News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Elon Musk’s plan to build one Starship a week and settle Mars. Parent comment

Re:Elon Musk’s plan to build one Starship a week and settle ... by FeepingCreature on Thursday March 05, 2020 @10:42AM (#22494453)
Correct. You can (super¹)linearly increase launch mass by adding fuel. The rocket equation hits when you're trying to go farther, rather than more massive.

¹ Superlinear because tank mass scales with a lower exponent than tank volume.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Elon Musk’s plan to build one Starship a week and settle ... by jblwps on Thursday March 05, 2020 @11:51AM (#22495316)
> tank mass scales with a lower exponent than tank volume

I'm confused here. How are they not both cubic?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Elon Musk’s plan to build one Starship a week and settle ... by wtallis on Thursday March 05, 2020 @12:26PM (#22495721)
It's the mass of the empty tank that's relevant here, because non-propellant mass is what you want to minimize in order to increase deltaV.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Elon Musk’s plan to build one Starship a week and settle ... by FeepingCreature on Monday March 09, 2020 @08:21AM (#22524777)
Tank dry mass scales (approximately) with surface area.
[ Parent | on HN ]