Space isnt empty. But what it has is quite .. spaced out...

So it depends how fast you are going how worried you need to be.

The space station gets hit by micrometeorites, no reason why Voyager or a ship cant.

We've no idea how a deflector shield would work.

So we'll be looking at armor/shielding and self sealing, plus potentially lasers to pew pew small particles out of the way, if we can detect them.

Scifi has some cool things including large ships that use a whole bunch of ice on the front to absorb the damage

[removed]

Is that what the kids are calling it these days?

[removed]

You’re killing your father Larry

15mph, I roll out, double back, grab one of em and beat it out of him.

They forgot the comma:

“SpaceX rolls naked, Starship prototype to test site”

I'm sorry but that title gets my mind going, on what else they could've done with the title...

"SpaceX Starship prototype flaunts its bare voluptuous curves on its way to test site"

"Geez, this is a public space, please put some tiles on!" (Actually not really kinda but shush :P)

"Boca Chica now confirmed a nude beach"

Well the factory is more like 1 every 3 months, starlink needs to be as cheap as possible also, I can't imagine any scenario where they use expendable ships to launch starlink.

would make sense to test early HLS SN with orbital refuelling. Two tests at once.

If able to fuel successfully, send to moon.

Most likely HLS or a ground test vehicle of some kind but SpaceX may use some disposable Starships for Starlink. If their factory is up to 1 a day but they don’t have reuse figured out then disposable is a way to get some use out of them. Unlikely but possible.

Starship? More like naked hobby rocket amirite?

[removed]

This is SpaceX not Blue Origin

This is SpaceX not Blue Origin

During the winter, isn't it kind of risky to leave a naked starship outside in low temperatures,

it could potentially shrink.

I speak from first hand experience.

Got to be a test for HLS, it would make zero sense to use expendable vehicles on starlink or tankers.

This would probably be closer to what the depot itself will be, as the tankers will need heat shields and flaps. This might also be some hybrid, maybe just a cheaper way to test propellant transfer when they're still working on recovery.

What have you been smoking? This is likely either part of HLS, an expendable Starship for Starlink launches, or a tanker/depot test Starship.

Yeah, no, it needs superheavy to reach orbit, what you see is a tanker to carry propelant for fuel depot.

> The key clue is it’s moved to the suborbital launch pad. This means it can launch without the SuperHeavy booster.

I think you’re confused. SpaceX has been testing all their Starship prototypes on the suborbital launch pad (e.g. cryo testing, static fires, etc.). This is not an indication it will launch from that platform.

Fyi, Starship by itself, even in an expandable configuration, cannot reach orbit. It needs SuperHeavy even if it were empty (also, the additional 3 engines are vacuum optimized and are only meant to be started at a higher altitude).

[removed]

The key clue is it’s moved to the suborbital launch pad. This means it can launch without the SuperHeavy booster. With 6 engines it can launch fully fueled unlike the previous Starship test flights meant just to test landing.
The key question: what is the dry mass of this expendable version without flaps, legs, heat shield, or ballast tanks? If you know that you can calculate how much payload it can lift to orbit in a single stage.

Elon said the expendable version with only 3 engines might mass only 40 tons:

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1111798912141017089?s=61&t=A46qVnS2GH4VVA-pQSUlkg

Add another 5 tons for 3 more engines and this version might mass 45 tons. However, the increased thrust may require strengthening of the tanks which would increase the dry mass. On the other hand, this version would have to support far less payload atop it then the max 250 tons of the full two-stage so would need reduced tank strengthening.

[removed]

As the technique name implies, you cross your eyes until two images merge.