Mega D-I-Y.

[Andy Burns]

I'm sure they'd have been delighted if it'd flipped then separated, but neither stage was due to land and be re-used yesterday.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Probably at 100 times the price though

[mm0fmf]

You're in the spaceship... so do you want a fully automatic destruct system based on your experiences with computers over the last decades?

There you've answered your own question.

[mm0fmf]

He's taking piss out of NASA who are famous for such expressions.

[Theo]

That is the official term, along with others like 'lithobraking'.

[Andrew]

Action = Reaction. Does a NASA-style flame trench (cooled with tonnes of water) reduce the effective thrust compared to taking off from terra not-so-firma ?

[phister]

You would imagine a burst of steam, with some going upwards.

[Chris Hogg]

I doubt it makes a scrap of difference. The tons* of cooling water would protect the concrete to some degree, meaning that repairs for the next launch would be less extensive, but the engine thrust would be no different whether there was water, desert sand or vacuum beneath them.

*do they do 'tonnes' over there?

[S Viemeister]

Not that I've noticed.

[Andy Burns]

More likely to use tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds ...

[Paul]

Gallons or liters of water, would work as a unit of measure.

News reports would use "Olympic swimming pools" as a unit.

2.5 million liters of water. 660 thousand gallons. Per pool.

A flame trench uses 1.1 million gallons per minute, or "two Olympic pools per minute". The water likely needs to be switched on, some number of seconds before T=0, so there is laminar flow at some depth.

You might not need a minutes worth, unless some cool water is needed to dilute the hot water. And make the wild life feel better about themselves.

Makes about a hundred thousand servings of fish chowder.

Paul

[Davey]

Remembering to specify whose gallons you are talking about. UK full-bodied ones, or the puny little US versions. Something not always taken into account when quoting car mileage figures.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Suffering a massive entropic increase.

[The Natural Philosopher]

a metric tonne is very close to am imperial ton

[Andy Burns]

But they don't seem to switch to tons at the scale where we would switch to tonnes; it's not a 50 tonne excavator, it's a 120,000 pound excavator.

[Brian Gaff]

There are numerous stories about this. Firstly, Eye Witnesses seem to be suggesting that some engines failed a split second after launch, which put stresses on things that should not have been stressed. as to whether the unpland rapid disassembly referred to inside the booster, or the fact it blew up is mute.

As it seems to have been over Texas at the time one does wonder whether it might have been policy to let it go to a relatively unpopulated area before it was blown up. Unfortunately, making rockets safe does often end in a lot of failed attempts, but often you have to test them under realistic conditions. I did sort of feel like the huge sound reflections from the ground at lift off might have shaken something loose and at least it did not blow up on the pad. Redesign the flame trench and spray more water?

Brian

[Andy Burns]

It started off at the coast and went across the gulf of mexico, the first stage should have only travelled a few miles offshore and the stage should have passed over the Caribbean, done its orbit and landed off Hawaii.

Given that it didn't survive more than a few seconds past the supposed separation point, I doubt it got further than a few miles out to sea, so not over any land, let alone populated land.

[Paul]

That's where the standardized unit of the "Olympic Pool" comes in :-)

Presumably everyone here has had a swim in an Olympic pool.

Paul

[Joe]

But not necessarily measured the depth...

[Andrew]

I thought the whole Saturn V tower was drenched with water to protect it.