pigeonberry

Well, Zack Golden did reply that he thinks they're holding back, so maybe you'll get your wish for more violence.

Zack Golden @CSI_Starbase added on 2:09 PM - Jul 17, 2023:

Interesting things to note about this test:

1. In the near future this will have an even higher volume of water

2. The system appears to be in the process of being expanded and might eventually have double the amount of high pressure gas tanks feeding it.

On point 1, someone asserted (based on "Individuals on various discord servers") that it was only the center manifold.

Zack had a later tweet, 3:37 PM - Jul 17, 2023:

The purpose of the water system is purely to keep the steel plates from melting.

Without the water, the plates would be disintegrated, but the actual foundation would still survive as long as the booster cleared the pad fast enough.

The upgraded foundation is the key to success here. Had the original foundation been constructed the way it is now, the pad would not have failed during the first launch attempt while using Fondag on the blast surface

IMHO it's impossible for that type of failure to occur again.

He clarified in a later reply, "As I said, the water is not preventing mechanical forces from being transmitted through the plates and into the foundation. That’s not it’s job. It’s purely for thermal protection."

Chris Bergin - NSF @NASASpaceflight 1:24 PM - Jul 17, 2023

WOW! OLM Water Deluge System conducts its first full test! That was super impressive. No more rock tornados, I'd say!

http://nsf.live/starbase

I wonder whether the MP4 will attach here? ... edit: Nope, it seems not. See https://imgur.com/a/CQwvvl0 . Audio, but don't turn it up.

Edit 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgTqqGaU-Bg is a closer view from Starship Gazer @StarshipGazer, but with some unrelated chopstick stuff at the end apparently.

Edit 3: DRAT! I hang out in this thread, not the main group, and didn't see that @llamacoffee had posted "[Chris Bergin - NSF] WOW! OLM Water Deluge System conducts its first full test! That was super impressive. No more rock tornados, I’d say!" here.

A lot of talk about what may have happened to the Kerch Bridge, or some part of the Kerch Bridge. It has been pointed out that Russia and Crimea are quite close together and there are ferryboats, including a roll-on-roll-off boat. It has also been suggested that the rail bridge is still intact. So it might have mostly symbolic value for Ukraine.

Hmmm.

Jon Edwards @edwards345 12:21 PM - Jul 16, 2023

We are linearizing the Merlin production line in the high bay of HT01. Should be operational in September. Gonna be super bad ass.

There was a bit of discussion about what "linearizing" might mean. Mass production? Maybe not mass production, just setting up a formal assembly line, and removing extra capacity for long-pole items? So people get to specialize in specific parts?

Someone mentioned another tweet by the Mother of the Dark Lord, Last edited 8:34 PM - Jul 15, 2023: they claimed that someone was working inside an octoweb in the third picture. I don't see it.

Checking The Other Place: chatter there about the massive cryogenic release yesterday.

"the PA mentioned a valve issue"

It’s LOX according to the guys who were sent in to try and close the valve and just happened to stop in front of Rover 2 to make their plan....

They were talking about whether to go in from the front (Hwy 4) or go around through the back.

It was Lox tank 1820. The big boy and they’d have to Spin That Valve

Then at the end it was, we’re going to punch thru, stay together, and if the monitor goes off, get out....

with someone's long explanation:

Short periods of around an hour in highly elevated oxygen levels at atmospheric pressure is not particularly toxic. You may feel slightly dizzy, and feel dryness in your throat making you cough. You don't want to stay too many sustained hours in it, as basically the natural antioxidants in your body will deplete and the oxygen will oxidise you, possibly leading to long term tissue damage. Especially the eyes, namely lens and retina.

What you don't want to be anywhere near whilst working in this environment is an ignition source. If something sparks up or becomes hot, such as an insecure light connection, or grease in a valve spindle, Everything instantly ignites. Living tissue, Everything, including most metals will burn intensely once the heat gets going.

The Apollo 1 deaths of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee, who perished during a flash fire caused by an electrical spark in pure oxygen levels inside the crew capsule during a launch rehearsal made NASA redesign the whole system.

So several gather that there was only one big valve whose failure caused a complete dump, and they find a bit surprising to have a single point of failure.

I think this was what was mentioned in the "New comment from /u/santacfan on Reddit:" thread just a bit ago, around "7:00pm".

Zack Golden @CSI_Starbase tweeted at 7:54 PM - Jul 15, 2023:

Pretty massive liquid nitrogen or liquid oxygen dump going on. Tough to tell which it is.

I can't remember ever seeing this occur before outside of a testing event.

Initially thought this was some sort of clean out process but the volume appears to be a bit excessive for that.

A tweet from Jack Beyer @thejackbeyer with a close-in picture (from the state park?) of the Orbital launch mount.

4:13 PM - Jul 14, 2023 'Just got shooed out of the dunes by a drone with a speaker on it because im “in the blast danger area for today’s test”. That’s a first. [emojus] @NASASpaceflight'

Edit: video here, visible to me even in incognito mode.

An unusual test object (?) has caused some discussion, it seems, like in https://lemmy.world/comment/1154582 from @[email protected]

The Ringwatchers @Ringwatchers had a long thread today analyzing the situation. threadreaderapp unroll here.. Their TL;DR: "Ship 24.2 will be a 7-ring tall article composed of 3 main sections: a top ring with a dome and 24 external attachment points, a Ship Payload Bay that features a PEZ dispenser rack, and a bottom ring with a hatch in the side.", designed nicely to fit into the nosecone cage / can crusher, and the nosecone cage structure has been modified to fit it.

And this couldn't have been predicted because ...?

Controlled burns, which are another alternative to controlling invasive plants in the area, often lead to reduced air quality and can compact the soil, Anderson said

That's kind of slanderous against controlled burns. There is reduced air quality while it's burning, but the benefits can last years where the time of burning can last hours. I have not heard of compacting the soil as a drawback: a bit of Googling suggests that that's a drawback of cutting with machinery instead. Furthermore, there are ecosystems that are adapted to having burns from time to time, so they can be useful if done right.

However, the article mentions poison ivy. Goats can not only eat it, they actively like it, and their bodies destroy the urushiol (the irritant) so their milk is safe. Furthermore, for a burn of poison ivy: some people did that upwind of my sister and a lot of other people on a military base, and the results were Not Good.

The Booster Bidet got its first test. Looks like a lot of pressurized gas spewed out for about 40 seconds. The video can be seen on Twitter even without being logged in (currently) here. The video is from LabPadre, shown in a tweet by Zack Golden @CSI_Starbase 7:40 PM - Jul 12, 2023:

Much better angle of the purge test. This is a pretty intense amount of force that will be pushing out the water through steel blast surface!

Audio has been synced with @LabPadre Rover 2.0 camera.

Later,

This was no accident. Its a purging of the high pressure gas system