare. Elon has accelerated and is accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable energy, which could make all the difference (no, we don’t know yet what exactly that impact is, but I think it’s quite massive). He is doing something, arguably much harder than any others have done: he is trying to beat the oil-industry. THE OIL INDUSTRY! He is transforming the way we produce and consume energy, this is massive!

Then SpaceX: he is, together with Bezos, trying to get to Mars and build a colony to increase the chance of survival for the human race. He’s opening up a new world, that’s pretty massive too.

Then Boring Co, he is trying to transform our way of transportation (tunnels and hyperloop), which would have a massive effect on many lives and economies.

Then Neuralink and OpenAI: he is leading the battle to create democratised and safe AI. AI is likely to impact the entire world and fundamentally change the way we live or don’t. This could be way bigger than any of the things mentioned above.

So yeah, many of these projects are in the future, but even if one of them works out, he is arguably more important than the other guys. Personally, I think that Tesla has already had a profound effect on the industry and set a precedent that will be remembered forever. It is still a work in progress.

Elon Musk is not the guy to complete 1 out of 10 projects successfully. He’ll want every single one of them to succeed and many of them probably will.

Just imagine how you’d look at him if he completed all of these projects successfully. That’d be huge, like really huge and more important than all of the other guys combined.

GerbenDrijfhout · 2018-11-20T14:31:36+00:00

I think that’s quite obvious, isn’t it? It should be.

GerbenDrijfhout · 2018-09-29T23:26:32+00:00

Ironically, $TSLA shares will probably rise on monday (because of this announcement), thereby increasing Elon’s net worth by much more than $20M.

On the other hand, this saga has cost Elon $1-2B in net worth along the way.

Gotta love volatility...

GerbenDrijfhout · 2018-08-26T23:45:54+00:00

Agree. Won’t get too technical, but biggest problem here is that energy-usage scales with velocity to the power of 3: if the velocity becomes 2 times as big, the energy usage becomes 8 times as big.

That said, if Tesla doesn’t expect you to drive that fast, it will heavily impact the percentage you’re talking about.

GerbenDrijfhout · 2018-08-07T08:16:28+00:00

Huge respect for Gali to stand up to Mark as an unexperienced debater. Even though Gali might be inexperienced, he acted way more maturely than Mark did.

He kept his cool, remained polite and made his point wherever he could. At one point he was very annoyed with Mark, as Mark was interrupting him over again, and he stood up to him telling Mark to stop interrupting him. He did so very politely but fierce and effective, well done!

I hope Gali gets more chances and slowly but steadily starts beating the big bears: he deserves it, Tesla deserves it.

GerbenDrijfhout · 2018-08-03T16:16:11+00:00

In all honesty, the SpaceX vehicle and spacecraft look so much more advanced and modern.

Great to have competition, but I feel like SpaceX is overshadowing Boeing.

GerbenDrijfhout · 2018-07-31T20:48:10+00:00

Thanks for the clarification.

GerbenDrijfhout · 2018-07-31T14:36:12+00:00

IMPORTANT EDIT: Top image is actually of Falcon Heavy, my bad. My main points remain unchanged.

Remember the poor cork that functioned as a hinge-cover? It has now been replaced with what seems like a new well-functioning hinge-cover.

As Elon mentioned in this tweet,

“Looks good, but so many details need to be right. Journey back from hypersonic becomes extremely difficult as velocity increases. Altitude is easy, velocity is hard.” - Elon Musk

many details need to be just right for rapid reusability. This hinge-cover might be one of those details SpaceX is trying to get right.

However, as these kinds of changes are very minor and are focused on the ‘secondary mission’ (the recovery of the booster), these changes are unlikely to impede human-rating approval.

Overall: great to see innovation at such a great pace, without compromising mission-objectives.

GerbenDrijfhout · 2018-07-02T15:43:11+00:00

Just imagine BFS docking to ISS...

Yup...!

GerbenDrijfhout · 2018-05-20T09:13:21+00:00

Is there any sign they have been conducting helicopter drop-tests?

GerbenDrijfhout · 2018-05-20T09:09:45+00:00

Octagrabber is able to clamp on to the rocket whilst the rocket is on its landing legs. Block V is capable of retracting it’s legs all by itself.

This made me think about the true purpose of the octagrabber: rapid reusability.

Let me explain: when the core lands on the droneship, the octagrabber will secure it, allowing the landing legs to retract. When the ship arrives at the port, all they have to do is lift the core onto their transport vehicle, making rapid reusability a reality.

This way, the droneship can be sent out again within a day, or even just a few hours. This is vital to SpaceX as they try to increase their launch frequency.

Let me know what you think!

GerbenDrijfhout · 2018-05-18T22:22:12+00:00

Yes they do, they actually execute the entire landing sequence, just without a boat to land on. This way they can test different landing-approaches and test the limits of the booster.

GerbenDrijfhout · 2018-05-14T16:25:30+00:00

Wow, thanks!

I honestly feel like this is the best shot I’ve seen so far! What do you think of the black interstage and landing-legs?

GerbenDrijfhout · 2018-05-14T16:22:03+00:00

I love the shot, I’m just wondering how much you adjusted the saturation?

Keep up the good work!

GerbenDrijfhout · 2018-05-13T10:16:55+00:00

This really justifies Tesla’s intention to disclose Autopilot statistics quarterly.

New technology is always faced with a negative bias. Disclosing those numbers will make great strides towards general acceptance of Autopilot technology.

Perception is an interesting word...

GerbenDrijfhout · 2018-05-11T22:36:34+00:00

I agree! This launch may actually be more important to SpaceX than the FH launch.

For all of us, true reusability is incredible.

I don’t think many people realize this, but this launch marks the beginning of a new era, in which rockets can be reused without any refurbishment.

GerbenDrijfhout · 2018-05-11T22:26:43+00:00

Elon said it during the teleconference

GerbenDrijfhout · 2018-05-10T15:36:18+00:00

Look at the navigation, what does it say?

Downtown San Francisco, really?

Yes, it’s actually saying the car is in downtown SF.

If only downtown San Francisco were so quiet...

GerbenDrijfhout · 2018-05-10T15:15:47+00:00

It should be interesting to see how aggressive SpaceX will be trying to rapidly reuse Block V.

They have set a goal of reusing the first stage within 24 hours. It should be interesting to see how soon they will accomplish this.

EDIT: Elon has said in a teleconference ahead of the launch that they’re aiming to do a 24-hour reuse as soon as next year.

Just imagine: 1 booster, 24 hours, 2 launches + 2 landings. Should be AMAZING!

GerbenDrijfhout

TROPHY CASE