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Old 05-08-2020, 05:46 PM
glend (Glen)
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Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Lake Macquarie
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Startrek View Post
Glen
I just watched the SN5 test hop , very impressive to say the least
Do you happen to know the thrust level ( @ sea level lbs ) of that single raptor engine during the test and the weight of the vehicle ?
It’s been a huge week for all at Space X
Martin
Martin, SpaceX has just posted their own video of the test, taken from their drone hovering over the launch site, and using footage from their onboard camera in the engine bay. That video is by far the best i have seen because of the quality, the onboard view out the bottom of the ship, showing the leg deployment, and the lack of dust and smoke which obscured some of the flight in other ground based camera views.
As far as the Raptor thrust is concerned, I believe the single atmo Raptor can provide 220 tonnes of lift capacity, with plans for newer version to go as high as 250 tonnes. As far as the weight of the vehicle is concerned, the present configuration is mainly the tanks and engine sections, as can be considered fairly light. If you noticed the square box on top, that is the Mass Simulator, it is there to bring the weight up to the equivalent of a fully configured Starship with the nose section installed. The Mass Simulator, as carried by SN5, weighs 22 tonnes. It is highly likely that the Raptor was not throttled up for this last test flight.
All of the next test prototypes (SN6, 7 & 8) have a three engine thrust puck at the bottom of the tank section, as did SN5 (albeit it carried only one engine mounted slightly off centre, which can be compensated for by gimballing the thrust and use of the RCS thrusters to control vertical orientation - which can be seen firing in the test videos). I don't know at this point when they will move to three Raptors, but they will need them for the high altitude tests and to achieve super sonic speeds in the atmo. Later production orbital versions can carry up to 9 Raptors with the same area, so expanding the size is not required. The Super Heavy Booster will have 27 Raptors, some will be vacuum and some atmo.
Rumour has it that the Raptor will be pulled out of SN5 and sent back to the factory for tear down and analysis. The issue that they had with the turbo spin valve failing to open on a couple of previous test attempts will need to be resolved and updates applied to later versions of the Raptors. These engines need to be very reliable, and able to start without issues.

Last edited by glend; 05-08-2020 at 05:56 PM.
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