How SpaceX Designed A Heat Shield For The Largest Spacecraft Ever Built

[@gresvig2507]

As an ex welder, two things-- first, stainless does take much higher temperatures to melt, but aluminum conducts heat hugely better, so you end up needing more amps to weld it. Not sure how that will affect things, I'm sure they thought of it. Second (and what I'm looking forward to see) is that stainless gets hot and starts making really cool colored oxides, way before it melts. It's not as colorful as titanium, but it can make beautiful blues and gold under the right conditions. So there's a chance if the heat and available oxygen are just right that it could turn partly blue or gold just past the tiles, which would be super awesome.

[@jgottula]

Oh that’s a good point, that would indeed look super cool!

[@BRUXXUS]

I didn't even think of how the skin could change color from reentry. While, they probably don't want any part of it to get that hot, it would look super cool!

[@TheSe7enman]

Regarding heat conduction: This does not apply here as the heat is applied more or less uniformly to a huge and thin surface - the heat simply does not have anywhere conduct to - maybe except for a bit at the sides. Maximum temperature before losing strength is really the metric they want to maximize, hence the very specific alloy of stainless steel that they are using

[@jgottula]

@@TheSe7enman I think it’s potentially relevant when thinking about how well (or not-well) Starship could handle the loss of a tile from its belly side: how efficiently can that exposed stainless steel area spread the extra heat around to neighboring areas and keep things okay; versus does it just heat up, become a hot spot, and melt through. Something like that…

[@alesksander]

Plus is not just heat its cryo regime also to taking into account.

[@matiastripaldi406]

So hexagons are, indeed, the bestagons. Even in spaceflight

[@hchskxnbcj]

You stole my comment

[@lostpony4885]

Good for curses too

[@thiesenf]

Bees: We know that hexagons are awesome... :-)

[@spencerrussell2267]

Civilization players agree

[@dazperson8228]

Beat me to it...

[@mikeclarke952]

Best channel ever. No begging for money, no hit the like button requests, no gosh darn sponsor crap, just Scott giving us great facts, news and space/technology info. Thanks Scott.

[@ryanhalley1982]

I think Scott should get an award for shortest introduction before a top-quality video. If only other channels would do the same. 10/10

[@kitemanmusic]

Ever thought of skipping forward. Another idea with long videos is to play at X1.5 speed.

[@ryanhalley1982]

@@kitemanmusic ?

[@daffidavit]

I agree, and he doesn't use the typical "hi-guys" as many others do.

[@agsystems8220]

Once part 3 of Tim's interview comes out, please please do a breakdown of all the new information. There have been some absolute bombshells in there, and I'm sure I didn't even catch all of them. The ones I picked up on were that they plan to stage it by spinning the whole stack in pitch. The Raptor runs oxidiser rich. Ullage is going to be used for thrusters. Return to a fuelling arm. New raptor teasers.

[@MrGoesBoom]

the fact that the Raptor 2 is gonna have more streamlined and simplified plumbing makes absolute sense considering not only how many engines each launch will need, but Elon's ultimate goal of having Starship launches be as regular as jumbo jet flights. Less chance of damage, simpler to just change out as needed, probably easier maintenance....right now they're still in prototype data gathering stage, and as seen by the way serial numbers have jumped, they're already way ahead of where they thought they would be. Such an amazing time to be a space fan

[@gerrycalhoun9827]

Raptor runs oxygen rich? It's a full-flow staged combustion cycle engine, surely it runs both oxygen rich and fuel rich?

[@jgottula]

@@gerrycalhoun9827 I believe you’re correct as far as the two preburners are concerned; but I believe Elon was talking about the main combustion chamber. I think.

[@hermanrobak1285]

@@gerrycalhoun9827 "[...] surely it runs both oxygen rich and fuel rich?" On a bad day, it may even run engine rich!

[@hufca]

​@@gerrycalhoun9827 The fuel-oxidizer mixture is slightly oxygen rich to avoid stoichiometric ratio, which would cause too high combustion temperatures and would damage the combustion chamber.

[@disruptive_innovator]

I never thought I'd see something like the Apollo program in my life time. I'm glued to every data source on this. Amazing times, awesome even.

[@Withnail1969]

Just a rerun of things we did long ago in the 1960s. Not exciting.

[@majorphysics3669]

@@Withnail1969 i mean come on. They're gonna land the damn things back on earth. It's pretty exciting to lots of people.

[@Withnail1969]

@@majorphysics3669 The Space Shuttle was landing on earth in 1980.

[@majorphysics3669]

​@@Withnail1969 but it wasnt the size of saturn v, and they didnt land the whole thing, and it wasnt a powered landing. You're comparing apples and oranges

[@Withnail1969]

@Kaileb McDonald Except we aren't doing those things.

[@InvestmentJoy]

The cubesat was a great idea. The original arm was to do that on all the shuttle flights before re entry, but never happened. Why not use a $1k cube sat for exterior inspection on each ship? Makes sense to me. Would just need to back haul the camera and data to the starship, should be easy.

[@Gaelztorm]

Yeah it definably sounds like a more useful payload then a wheel of Cheese.

[@vmasing1965]

Yep. And no worries with back haul, it's a digital era, you can beam the data (even in real time if you want) and forget about the camera.

[@arik_dev]

If you watch the 2nd part of Everyday Astronauts video though, Elon mentioned they're not going to install payload doors for the first 10 or so vehicles. He said this was because they would be improving the vehicles so quickly, that they wouldn't want to keep the tooling around for maintaining older models, as this is what happened with Falcon 9. And there was no point in putting doors on vehicles that would never fly real cargo. Now a cubesat is really small, so maybe they could deploy it in some other clever way. Maybe it could be stored at the top of the booster and pop out during separation?

[@Tom-ku8bu]

Just take an 360 camera and let it fly away herself. No need for complex expensive small satellite.

[@HenkPoley]

Only recently with Perseverance they had the technology.

[@samsonsoturian6013]

Let's put it this way: Either it will make for iconic historic footage... Or make a really awesome explosion to watch for fun!

[@barath4545]

Or both!

[@cheeseninja1115]

explosions can be historical!

[@elslick]

Hahaha yup either success or rapid unexpected disassembly

[@jimbob4456]

Elon already said the first launch will be a success if it doesn’t blow up on launch regardless what happens after that.

[@ponyote]

Part of me is rooting for RUD ... but it is so very pretty I also want to see it actually fly. Time will tell!

[@shriramvenu]

"The booster itself rolled out with 29 engines on it..." Nikolai Kuznetsov nods in approval

[@sonnyburnett8725]

That reminded me of Soviet engine booster clustering designs as well. Back then, it was a technology issue compared with today and economics and efficiency but still, it looks cool I think.

[@eurybaric]

Sergei Korolev?

[@UnshavenStatue]

Sergei Korolyov would definitely approve of this design

[@ceeam]

@@eurybaric en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Dmitriyevich_Kuznetsov

[@jamesowens7176]

Korolev unfortunately had died before the N1 was built. Kuznetsov designed the NK-33 engine, which was supposed to be for the N1 originally. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Dmitriyevich_Kuznetsov

[@calinculianu]

This is the most Kerbal rocket I have ever seen. Just the sheer number of engines at the bottom looks like someone just going nuts in the VAB with the symmetry tool ...

[@kurtilein3]

They know this is a good engine and are working on a major redesign to make it a very good engine.

[@Jonassoe]

It's like when your rocket is too heavy, so you just keep surface attaching vectors until it can fly.

[@danquaylesitsspeltpotatoe8307]

they trusted a guy who failed at making a tunnel to do this, a man who failed at automated cars because he was stupid and used sonar for it! a man who delayed his battery powered trucks 🤦‍♂️🤣 by two years then three years and latest by four years! 🤦‍♂️ A man who is going to invent a robot to do your shopping etc within a year🤦‍♂️🤣

[@TheRealGamada]

@@danquaylesitsspeltpotatoe8307 but finally, he succeeded. This is all what matters.

[@danquaylesitsspeltpotatoe8307]

@@TheRealGamada they trusted a guy who failed at making a tunnel to do this, a man who failed at automated cars because he was stupid and used sonar for it! a man who delayed his battery powered trucks 🤦‍♂️🤣 by two years then three years and latest by four years! 🤦‍♂️ A man who is going to invent a robot to do your shopping etc within a year🤦‍♂️🤣 So he succeeded in a heat shield for ship that hasnt gone to space yet. Which if it follows his track record.....

[@ThePhiphler]

The white insulating blanket could also serve a secondary function in protection the tiles from the extreme cold of the steel surface when the Starship is fully fueled.

[@Andrew-gd5jp]

Reducing thermal shock on both ascent and descent maybe, though I’d imagine they’d get pretty cold outside the atmosphere. Unsure what ambient temp is above the Karman layer and in the absence of insolation (in shade).

[@suspiciousninja1220]

awe, its got a blanky

[@CharlesStevenage]

How about the whole thing doesn’t exist

[@etherealstars5766]

@@CharlesStevenage Uhmmm, wanna go to Boca Chica and check???

[@Jessev741]

@@CharlesStevenage HUH??

[@gregorriese9438]

Wonderful to see Scott show genuine excitement at SpaceX progress. He’s no fan-boy & a tough taskmaster.

[@johnsmith-7oo]

I was completely with Elon when he said in Tim's interview, "I don't mind if it blows up, just PLEASE not on the launch pad" Seeing how long it has taken and the enormous time/cost rebuilding that would take I just thought, "Amen to that" He was like, yep, tens of millions of dollars for the booster/starship stack will be like pocket change to the cost of Stage zero.

[@Malryth]

Oh ya! Although I didn't understand "all" the heady chat. I did enjoy when Elon broke down how they go about design and showing he is not 100% certain but still willing to try. The fact Elon just focuses on problem solving instead of pimping his company is why I admire him much more than Bozos the showboat clown (you know who I'm talking about).

[@FredPlanatia]

so they will apply particular scrutiny to risks of explosion on the pad (i.e. a low risk-taking mentality for any such scenarios) where as other failure modes after leaving the pad they will be more flexibile to experiment

[@JohnVanderbeck]

I remember him saying the exact same thing for F9H. Really don't want to lose those launch pads!

[@scowell]

Stage 0 (launch infrastructure) the most expensive stage to replace.

[@RCAvhstape]

Wiping out its own launch pad set the N1 back a very long way.

[@chrismast2790]

"The blunter the body, the better for re-entry".... My body is a re-entry god!

[@Double_Vision]

I'm in shape! Round is a shape!

[@Marc_Gagne]

🤣

[@sahhull]

That's what your mum says too

[@CaptainPanick]

Unless your body is so blunt you bounce of the atmosphere back into space. Believe me, I have tried, it is not fun.

[@Marc_Gagne]

@@CaptainPanick Hi ALF! 🙌

[@TheHorzabora]

The photos, the video, nothing does this justice - only that shot of the grid fins with the pad crew standing around them. Insanely huge.

[@secretagent86]

the scale of this is HUUUUUUGGGGE. the workers at the cone look tiny. I saw the static Saturn V display, but wow!!! you produce a wonderful video Scott

[@justinmurphy2227]

You are so right! There's just nothing to scale to.....except the tower....lol! Buy OMG yes.....the people look so tiny!

[@Restilia_ch]

The Starship will have more habitable space than the ISS, to give another metric.

[@UberNerd]

That cubesat idea was exactly what I was thinking. Maybe SpaceX could hold a contest for University Engineering Students to make this and the team that makes it the fastest and that works wins full ride scholarships for the remainder of their schooling.

[@TwatMcGee]

It doesn't seem to hard either! Some high res cameras, cold gas thrusters, and a tether for data, and you could have a really useful inspection tool. Just reel it back in before you come down and its reusable too!

[@JohnnyZenith]

I also thought the same.

[@broersenkees]

I don't think the sat is the problem. It's getting it out there. If you've seen the interview with Elon Musk; he says they're not thinking about doors because it adds unnecessary complexity for now.

[@simongeard4824]

@@broersenkees Not a problem... as Scott said, just tuck it in somewhere in the engine skirt.

[@CockatooDude]

@@TwatMcGee Conceptual design is the easy part (although even then, what cameras, how reliable are they, what propellant source do we use for the cold gas thrusters, let's construct a plot for the performance curves of different propellant types, etc). Actually manufacturing the parts to spec, validating the parts, and making sure everything works nicely with eachother is where it can get incredibly difficult. Actually engineering something to work the best in a given scenario is often several orders of magnitude harder than thinking up a design that could work. This is the reason why I'm so impressed with SpaceX, they do an entire engineering project in the time it takes others to do an initial design study.

[@ismailnyeyusof3520]

Much appreciated that Scott Manley made this video to give his perspectives on what is currently going on in Boca Chica!

[@lidiasantoro3098]

Awesome engineering. Hats off to all the hyper talented people who are a part of this stunning project.

[@sinenomine4540]

It's not awesome at all. It's wasteful and inefficient. Dead end technology.

[@kirinyardberry1324]

@@sinenomine4540 lmao shitty bait try harder

[@RenTheGreat]

@@sinenomine4540 every technology is dead end until we find a better one to replace it lol.

[@heatshield]

Your energy for this topic really comes through the screen well. Not too many people appreciate how tough this is.

[@wildatlanticman128]

Yes I completely agree... the accessibility SpaceX provide, the seemingly 'seat their pants' approach to design, the authenticity perceived at least re the whole operation as revealed in Tim's (Everyday A.) interview with Musk, is both fantastic & amazing...How is anyone supposed to get any work done when this is happening!!! 😄

[@richardprice5978]

that's how most of use at home do hot rods on a budget minded as i don't have NASA's power of spending like a dunk or the time to waste. now if i could finely finish my 7-speed transmission swap that would be a-some

[@SpiffingTiff]

I am dying inside waiting for this launch. Excited is an under statement.

[@AbrahamSamma]

Thanks for talking about the hinges. I've been wondering about how they're going to be protected during reentry

[@Mr2winners]

See everydayastonaut part 2 elon talked about metal seal.

[@AbrahamSamma]

@@Mr2winners Awesome. Thank you.

[@JohnnyZenith]

No problem.

[@MrGaborseres]

Can't get enough of Scott explaining all the important stuff in layman's terms 👍🤓

[@eyemastervideo]

Scottsplaining is much better than mansplaining,😃

[@alastairward2774]

@Patrick Hamos yet you're watching and commenting.

[@TheBooban]

@Patrick Hamos you’re implying that Starship won’t make it to orbit.

[@letsgocamping88]

The everyday astronaut interviews have been fantastic

[@amatthew1231]

This is fucking crazy, I wish more companies/agencies would try new wild designs and methods like SpaceX.

[@redbovine]

Burt Rutan was cutting edge in designing when he was with scaled composites. He was ahead of his time with design. Some people wouldn’t give him the time of day because he was so far ahead. People get so stuck with doing the same thing that it’s hard to break the habit.

[@paulmichaelfreedman8334]

It starts with ousting the regular CEO (with no experience or knowledge of the product, just how to efficiently manage a company) and replace it with a truely die-hard (And likely with a diagnosis of Level 1 Autism) Engineer, who then also relinquishes company management to his XO. Then you will experience something akin to what happens at SpaceX. Gwynne Shotwell runs the company, company wise (Although she is also a fully qualified engineer and has her say in those things too). Elon does the frontier engineering, he has the power to get THINGS DONE without constantly having to debate it in a comittee. Tony Stark method.

[@UberNerd]

They've all become too risk averse.

[@anguita119]

@@thegood9 well... spacex can fail because they have money and it is a private project, compare the failure of falcon with that of starliner when falcon was destroyed everyone said that "you learn from mistakes and that the next time it will be better" but with starliner? uffff everyone criticized it," that they could not do anything well", "they are a shame and spacex can do much better" it is much easier to fail if you have billions to spend, and you can see the favoritism :)

[@AdmiralBob]

@@anguita119 Well the other criticism comes from boeing NOT learning from failure and just continually demonstrating it. And at double the cost no less.

[@timpatterson5905]

Love the way this guy presents things it clear and precise easy to follow sit all the way through without distraction. With everybody's attention spans getting shorter it's good to find someone that can keep you engaged through the whole video.

[@SteveMHN]

This is the most insane thing i've ever seen, i'll be amazed if it works the way they are planning.

[@sethbrundle5097]

Hope the tiles are waterproof. Shuttle tiles had to be injected with a waterproofing chemical after each flight. Will any burn through (one missing tile, one small hole) be a loss of vehicle or is there a chance it can still land using the undamaged header tanks?

[@blackhatfreak]

Yeah the starship is looking like a joke

[@jheregreign]

@@blackhatfreak Loll smh

[@009a2]

I believe Elon said that it would result in loss of the vehicle if one fails (part 2 of Everyday Astronaud’s Starebase tour)

[@paulmichaelfreedman8334]

The Fly. Jeff Goldblum. Good scifi horror.

[@WetDoggo]

2:04 okay that's one of the coolest shots I've seen so far

[@nickfosterxx]

Thank you Scott! Could you please do a short episode on flame trenches and sound suppression?! I'm still worrying about the effects of so many Raptors firing so close, both to the launch stand & the ground, and also to each other. Cheers.

[@HalNordmann]

It has more engines than the N1. This can't end well...

[@schrodingerscat1863]

@@HalNordmann With modern manufacturing techniques, control systems and materials the N1 would have worked. It was just way too ambitious for the available technology of its day.

[@StillAliveAndKicking_]

@@HalNordmann Falcon Heavy has 27 engines firing at once, it ends well. Basically they have experience of large numbers of engines. N1 was underfunded, and they didn’t have modern electronic control systems. They’d also lost the lead engineer who had died of cancer.

[@HalNordmann]

@@StillAliveAndKicking_ But Falcon 9 doesn't have tank feed problems - the clusters of 9 engines use separate tanks, unlike Starship. And it remains a fact that small number of bigger engines is better than a large number of small ones - the N1 engines used small engines because they couldn't make big ones. Just look at Saturn V - that rocket was well funded, had decent electronics, living chief engineer, and they still chose to go for the big F1s.

[@StillAliveAndKicking_]

@@HalNordmann Well Falcon 9:has performed more reliably than many rockets of a similar size with fewer engines. Musk argues that using lots of engines makes sense, as it means redundancy, lose a couple of engines and Starship still reaches orbit. I’m not a rocket engineer, and I suspect neither are you. I can’t say what Musk’s thinking was. He may well have decided that having the same engines in the booster and Starship would significantly reduce development costs. But you can bet his decision was based on input from a group of highly experienced rocket engineers. My guess is that if they could solve the fuel feed for 9 engines, they can solve it for 27 or more. Just my uneducated guess. Best ask Musk.

[@MoonWeasel23]

Just as an aside, has anyone ever thought of a spray on heat shield? Come back from orbit and reapply over exposed areas.

[@scottmanley]

They tested an ablative paint type coating on the X-15, the problem is removing it and reapplying.

[@LaughingOrange]

The problem with this is that you would need to melt the heat shield or make it a cement. Melting a heatshield requires insane temperatures by design, and cement requires time to set.

[@xWood4000]

@@LaughingOrange What about an something like an epoxy and a solvent?

[@riverground]

Cool idea for sci-fi if not for reality

[@Hello-vz1md]

@@scottmanley what is your view on Anti starship Anti spaceX channels like common sense skeptic ,thunderf00t,etc ??

[@patriotmd]

I don't often find time to sit and watch full length videos(of any creator), but I am always thankful when I do for yours. Educational, informational, entertaining, and just refreshing. Thanks Scott.

[@crimsonhalo13]

"Blunt bodies are the way to go here ..." Elon: *hits blunt* "Well, let's see how blunt we can make it."

[@ponyote]

If there aren't Starship water pipes in a few years, I'll be surprised...

[@iitzfizz]

He's already said he made it more pointy on purpose lol

[@willh2739]

@@iitzfizz starship doesn't re enter nose first though...

[@Roguescienceguy]

S 420 for a reason😂

[@YawnGod]

Elon has never smoked in his life, what are you talking about?

[@angela_jx]

Man I’m so hopeful for what starship promises to be. I really hope they can achieve the turnaround times and low costs they want

[@CockatooDude]

They engineered it from the very start with incredibly fast turnaround times in mind, it has been the most important design goal for this system since its inception (which I think was well before 2016). I have high confidence they will reach their goals.

[@HalNordmann]

No, the turnaround time is a total fantasy. In NASA's SPS study, they had extreme payload/time needs, but the shortest turnaround they could muster even with very optimistic technology assumption was 72h - so "back in a day" is unrealistic.

[@RFC-3514]

1:48 - If you ever do a "rostrum shot" (i.e., a zoom / pan across a high-resolution still), remember to add a small amount of gaussian blur (typically 0.3 to 0.5 pixel radius), or you get shimmery pixels on high-contrast edges. In theory this wouldn't be necessary if the software used proper area averaging, but most "consumer" software just uses pyramidal or box filtering (i.e., it only looks at 5 or 9 pixels), which isn't great and really messes up edges whenever the source image has more than 3x the output resolution (sometimes even less, depending on the exact algorithm).

[@ThatGuy-sd3zl]

“All the Designs are wrong, it’s just a matter of how wrong” -Elon Musk.

[@ericlotze7724]

Explosion larger than the N-1 and rivaling small nuclear warheads wrong...

[@balaji-kartha]

"Take whatever I say with a pinch of salt! I am usually wrong!" - Elon Musk!

[@balaji-kartha]

"I am not here to tell you to buy Tesla stock! If you are afraid of near term volatility please do not buy this stock!" - Elon to a stock trader!

[@WackyAmoebatrons]

Corollary: "All dates given by Elon are wrong. Multiply by 2 and take next higher unit." Launch within 4 months? Make that 8 years. :-)

[@satoshinakamoto7253]

well yeah you need to be closer to the fundamental truth of what's possible, that's common sense

[@coltrinculo703]

Amazing how many times 420 and 69 come up in space x stuff, musk claims it is not intentional, I have my doubts lol

[@crimsonhalo13]

Elon Musk is a living, walking shitpost and he'll never turn down the opportunity to go for the lulz.

[@grndkntrl]

Well 420 *is* 10x the "Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything"...

[@barath4545]

Booster 4, Ship 20 and the Booster height was 72 isch meters tall, but it had half a ring on top so they deleted it in the design phase, making the booster 69 "and change" meters tall. I bet it's 69.420 meters tall.

[@crazylocha2515]

Check out Everyday Astronaut's part 2 of the Elon interview, they do discuss the "numbers" thing. Also and mainly, both parts are a great look at the thinking and what is in progress.

[@anthonypelchat]

@@crimsonhalo13 He was born 69 days after 4/20. Are you saying that he willed that to happen? The fact is that sometimes it's him, sometimes it's his fans, sometimes it's his employees, and sometimes it's just plain coincidence.

[@PropanePete]

When I watch this stuff my eyes glaze over in awe as I struggle to take in the engineering and construction challenges of these amazing machines.

[@bobiboulon]

I imagine things going like that at Spacex: Elon: "Assemble it, assemble it!" Engineers: "But, it's not ready, and the engines can't be-" Elon: _"I don't care! Assemble it!"_ ~ They proceed to assemble the whole thing ~ Engineers: "Ok, boss, job done..." Elon: "Woooooaaaaaa" * o * .... "Ok, you can disassemble it, now." EDIT: So.... apparently, some people are very sensitive when it comes to SpaceX or Elon Musk (I would lie if I pretended that I'm just discovering this fact), so let me clarify it for them specifically: I _know_ that's not what happened. I _know_ they didn't stack it for the beauty of it or for some marketing pictures. You don't need to explain it to me, thank you. And as you totally have the right to find it not funny at all, I still think you really have to learn to take a harmless joke, even when it's about your favorite company / person.

[@brokensoap1717]

That's pretty much what the last 10 days have been about. Get pretty pictures for pr points

[@syriuszb8611]

Dry fit assembly? The engines are quite cramped there, so they needed to know for sure if they fit first. Then they could send the engines away and work on booster without worry that they need to make serious changes.

[@bobiboulon]

@@syriuszb8611 I was _joking._

[@rexmann1984]

@@syriuszb8611 Made sense to me. When he's rushing a project like this it's best to check as you go. Imagine if the booster didn't have the structural integrity to hold the starship? Better know now then the day before launch.

[@bobiboulon]

@@brokensoap1717 I'm not sure if you're serious or joking. ^^

[@MrGoesBoom]

2:15 actually Scott, going by the interview parts the Everyday Astronaut has posted so far, right now the grid fins on the booster right now are just plate steel, not stainless. Though Elon said in the interview that this would change and they will likely be able to drop the weight of each fin by a ton or so. Hopefully.

[@blackhatfreak]

Elon Musk is a liar

[@TWFydGlu]

@@blackhatfreak So what material is it then?

[@Nitram4392]

@@TWFydGlu Cheese. Duh.

[@rpfour4]

@@TWFydGlu Valyrian steel

[@user2C47]

@@blackhatfreak One also has to be able to tell the difference between telling a lie, and telling the truth and then having the truth change.

[@Kevin_Street]

Thank you for another incredible video. The heat shield on Starship/Superheavy is of great interest to me, because it's such a critical system and hasn't yet been tested.

[@BRUXXUS]

Been seeing the pics on Twitter. Really starting to.... sorta...grasp the scale of this thing. It's utterly bonkers! I'm half expecting just the sound of all those raptors firing to disintegrate everything within a mile. 😂

[@Didymus69]

I thought i got the grasp and then the pictures dropped..

[@BRUXXUS]

@@Didymus69 I think I'll need to see it in person someday to really understand. Like the Grand Canyon. haha

[@z-beeblebrox]

interestingly, at sea level all large (normal) rockets hit the maximum possible dB you can create in air, which is 194db. So although Superheavy is absolutely ridiculous, it won't be any louder than any other major rocket flying today. Just another one of those weird rocket things

[@RCAvhstape]

@@z-beeblebrox So hydrogen bombs and dinosaur-killer asteroid explosions can't get any louder than that?

[@z-beeblebrox]

@@RCAvhstape apparently not. Of course, as literally nobody says: it's not the sound that kills ya

[@ZakisHereNow]

Man I can’t wait to see this fly! This is absolutely amazing to see and watch be built.

[@deanlawson6880]

Such a great video Scott! Although many people would consider this (the Thermal Protection System) as a fairly mundane and boring part of the whole spectacular Starship/Superheavy system, it's arguably one of the most important, and most complex at the same time. I'm utterly fascinated watching all of the developments happening in Boca Chica being so well shown and documented by "Nasa Spaceflight" Lab Padre, and others!! Thanks again for a great video!!

[@dennisdecoene]

In the second part of Tim Dodd's interview, Elon hinted at the fact that they don't want to store all the prototypes once they are no longer needed and therefore if it blows up it's not that big of a deal, they need the data, not the vessel. So my guess is the first few suborbital or even orbital rockets will blow up.

[@temper44]

At the same time, if Starship 20 nails a soft and controlled landing near Hawaii, the images may be so powerful it kicks the whole world into space faring mode.

[@Real28]

@@temper44 it's win win. SpaceX will get their data even if it fails and they will get better. If it actually works, well then they have a lot less work to do and it'll set the world on fire with what they're doing.

[@jaredgarbo3679]

If you're rich enough I wouldn't be surprised you could buy it.

[@simongeard4824]

Exactly, and I've been saying that for a while. People often forget that despite ending in a fireball, SN8 massively exceeded expectations - as the first serious test of the ascent and of the skydive, it wasn't expected to make it that far through testing, yet they were able to make a landing attempt on the first try. There's a reason SN12-14 were scrapped or never built, and why they didn't bother to fly anything after SN15 nailed the landing - they were far ahead of where they expected to be at the time. But my point is that just because that phase of testing went unexpectedly well, it shouldn't set expectations for the next phase. SpaceX allowed for no less than 7 attempts (SN8-14) to make the skydive work, 5 for the landing (SN15-19) and I doubt they're doing any differently for orbital flights.

[@temper44]

@@simongeard4824 The SN8 really was a paradigm shift in terms of rocketry. I have no doubt that engineers and scientists in Russia, China and Europe watched as all their research became obsolete in 10 minutes. The idea that you could glide a rocket into a propulsive landing just messed everything up. There is a video of youtube with a NASA engineer livestreaming the SN8 launch, and you could see the moment his brain switched from old space to new space, when the SN8 starts to free fall. It's wild.

[@Alarm-xh9jj]

I would love to see a close-up of the tile mounting pins or even the receivers on the back of the tile.

[@Double_Vision]

Sure you would, _China_

[@whitenoise509]

@@Double_Vision 🤣🤣🤣

[@Marc_Gagne]

Why not watch this video all the way through!

[@TarisRedwing]

It's been an awesome week for viewing SpaceX stuffs

[@TeasGuideToThePlanes]

The Columbia's damaged heat shield didn't just make us lose the Columbia, it also lost us 7 astronauts.

[@augustinplagne]

You never played ksp I can tell that

[@jgottula]

@@augustinplagne 😝 In fairness, Kerbonauts may be expendable; but we tend to care just a teeny bit more about humans 🤏😬

[@rwboa22]

We almost lost Atlantis on the Top Secret DoD STS-27 mission (second post-Challenger) that delivered the LACROSSE spy satellite into orbit. Tile damage was so bad to the point that the heat of reentry almost melted the skin, yet it was at a "critical" point that required steel reinforcement.

[@jgottula]

@@rwboa22 Yeah, those close-call incidents that you learn about later (the ones where you’re like “holy shit, they were losing hundreds of tiles on some of these launches and just kinda knew about it and nobody apparently thought this was a super-serious problem?!”) are in some ways almost scarier than the actual Columbia incident, because it makes you realize how much bigger of a problem there was than most people even knew. And it makes you realize how many more times, or times earlier in the program, we could have super easily lost orbiters and crews!

[@jgottula]

@asdrubale bisanzio I suppose I must grant that the astronauts themselves are generally not the subject of redesign or re-engineering programs after accidents 😝

[@jip5889]

Incredible sustained speed of development by Space-X. Can’t wait to see those tiles work!

[@jimbob4456]

……………… Or not work

[@jip5889]

@@jimbob4456 RUD’s are part of the iteration process 😂

[@blackhatfreak]

Speed? They stacked a joke.

[@jip5889]

@@blackhatfreak wow dude, I guess you have loads of experience stacking the biggest rocket in the world.

[@artisticyeti22]

@@jip5889 yeah he definitely is the smarter one here

[@ChadOHara98]

What a joy to come back and see some up close pucs after watching the launch!

[@bearlemley]

First booster in history to need to visit a supercharger for the next departure. :-). Great video Mr. Manley

[@johnmclaughlin4778]

Wow, did you really record this before Tim's part 2?! You really covered a lot of the ideas from that.

[@aqeelraja4750]

Scot even predicted Elon’s jokey idea of putting a camera in the tank sections and seeing if it glows red from reentry

[@johnmclaughlin4778]

@@aqeelraja4750 True, but not a joke. It's the best way of recording the location of a failure I think. There'll be no cameras on the outside.

[@aqeelraja4750]

@@johnmclaughlin4778 it was said in a jokey manner but it’s a solid idea

[@matwyder4187]

​@@aqeelraja4750 But then they need a proper black box with its own heatshield, even parachute and make it float on water, because it's unlikely they get any usable bandwidth in the critical phase of reentry. Some maybe, but nothing close enough for proper video streams.

[@ExploringCabinsandMines]

When I tell people Elon and SpaceX is on another level they don't understand, watching Starship evolve is like having a ringside seat in history.

[@changbeerbeer]

Well said! 💯

[@frankowalker4662]

I can't wait to see this thing take to the skies. It will be one of the wonders of the modern world.

[@rarouyer8718]

Kudos for supporting everyday astronauts great series of eloning interviews. For they truly were inter-views and expansive of the best practice and concurrent engineering behind the tech. Scott your right about Elon assenting to two or three of Tim's ideas. The power of Tom Peter's 80s writ on "management by walking around".

[@FredPlanatia]

Interesting, Lincoln too practiced 'management by walking around' particularly during the civil war. He wanted information from as close to the source as possible. A strategy all leaders should keep in mind in order to make well informed decisions. Lincoln also had 'public baths' allowing pretty much anyone to visit him. He was particularly keen on and receptive to inventors, he knew the right technology if it helped the war effort (and shortened the war) could save lives. Elon also talks to different people well outside the usual radius (even a KZbinr dedicated to the topic of rockets).

[@MrJest2]

I've noticed over the years that a key identifier of truly intelligent people is that they don't presume to know all the answers, and are happy to entertain ideas from anyone. Could be an engineer, could be the janitor - you never know where a good idea may come from. And, of course, "Everyday Astronaut" Tim isn't just some joe-schmoe; he's been closely following space craft history and development nearly all his life. I'm sure if there's any "layperson" Elon would listen closely to, it would be Tim.

[@jv-lk7bc]

@@MrJest2 or Scott.. ;)

[@csteinmayer71]

I LOVE that I am watching this and you have Dune sitting there on your desk in the background just like I do.

[@TheHacknor]

It's crazy how out of date all these starship animations get within months of release because the design is evolving so quickly

[@mightylink65]

I'm getting some N1 vibes seeing all those engines at the bottom... let's hope they don't fail like the N1.

[@vaikkajoku]

My thoughts exactly

[@billwollard8446]

True, but one huge problem with the N1 is that the Soviets did not have the budget to test all of the engines on a test stand before flight. At least one of the N1 failures was due a loose bolt or screw that would have been detected if the engine had been adequately tested. Still, a lot can go wrong with the installation of 29 engines

[@epincion]

@@billwollard8446 plus the N1 was essentially an analog rocket with very crude computer controls by today’s standards and zero real time monitoring via a sensor network of how each engine was doing.

[@221b-l3t]

People who say that never know any of the details of how and why they exploded. No sim, no test fire of engines, no static fire of any stage, KORD engine management completely incompetent. Nobody thought it would succeed those flights. Damn Angry Astronaut spreading his half baked theories all over the place instead of spending half an hour fact checking like he used to. I think I'm gonna barf if I heat this N1 crap one more time. FH has 27 engines in a more fragile arrangement with three cores barely held together. One bad gimbal input and that stack breaks apart but where did all the OMG SO MANY ENGINES crap go about Heavy?

[@221b-l3t]

TLDR: KORD

[@quaxenleaf]

Your content is absolutely riveting, and wouldn’t be surprised if it was required viewing by everyone at Spacex.

[@MonkeyJedi99]

That super-heavy engine array looks SO Kerbal!

[@GimbleOnDew]

That's probably more due to the amount of realism Kerbal actually has.

[@monkemonke9048]

Who knows Elon might play kerbal

[@Xenos_Zeta]

The new outro is amazing! Great video as always, thank you for the close-up pictures. :)

[@crxtodd16]

Dang... I knew it was big, but I had forgotten that it's taller than Saturn V. This is VERY impressive. Well done, Space X! We are lucky to have you. I'm so pumped for this. Godspeed.

[@ecophreak1]

Seeing the business end of this is giving me N1 rocket vibes, hopefully this will be more successful

[@snuffeldjuret]

could it really get any worse? :D

[@737smartin]

Elon is EXACTLY who I want to see doing presentations! You just have to learn to grade on CONTENT instead of smoothness.

[@bernieschiff5919]

What I like, is that he is not selling. It's a conversation showing a thought process and possible solutions to issues, not a corporate sales presentation scripted by the PR department. Sadly, In a typical large company, someone like Elon would never be allowed near the customer, a slick VP of sales would handle all the presentations.

[@DwayneETowns]

The freaking "next level" Aerospace technology SpaceX is doing is utterly amazing!

[@ricksimon9867]

*same level. This is same level tech. This is not version 2.0 but rather version 1.3 or version 1.4.

[@AppaTalks]

I wonder what kind effect dimpling the surface of the thermal tiles would have on the effectiveness of the system?

[@Dan63-w7n]

if the dimples were perhaps a an inch in diameter and a quarter inch deep and many covering each tile, could the concave provide more heat dissipation through the extra surface area, I don't know the exact math but the dimples would provide at least 20% more surface I would think. again I'm no mathematician.

[@johndododoe1411]

@@Dan63-w7n Don't forget the aerodynamic effect of dimples, as used by golf balls. Question is if this will reduce the reentry heat that the tiles must combat.

[@Dan63-w7n]

@@johndododoe1411 could the dimples maybe provide a near vacuum effect within the concave at reentry speeds? Vacuums tend not to hold heat to well unless the heat come through radiation. In these conditions the slight vacuum effect may well pull heat from what oxygen is passing by? This is just an opinion iv come to through a small amount of research i cant say anything for sure haha

[@niconico3907]

Golf balls don't go at supersonic speeds.

[@Dan63-w7n]

@@niconico3907 but if they did what would the effect be on thermal dissapation? Would the dimples help?

[@0611930024838]

I also thought the transpiration cooling was a little sketchy... Its a mechanical system that needs to operate, if it fails, its over... the passive nature of the ceramic tiles is much better, as long as they are there, they should work.... Has to be much safer....

[@orionred2489]

The shot of the two people putting on the tile backing blanket... it was SOOOO different than watching them add tiles to the shuttle. Two guys in ball caps in a cherry picker vs a team of gloved/masked specialists using high tech equipment to find and place them. It reminded me of the contrast when the Keck telescope was built. The original mirror was brought up by mule team, took a week, and needed special handling. The new, segmented mirror was delivered by FedEx.

[@matwyder4187]

Still wondering how they will deal with dirt or water getting in the gaps. The Shuttle had it's TPS glued and sealed quite much, it also didn't contain cryogenics like this does, so ice formation under the tiles wasn't that much of an issue. And still, a story popped up, maybe on NSF, when it got soaked in water, and they had to put it in a hangar with a lot of infra lights to heat it up and dry. So in the end this is still a delicate system with every single tile acting as a potential point of failure, I'm really concerned how this will affect rapid reusability.

[@paulmichaelfreedman8334]

It's gonna be a tough one, that's for sure. Elon might even reconsider evaporative heat shielding for the fin hinges and other geometrically complex parts.

[@user2C47]

The gaps are wide enough that it shouldn't really matter.

[@matwyder4187]

​@@user2C47 Water maybe, but have you seen these things land? All that debris fling around, big clouds of dust, it will build up in the gaps and will not go anywhere, limiting tile movement, eventually leading to cracks. If anything, it could limit the rapid reuse cycle count to 5-10 or so flights, after which a complete refurbishment will be necessary. I mean, 10 flights without messing around with it still sounds amazing, but it will never be anywhere near as maintenance free as airliners. Which is OK, this is not an airliner after all. But still, those gaps mean in the worst case a small pebble can get stuck in there on the first landing, leading to the loss of vehicle on the second reentry. I guess we'll have to wait to see what they come up with.

[@blackhawks81H]

@@matwyder4187 Think of it this way. Airliners are INCREDIBLY maintence intensive compared to cars time wise. Exponentially so in terms of cost. But we accept that because they fly in the air with a bunch of people on them, and can't just pull over if they have a problem. Since space vehicles are subjected to operating environments as extreme compared to airliners, as airliners are compared to cars... Wouldn't the maintenance being as intense compared to airliners, as airliners maintenence is compared to cars then make sense? Hell top fuel drag racers are "reusable" yet they have to pretty much rebuild the engine after every run. However the pit/garage crews are experienced enough to do so in a matter of hours. I'd assume that starship could still be very reusable even if it does have a couple components that require messing with every so many launches, especially if you continue to iterate to the point where these processes are very streamlined and relatively easy to do for a "starship pit crew"

[@Fahnder99]

Thank you Scott for the deepest discussion about heat shield thermodynamics for noobs like me on youtube seen - yet. Please make more of this, if you like. Also I wonder is it difficult to map the analytics about safety and cost against other options like "simply" using more fuel for deceleration? Best regards!

[@Nexfero]

Beautiful shot 2:07 Those grid fins are huge

[@_aullik]

I was thinking about a tile observer sat as well. There are tons of already existing cube sat models and this one would only ever need to work for a couple minutes. A single nitrogen pressure tank should give it enough propellant. They should be able to develop this pretty quickly.

[@zrspangle]

Honestly would make for a cool design competition, get some more publicity

[@clarkkent7973]

Will they be orbiting below the Starlink satellites? Do the Starlink satellites have cameras?

[@wiryantirta]

I think the most awesome part about SpaceX is how visible they are. Like its not being made inside a cleanroom hangar with rocket science witchcraft. Its literally being made by some water tower welders literally out there. They're literally using pieces we understand (stainless steel and tesla motors? bruh). You can see their iteration steps.

[@puddlesjumper]

Scott, I don't know if you'll see this but I'll try. I sent this to Elon & Tim Dodds as he's pretty tight with the Rocketman. Starship has been experiencing minor tile loss during initial testing & I'm assuming that there's zero tolerance. I've worked for a major aerospace contractor eons ago but there are some low tech solutions that still apply today using the KISS principle. Why not apply a thin conformal coating of RTV like elastic substance over the entire area of protection? The elastic material could help retain the tiles through MaxQ & on to LEO. Heat on liftoff through to LEO would be sufferable depending on the material chosen by SpaceX. It could then burn away upon reentry leaving air pressure to hold them in place. Then a scrub down or solvent wash before reapplication of a new rubber, so to speak. Being elastic would help by spreading the vibration over a wider area, similar to ballistic armor principles. I realized that Elon would not be keen on anything that slows down his turnaround time but the application/reapplication process could be improved on rather than lots of engineering hours suffering through what the shuttle program dealt with. Cheers mate from a kiwi transplanted to the space coast. PS: I'm surprised that the other commentor could not determine your nationality from your name? Probably a pommie with a handle like spitfire, LOL

[@BlackHippopotamus]

Hi Scott - thanks so much for the great content, and especially for balancing highly technical content with enough explanation for even non-engineers to follow along with the general aspects. I was wondering what your educational background is?

[@Jimbogf]

2:12 The grid fins looked a little rusty before they painted them on Tim's first video, I don't think they are stainless.

[@epincion]

They are welded steel but as prototypes will invariably change in some way with each launch. Ultimately when a final design is achieved they will be made of titanium

[@221b-l3t]

@@epincion No titanium, way too expensive. They will be stainless but just plate for B4.

[@Mqrius]

There might not be any grid fins in the final design! Elon is not sure if they ultimately increase payload to orbit or not.

[@11moonshot]

@@221b-l3t Indeed... Titanium i s expensive! But when they take it for struts of aircraft landing gear... could possibly not be t o o expensive! Other than the Beryllium heat shield in early Mercury ships (just informed guess...)

[@lukemorris261]

I love the community attention to this incredible project. Scott, you bring such a great perspective and excitement. Love watching you!

[@daveburton]

Hi Scott - thanks for another great explanation. Could you do a video explaining the how the thrust forces of a rocket engine are transferred through the airframe? With Starship there are 29 +/- engines at the bottom so how are those forces transferred through the airframe - just through the skin of the tanks?

[@johndododoe1411]

Don't forget the pressurized interior.

[@owenkeller2748]

Public Relations used to be all about creating a polished image and only showing off your best side. But the internet has changed all that. Now it’s best to emphasize honesty and transparency. All the little imperfections turn from negatives into positives now because they prove that the transparency is real.

[@scottstewart5784]

We shouldn't forget the SpaceX ethos hasn't changed. Iteration. There are 100s of assumptions being tested by the first flight - assumptions about wall strength for instance - will the system abide well with all that thrust? It took a bunch of flight SNs to get here, we shouldn't assume it won't take a bunch of flight boosters too. I will count it a success if it clears the pad. If it blows up before Max Q? Figure it out, fix it, and iterate again.

[@AdmiralBob]

It will get a little harder now because the iterations just got A LOT more expensive. I wouldn't be surprised for this stage to take as much time as the whole rest of the program has until now. That's ok though they're already ahead. Unless there is an impending ELE that Elon knows about and we don't....

[@ChevTecGroup]

That's why I find it funny when people make models of the current prototypes. Maybe that's what they want, but I want a final version

[@Mythricia1988]

@@ChevTecGroup I kinda find the prototypes more interesting. They represent the stepping stones, and are inherently more important than the final result in a sense. I have several small models, showing everything from Starhopper to SN5/6, to SN8 etc.

[@ChevTecGroup]

@@Mythricia1988 that's pretty cool to collect them all

[@MrTrashmasterfx]

@@ChevTecGroup These are rockets not Pokémon;) ( sorry had to write that one ) ;D

[@jshepard152]

I really enjoy the Saturn 1 milk stool.

[@clavo3352]

Accepting the award for the most interesting voice delivery of data and comment ; I give you "Mr. Scott Manley!!!" I can tolerate very few voices for more that 11 mins. Mr. Manley's voice here is one of them. Need to Trademark your voice Mr. Manley and then License it to film makers etc. Disney should be very interested.

[@sunsaverfromnhh9184]

The progress at SpaceX is mind-blowing. I often find myself watching livestreams from NASASpaceflight channel. I wish i was a tiny part of Elon's Mars mission and this BFR- even just a welder or a handyman on the job- so i could be closer to the action, and witness history in the making (in person). Meanwhile: i don't mind being just a fanboy. I want to drive down to Texas for one of these launches. Love UR channel, Scott. Keep up the good work!

[@AbrahamSamma]

The pics are just mind-blowing to look at. Looking forward to seeing it fly 🚀

[@saumyacow4435]

Another thing I'd have liked to have seen in this video is a discussion of the merits of fixed (well, still rotatable) grid fins. I can only imagine they will be rotated to be edge on for launch, but even so, huge dynamic forces (and drag and fuel consumption) and how does this compare to the fuel/mass saving from not having the additional actuator?

[@dsthaipola2611]

I suspect its a redundancy issue of having less moving parts, and the engines are capable of dealing with the extra drag.

[@niconico3907]

I think it has more to do with removing complexity and a possible failure point, than mass saving. And if they are aligned with the air flow if shouldnt cause too much drag.

[@saumyacow4435]

@@niconico3907 So move the axis of rotation to 45 degrees off the horizontal. As they rotate they pass through a point where they are nearly vertical (against the side of the ship) and also pass through a point where they are nearly horizontal. So long as they are operated in pairs, you've got full control.

[@liambenn1214]

shuttle tiles: every single tile needs to be perfect due to the weird shapes and sizes of them all starship: haha hexagon go brrrrrrr

[@davidb3559]

Hexagons are bestagons

[@jv-lk7bc]

except thats only partially true. S-ship has plenty of custom tiles too, in mostly the same places: the nose and the fins.

[@liambenn1214]

@@jv-lk7bc I know. I’m making a joke.

[@Coconut-219]

I remember back when they were tossing around the idea of 'sweating' out leftover fuel through holes to create a protective layer of gas - or the whole reason they decided to use stainless steel skin to begin with because of its thermal properties compared to aluminum. ' the best thermal protection is no thermal protection(?) '

[@sanajyshrivastava3707]

It was adding just too much weight

[@Sajuuk]

@@sanajyshrivastava3707 Was it? Could you provide a link that explains that? Because it seems they quietly did away with that system without telling anyone why...

[@julkkis666]

@@Sajuuk i mean if u had snythimg more complex than small holes it's gonna be quite cpmplex

[@nolansprojects2840]

@@Sajuuk that was an idea they threw out during brainstorming. Later they found the additional fuel, the mechanisms to “sweat” the rocket, and the marginal benefits of it were pretty null. The heat shield is simpler and weighs less overall, plus in the long run makes it cheaper! Fuel eventually will be the greatest cost per mission, and if you leak 20% of it to do what a reusable heat shield could do, then you are literally just burning money

[@johnashcroft8355]

They don’t have thermal protection on half of the ship unlike shuttle. Presume that’s down to the stainless steel. And the thickness of the thermal protection it does have can be significantly thinner as the stainless steel can take higher temperatures than aluminium

[@isaacplaysbass8568]

Awesome update Scott, and I Love the "Amiga Demo Scene" style outro B.T.W. (I know, there were similar demo scenes on many platforms back in the day :) )

[@FLPhotoCatcher]

The outro scene is much cooler than the intro.

[@augustinplagne]

It's a shame the shielding isn't used for dragon, because it looks likes dragon scales

[@kerbal8216]

its has been used on dragon it was used on CRS-18

[@augustinplagne]

@@kerbal8216 wasn't it only for testing purposes?

[@kerbal8216]

@@augustinplagne yea

[@user2C47]

@Frenk Starship may be too big to dock with the ISS, even after it has been proven to be safe. In fact, it's big enough to be a space station itself.

[@jrcowboy1099]

@@user2C47 actually, starship is *so massive* that the iss would be docking to starship, with a full payload in leo (it would probably weigh a bit more lol)

[@marcusrauch4223]

I‘ve been wondering how they mount those tiles. Good to know.

[@konradcomrade4845]

13:30 do they have a BlackBox to accumulate the reentry data and to recover it if something fails during radio blackout? have they considered the release of a microsatellite in orbit, with a camera to do a scan of the heatshield (before reentry)?

[@emf321]

We need a Scott Manley Elon Musk interview!

[@richardzeitz54]

In our defense, we more savvy Americans know our use of "awesome" is lame. But we say it anyhow because we're so frikkin awesome we don't mind being lame. That's AWESOME. Also, thanks for the best rocket sciency space industry/science journalism. You're one of my 3 number one go-to sources. In other words, you're awesome! hahahaha. But serious thank you.

[@Lorcan.oshanahan]

At 9:58 Scott mentions the bottom is black so the it can radiate heat effectively. Did he miss speak? Black absorbs more radiated heat than white. The white reflected radiating heat from the plasma makes sense, but the bottom being black doesn't make any difference does it? If it does please explain to me how.

[@Lorcan.oshanahan]

To add to this, when these surfaces are under stress, they won't be black, they will be white hot, regardless of the color. Again im just trying to understand why Scott said this, I might be wrong but I think he's reading to much into the color of these heat surfaces... If they added paint to them it would just burn, that's the simple answer IMO... Someone please enlighten me

[@MrKentaroMotoPI]

@@Lorcan.oshanahan Research radiative heat transfer and emissivity.

[@abc64pan]

This looks like something out of a 1930s Russian space film.

[@sabelch]

Apparently space flight is like fashion--cyclical.

[@abc64pan]

@@sabelch Just the optics, not the technology, of course.

[@boruta1034]

Great informative video, as always :) I think you're too harsh for Shuttle's thermal protection system. You should have mentioned that it had about 24 thousand of them and after each flight only up to 100 had to be replaced, mainly due to mechanical damage and for engineers to access certain components. Each of them was supposed to survive 100 flights so they were not that bad. As the years have passed, the tech got better so Starship's tiles should be even better, thus more durable and with more longevity.

[@N1gel]

Elons thinking on the fly and his honesty and his scientific and technical knowledge is fantastic. The most pioneering human in history. The ultimate model or aspiration for us all. Nice video Scot, Marvelous tour and interview Elon.

[@ParaglidingManiac]

This thing is beautiful. And just to imagine how much work is being put into this... Amazing!

[@MKHNitro]

Scott - have you thought of doing a live KZbin podcast when it launches ? Love your videos