SpaceX loses another Starship prototype as landing sequence fails

Re:SpaceX loses another Starship prototype as landing sequen... by hooper on Tuesday March 30, 2021 @01:49PM (#26637845)

I've heard of using a gas driven plunger in fuel tanks, but I can't remember the name of the vehicle that did this. Starship uses small "header tanks" that have a similar effect. Weight and reliability are big priorities in this kind of system.

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Re:SpaceX loses another Starship prototype as landing sequen... by dogma1138 on Tuesday March 30, 2021 @02:41PM (#26638552)

Isn’t helium already used to push fuel into the pumps?

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Re:SpaceX loses another Starship prototype as landing sequen... by hooper on Tuesday March 30, 2021 @08:44PM (#26642298)

I think it's more to maintain pressure in the tank, in cases where the remaining fuel doesn't vaporize sufficiently on its own (autogenous pressurization). Otherwise, I guess atmospheric pressure or compressive force from the engines/payload could crush the tank. In the case of Starship, the fuel is moved by turbo pumps, which are integrated with the engine, and are powered by burning some of the fuel (there's a diagram of this at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Raptor).

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Re:SpaceX loses another Starship prototype as landing sequen... by senectus1 on Tuesday March 30, 2021 @08:09PM (#26642079)

I think that was part of the problem with the last launch. it started to burn some of the helium which caused issues.

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