Posted on Jan 25, 2021

Animated Starship Plumbing Diagram V2

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Okay, so this is an animation, but not an animation like one is used to seeing... In this video, you will see an actual SpaceX Starship, similar to the one (SN9) which is on the launching pad, as I type this, that is due for its 2nd test try following the fuel balancing problem which caused the SN8 Starshito crash in the last few moments...

This animation of a SpaceX Starship shows the fuel plumbing system that is incorporated into the Starship and will be tested sometime today if all goes well during countdown... You will note that there are two colored fuels being used... The red colored fuel is a fairly common compound, Liquid Methane... The Blue colored fuel is liquid Oxygen... You should also note that there is fuel in the fuel plumbing system in the nose cone of the Starship, which I'm assuming is the fuel used for the life support system if the crew cabin was actually included in the test Starships.

Further, the maneuver being shown in the video is the same as is being used in the live test Starship SN9 in that it is launched to a predetermined elevation (12.5 Kilometers, I believe) then performs a "Belly Flop" maneuver as it descends, the rockets are fired up again for landing and the craft lands...

(I RECOMMEND THAT THIS BE WATCHED FULL SCREEN ON THE LARGEST SCREEN AVAILABLE, IN ORDER TO APPRECIATE THE DETAIL...)

I hope you find this animated, but lifelike, video interesting and provides you with a bit more knowledge of how SpaceX is proceeding with their Starship program...

Kerry
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Posted in these groups: Spacex logo

Edited 3 y ago

Posted 3 y ago

Responses: 11

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Col Joseph Lenertz

Posted 3 y ago

Very cool. I think the reason some LOX was held in the nose was to create passive stability for the ascent phase. LOX is twice as heavy as LCH4. In rockets, the center of mass must be forward of the center of pressure for passive stability. This means I can't get passive stability if all the (heavy) oxygen is near the tail. Missiles (as opposed to rockets) have gimballed exhausts which enables active stability. Active stability is the ONLY stability during descent phase, but in the ascent phase you can burn less fuel (enables less gimballing, so more of the thrust vector is direct ascent) if you have passive stability.

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