News Elon Musk unveils images of BFR’s new design

[Marijn]

... A lot of fuel together.

Aerobraking perhaps? I wonder how they will deal with the heat otherwise.

 

[Urwumpe]

Aerobraking perhaps? I wonder how they will deal with the heat otherwise.

Maybe, but that does not mean that the peak heating is much lower, you just spend less time at a peak.

Even a mild propulsive maneuver to slow down the reentry would require a refueling of the BFS BTW, something that will unlikely happen during the first mission.

 

[GLS]

One spacecraft that does everything... :uhh: That was the idea at the start of the Apollo program, but then they "saw the light" and went with 2. No point in taking parachutes and propellant to the surface, plus all the associated dry mass. :shrug:

 

[4throck]

I wonder about reentry heat, heatshield(?) and reusability.

The key must be on the exterior material.
I don't see any tiles on the "wings" but I'm sure they have a technical solution for that.

Perhaps some part of the Falcon already experiences similar heat and they only have to scale up?

 

[Donamy]

Are they going to have to base jump to get out of it ?

 

[Urwumpe]

Are they going to have to base jump to get out of it ?

Maybe they can drive a Tesla down the hull, as shown in the drawing.

 

[francisdrake]

The reentry looks even more scary than I imagined! The high AoA looked like 70 - 90° in the video. I would imagine a cylinder has a lot of degrees of freedom in this configuration, especially to roll around its longitudinal axis. The fold-back fins are not ideally placed to prevent this, as they start pretty far down the curvature of the belly. Actually they might even increase a roll tendency, if not actively controlled.

On the longitudinal stability I would assume the canards need to have nearly the same drag (lift?) as the main wings. They might even be grid fins, as these produce a higher drag than a smooth wing.

So the reentry would be in a (what the aviation guys call) "relaxed stability mode", that means the vessel is not self-rightening but dependent on active control by the onboard computers and aerodynamic surfaces. I think, SpaceX is taking their "flying the iPhone" control philosophy to a new level. :uhh:

 

[Thorsten]

So the reentry would be in a (what the aviation guys call) "relaxed stability mode", that means the vessel is not self-rightening but dependent on active control by the onboard computers and aerodynamic surfaces. I think, SpaceX is taking their "flying the iPhone" control philosophy to a new level.

Well, that's how the Space Shuttle worked (the Shuttle is not a yaw-stable vehicle during entry, yaw-jets or adverse yaw from the elevons are used to constantly manage sideslip during entry) - so the concept isn't exactly new.

 

[Urwumpe]

Also the Shuttle was not always stable in the pitch axis - its prefered flight altitude at high Mach numbers would have been engine first, it just becomes a bit more stable at lower Mach numbers.

 

[barrygolden]

Yes the entry looks pretty if 'y but they have flown much of the profile already. There is a lot of work yet to do. There was talk around the shop about SFS which would look and fly pretty much the same path but be sized to launch on a Falcon 9.

I too wonder about the abort and crew safety and have seen some cut outs of the inside and out side heat shields but this is all 1st generation stuff and will change over time. We are starting to receive things here in TX that are labeled BFR but just storing them now. Its testing equipment.
Can't see a manned flight in 5 years but we'll see. Space X does some unusual things.
Maybe Buck Rodgers was just ahead of his time, this thing looks like his ship

 

[Pipcard]

A few days ago, this was announced.
[ame="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1063867489543643136"]https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1063867489543643136[/ame]

A "radical change." Just two months after the DearMoon presentation.

And now,[ame="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1064740713357750272"]https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1064740713357750272[/ame]

edit: also loved seeing these posts

[ame="https://twitter.com/cfm_miku_en/status/1063645074406469632"]Hatsune Miku on Twitter: "next time… "[/ame]

 

[MaverickSawyer]

At this point, I'm discounting any and all news until pics of actual hardware start to emerge, since Elon can't seem to commit to anything.

 

[Urwumpe]

At this point, I'm discounting any and all news until pics of actual hardware start to emerge, since Elon can't seem to commit to anything.

I agree. Those changes also suggest that its still Powerpoint rockets, not even a clear design process.


Maybe it would be better sticking to the old ITS pictures for making an add-on instead of hoping that SpaceX really commits to a configuration.

 

[4throck]

Probably reality knocked on the door and he's just flying a large Dragon capsule on top of Falcon Heavy...

Add landing legs and a descent stage to the capsule and you have a mini BFR...

 

[barrygolden]

4th rock your right there was a plan for a smaller BFR but i think it canceled. It would launch on a Falcon 9 and land Like the BFR on land.It was a way to make the whole rocket reusable

 

[n122vu]

And now,https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1064740713357750272

A craft with canards called a Starship? That's original...

 

[RisingFury]

Talk is cheap. Hardware is not. That holds true for everyone, regardless of their name.

 

[mahdavi3d]

 

[jedidia]

So they actually got that boiler to fly? Who'd have thunk...

 

[N_Molson]

We're still quite far from an interplanetary mission...