Quote from: Zed_Noir on 08/03/2011 06:13 pmAnyone have any idea if a Merlin 2 size engine can be truck from Hawthorne to Texas and Florida assembled?If it's approximated F-1 size then yes, probably.
Anyone have any idea if a Merlin 2 size engine can be truck from Hawthorne to Texas and Florida assembled?
Quote from: Halidon on 08/03/2011 08:12 pmQuote from: Zed_Noir on 08/03/2011 06:13 pmAnyone have any idea if a Merlin 2 size engine can be truck from Hawthorne to Texas and Florida assembled?If it's approximated F-1 size then yes, probably. If it's about the weight of the F-1, then it's dry mass is about 8.4mt.So you are ok mass-wise. Probably could ship a couple on a single trailer. The problem would be the nozzles. The F-1 nozzel was about 12.2 ft wide, and I think most trailers are only about 8.5 ft wide. But you could probably get a Wide Load permit for the difference. If the nozzle isn't a single cast piece (have not idea how a Merlin 2 nozzle would be made), and if you could like ship two halves to be assembledin TX for testing, and/or in Florida, then they should be able to go in a single standard sized trailer. Or they could go by rail or transport plane. I don't knwo the rail specifications to know if they could be shipped whole on rail or not. If SpaceX could rent or lease a cargo plane that could land at the airfield next to Hawthorne (big if), then they could just fly the engines to TX for testing, then on to Florida for integration.
You can ship stuff that's 4.2m in diameter over the road and 3.8m in diameter over the rails, without going to something extremely unusual (ordinary wide-load permits for roads, etc.).
The 4.2m thing over the road is about height, not width. You can go well over 5m wide.
F-1 without the rear nozzle is small enough to fit in a standard shipping container...
The F-1 was transported on a special trailer, with the engine horizontal and the nozzle extension separated on vertical position (or was slanted? gotta see the F1 book again). That's why I proposed the same system for the Merlin. You can offer a lot better protection for the critical engine, and still move the nozzle extension in one piece.
Do you think a 6 or 8 meter core can make sense? I can't believe Spacex will make another launcher so it's base configuration will not be significantly more powerful than a FH, not enough bang per buck.
So I'm tempted to believe a 6 meter core can be transported by a helicopter.
Quote from: krytek on 08/12/2011 08:19 pmSo I'm tempted to believe a 6 meter core can be transported by a helicopter. An external load on a helicopter would likely not be allowed from Hawthorne because of the dense population and the proximity to LAX.see:http://rgl.faa.gov/regulatory_and_guidance_library/rgfar.nsf/farsbysectlookup/133.45
http://rgl.faa.gov/regulatory_and_guidance_library/rgfar.nsf/farsbysectlookup/133.45
I'm just thinking how incredibly efficient it would be to be able to build, test, integrate and launch all in the same general proximity.My concern is that because they are using legacy NASA locations and infrastructure, they will eventually get trapped into some of the same inefficiencies...