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If I Were Building Starship Space Ports
I'd give serous consideration to a race-track like architecture with
long straightaways for assembly and the launch/landing pads at the short straights between the curves on the oval. Like so: Service Bay Service Bay Service Bay .-------Z------------Y--------------X--------. | | Pad-A Pad-B | | .-------X'-----------Y'-------------Z'-------. Direction of Travel: --- I would also stack Starship in reverse order. So Service Bay X and X' assembly the nose. That is then raised and the upper and lower rings and tanks assembled below at Y and Y' and finally the Raptors are installed at Z and Z'. This simplifies launch platform and bay design because everything works on one-level. Whether the bays themselves have doorways remains to be seen. It would have advantages. Everything is moved around the track on rails using diesel-electric locomotives. Not shown are the sidings used to house the locomotives, etc. when not is use. When merely cycling Raptors you might then need to have vertical stations in bays X/X' and Y/Y' since you are not doing any assembly. But then no heavy lifting required either. Interestingly enough Z/Z' don't need vertical access. You can play around with this to your heart's content... Dave |
#2
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If I Were Building Starship Space Ports
On 1/25/2021 10:42 AM, David Spain wrote:
I've neglected Super Heavy, but I could imagine a separate ring for it, switched to merge with the Starship ring at the pads. A crane at the pad is used to lift Starship atop SuperHeavy? Dave |
#3
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If I Were Building Starship Space Ports
On 1/25/2021 10:48 AM, David Spain wrote:
On 1/25/2021 10:42 AM, David Spain wrote: I've neglected Super Heavy, but I could imagine a separate ring for it, switched to merge with the Starship ring at the pads. A crane at the pad is used to lift Starship atop SuperHeavy? Dave Or just add more service bays as needed along the straightaway as the vehicle evolves? I like that idea. Dave |
#4
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If I Were Building Starship Space Ports
JF Mezei writes:
On 2021-01-25 10:48, David Spain wrote: On 1/25/2021 10:42 AM, David Spain wrote: I've neglected Super Heavy, but I could imagine a separate ring for it, switched to merge with the Starship ring at the pads. A crane at the pad is used to lift Starship atop SuperHeavy? Realistically, how often would Starship take off by itself from Earth? Wouldn't all launches be of a Starship atop super heavy? Yes I believe so, well except maybe for trans-continental p2p flights, if sonic boom ordinances are changed to allow it. Fat chance I suppose. But given majority flights with Super Heavy, it's still no big deal, see above. A sub-ring of rail tracks allows contruction/re-furbishment of Super Heavy and maybe assembly with a Starship in one of the final Service Bays before pad arrival, or maybe stacking at the pad. It does appear now that the launch platform for SuperHeavy/Starship will also serve as the primary recovery mechanism for SuperHeavy return. Which means another recovery platform (mobile or otherwise, as in sea based) will likely be used for landing Starship upon return, possibly just a flat deck. Dave |
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