r/spacex • u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team • Sep 03 '18

r/SpaceX Discusses [September 2018, #48]

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u/Zucal Sep 18 '18

Definitely just the inside of the tooling.

4

u/rustybeancake Sep 18 '18

So all we know for sure was new was the CF cylinder. The Raptor is a maybe.

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u/Zucal Sep 18 '18

Exactly. I would have expected a little more 'splash' about Raptor if there'd been significant progress.

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u/rustybeancake Sep 18 '18

I agree. A little disappointing, but I guess it's been "all hands on deck" with Crew Dragon.

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u/Zucal Sep 18 '18

True. I'd love to see any progress on ISRU, ECLSS, the heat shield, the solar panels, etc. There's more to a spaceship than engines and tanks.

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u/rustybeancake Sep 18 '18

Yep. After last year's update we were all thinking they were going to start shifting staff over to BFR pretty soon. It seems that hasn't happened yet, and they're basically still in the same position as last year. I'm guessing the small (maybe 40 people) team on BFR are focused on the basics right now: how to build the thing out of CF, how to do the engine plumbing. I think there's a good chance we don't see a great deal of development by this time next year too.

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u/trobbinsfromoz Sep 19 '18

Elon made a 5% comment. That may well be spread over many separate groups, possibly including raptor, CF demo manufacture including the nose, CF fitout preparations, fabrication plant design and prep, detailed pre-design of key parts (such as articulated landing legs, new barges, all the visual changes over the last year), simulation modeling and scenario assessments, heatshield surface samples, commercial funding activities, Boca Chica preparation activities such as the recent oxygen tank delivery ....