On Oct/5/2019 at 11:01, Niklas Holsti wrote :
On 19-10-03 17:59 , David Spain wrote:
On 2019-05-21 2:15 PM, Niklas Holsti wrote:

So that's the suggestion. Comments are welcome...


The other popular scheme is attaching two Starships end-to-end rather
than nose-to-nose.

That seems to have so many draw-backs that I'm surprised that anyone
would suggest it -- I haven't happened to see those suggestions, however.

With nose-to-nose it might be possible to use the sea-level Raptors to
gimbal enough to provide the side thrust needed to induce and remove
rotation, even if less efficient in vacuum. Not that much thrust is
needed.

I think one could use the main engines for inducing rotation with a
nose-to-nose wire between two Starships, and without engine gimballing,
as I described in my preceding post.

The end the rotation, one simply disconnects the wire. This turns the
rotational velocity into linear velocity, which might even be useful to
define the final orbital path before entry into the atmosphere of Mars
or Earth.

Presumably, both ships are going to the same place on Mars. If it helps
for the final trajectory of one ship then it's a nuisance for the other
ship. So I don't see this as helping. The velocities involved are small
enough that it wouldn't be a big nuisance, but it would be a nuisance. I
think you would first stop the rotation, then disconnect the wire.


Alain Fournier