SpaceX Starship prototype landing system

A few animations showing how SpaceX's Starship prototype landing legs may work. These are based off of what we have seen on the SN-4 vehicle, what little information we have revived from the people who know, and similar hardware in the past.

[@danielwhyatt3278]

Really detailed and a great continuation on your last work.

[@mvmmotovlogmusic2815]

Thanks for doing that for us Nick. 👍🏻🎼👍🏻

[@sebastian.su935]

This animation is so cool

[@saheel4429]

Full support

[@andremartel828]

Great animation. Thanks

[@alecgriffiths790]

Very impressive!

[@NickHenning3D]

Thanks!

[@stephrinker5154]

love the way it,s landing gear folds out with a spring in it///////

[@ReneVaeli]

Id like to see what the falcon-similar folding legs would look like

[@NickHenning3D]

Me too! The moon starship appears to have that type of leg.

[@framryk8537]

Let’s hope we don’t have to wait too long for the hop to see if this is close to the truth! Might not see it though with a Raptor blasting away 🚀🔥

[@NickHenning3D]

Yeah. The Raptos tend to hide all the fun stuff.

[@stephrinker5154]

metal click. click, hydraulic legs so cool///////beautiful engine bay///////

[@nikollatesla6635]

At 0:41 I thought starship was a gnat on my screen

[@captainjackpugh6050]

And most of these animations made me gnut on my screen

[@pavel403]

@@captainjackpugh6050 bro u good?

[@captainjackpugh6050]

@@pavel403 Yeah. So good. I just gnutted

[@thestudentofficial5483]

Remember that this is a 15 storey high vehicle

[@ThePrettyCoolMum]

Yo you are right I see the deployment of the landing legs in SN5 hop

[@MarynJohnForever]

Sweet.

[@TheSanien]

Why are there different raptor engine sizes in the animation? I thought there only was 1 size raptor?

[@stephanweinberger]

The engine is the same, it's the nozzle that is different. The larger nozzles are optimized for operation in vacuum. The purpose of a nozzle is to expand the exhaust gas to the surrounding pressure, hence with lower outside pressure the nozzle needs to be larger (theoretically a vacuum-optimized nozzle would have to extend infinitely - which is kinda impractical...).

[@NickHenning3D]

What he said

[@meezalamazala279]

Stephan Weinberger well that’s assuming the nozzle has no mass. The longer the nozzle those more mass, meaning the efficiency would eventually start to drop off dramatically.

[@stephanweinberger]

@@meezalamazala279 I'd call that "impractical" :-)

[@elitevet4266]

nice animations, love your audio work. nitpick: it should not be that shiny landing on Mars, methinks

[@NickHenning3D]

Thanks! Yeah it will be alot dirtier when it lands on Mars for real.

[@fullflowaerospace]

The landing legs that they are using for the prototypes are dummy lending legs. They will not be using them for actual missions, they will be using better landing legs.

[@stitchem7]

cool

[@JimmyCerra]

Pretty close to reality. Elon said that the next leg design will be 60% longer. The following iteration will be wider too.

[@norbertgarlewicz8029]

Wow

[@mariasirona1622]

1 year later, it's pretty much correct except they're smaller.

[@tisstuart]

I suppose there are radar images and other ways to make sure to land on solid ground. Yet this design should be suitable for multi-planetary surfaces. The fact is some soils are mushy with Earths gravity and fluffy aerated soils that have no atmosphere(to speak of) may be like swiss cheese. Those legs need wider feet. Once one leg starts displacing soil, it will dig in. The pads have to be larger than shown. Ultimately it is not to difficult to avoid a R.U.D.E. (Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly Event) and have a successful future.

[@mikelmikes310]

I wish starship had falcon 9 landing legs

[@coonjamalay]

hard to retract

[@hornets8568]

if they are planning to use legs for landing, they need to find the area with flat land.

[@gijbuis]

At 0.41 you show 'landing legs used on an uneven terrein with 4 degree slope' - but your animation shows Starship landing on safe flat ground.... Given the height of Starship I was wondering how SpaceX moonlander could cope with uneven terrein. No answers here...

[@Victor-rx4fv]

Is it only me or do these legs look dangerous? I feel like starship could fall at any time

[@NickHenning3D]

These are just prototypes and I had to guess how they work. I bet the real ones will be much bigger.

[@Victor-rx4fv]

NickHenning3D if they feel that these are enough for now we can only trust them. It will be challenging though as the raptor is placed off-center

[@kennyfordham6208]

Dude, you must be psychic. That's exactly what happened to SN-10

[@Victor-rx4fv]

Kenny Fordham kinda 😂 i really hope they get some better legs soon or i’ll not feel secure going to the moon (🤞😏)

[@nikunjpatil2074]

It can also fold it's legs like us

[@land_gamerxd747]

What software do you use?

[@NickHenning3D]

Maya and Adobe products.

[@woob_wobco-leader]

That’s a bit hard for a landing there

[@andrejs9112]

This is very wrong.. those legs are useless because the contact surface is too small... Ship will sink in or tip over.. I'm not saying that this video is bad, it's great animation tho

[@tomasbenedictomaza]

esas patas las veo muy endebles para un terreno irregular no baldaran tendrán que ser como las del falcón 9 o superior

[@erolldee9542]

its very risky for the life of crew mission the landing legs

[@antoniogutierrezsanchez2877]

Lol nope #ripSN10

[@perperson199]

It failed.

[@maxsteal1980]

True😂

[@derpastor1225]

das taucht nix

[@cheif10thumbs]

Whole lot of assumptions in 1:20.

[@01MeuCanal]

These landing gear look like shit. The seem to underestimate the importance of it.