• Rob Bos@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    Yeah, making it reliable enough not to need an escape system is the goal. One of the original concepts was that in a stage 1 failure outside black zones (also, Starship on paper does a great job minimizing the black zones due to re-entry design), stage 2 will light up and go for a powered landing. A stage “explosion” is usually very energetic but more burny-energetic than explosive-energetic, because the fuel can’t efficiently mix, which should be within the tolerances of the upper stage.

    Planes don’t need escape systems, and hopefully Starship can get into at least 5 nines of reliability, preferably more. It’s never going to be entirely safe (planes have an accident rate around 1 per million flights, not many of which are fatal), but there’s no reason to think that we couldn’t get to that safety level in time.

    • squiblet@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      I sure wouldn’t get on a rocket that Elron said was so safe it didn’t need an escape system.