How secure is Static Test Road?
I'm going with a TE failure.
Fun thread. Let's see... SpaceX's plan threatens various government interests related to SLS and SpaceX's rocket is destroyed on an Air Force base. If the government did it, it would get you past all the security challenges and there's motive and access. Is there a grassy knoll nearby?
Quote from: Rocket Science on 09/09/2016 01:54 pmHow secure is Static Test Road?Secure. No one unbadged is going to get near the pad. I'm going with a TE failure.
With a fairly new manufacturing environment, the idea that the design is sound, but Foreign Object Damage or Debris (FOD) is involved is a possibility. All kinds of things get left in not very good places, and they can cause loss of vehicle.
Quote from: CraigLieb on 09/09/2016 02:01 pmWith a fairly new manufacturing environment, the idea that the design is sound, but Foreign Object Damage or Debris (FOD) is involved is a possibility. All kinds of things get left in not very good places, and they can cause loss of vehicle.While fueling up? I could understand this, if an object got into a turbo pump or something like this. But the S2 was only fueling up and previously passed acceptance testing in McGregor.
Particularly trying to understand the quieter bang sound a few seconds before the fireball goes off. May come from rocket or something else.
I thought that the sounds in question were fairly conclusively determined to be junkyard noises on the other thread. I hope Elon isn't talking about the sounds on that vid...
For one thing, Elon talks about the sound heard on the USLaunchReport video
Final word: in my complete layman (so worthless) opinion this failure may be related to densified prop. AFAIK this kind of prop in rocketry is used commercially only by SpaceX (beside that only experimentally and theoretically in labs etc), so it is very possible that SpaceX discovered to their dismay that these things are tricky. Trickier than thought before. They wanted to test out things like prolonged hold on this SF, after all...
Quote from: envy887 on 09/09/2016 12:47 pmBullets release a shower of hot shrapnel and a massive shockwave when they go through a metal wall, especially into liquid. Kinetic anti-tank penetrators don't contain any explosive, but the conversion of kinetic to mechanical/thermal energy is enough to cause a massive explosion.Not really, especially sheet metal
Bullets release a shower of hot shrapnel and a massive shockwave when they go through a metal wall, especially into liquid. Kinetic anti-tank penetrators don't contain any explosive, but the conversion of kinetic to mechanical/thermal energy is enough to cause a massive explosion.
Quote Particularly trying to understand the quieter bang sound a few seconds before the fireball goes off. May come from rocket or something else.Bolt shearing on COPV strut attach point as the tank shrinks faster than the COPV & support assembly?
Are there any battery powered pieces of test equipment both small enough to be left accidently under the raceway covers and with enough cell energy to cause a problem?