STARSHIP Was UNDERPOWERED From the Start: Analysis of HUD data
Posted May 3, 2023, 4:12 AM UTC
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Dr. Scott Walter uses the data from the official HUD to map out the acceleration curve based on that data and then discusses the results compared to Falcon 9.
It's from 4/25, so there are a couple things that are already outdated. But, the analysis seems pretty solid and worth a watch for the rocket math nerd.
Edit:
The results seem to show a sluggish acceleration curve overall and a pretty serious drop after the explosion inside the engine well that eventually recovers but never really takes off as you would expect.
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I’m not really sure how you can do napkin math here. We don’t know the actual thrust of the engines, the mass of the vehicle, or the actual drag. Seems difficult to draw any conclusions from this.
I though a number of engines failed. You could see this in the videos.
It's certainly not as good as the actual data. And, no doubt there are telemetry and other flaws using this method. But, using the HUD displayed speed is a pretty decent way to gauge the acceleration based on that HUD speed.
Plus, given the distance traveled generated with the calculated numbers roughly translates to the data displayed on the HUD, that's a pretty decent way to test the efficacy of this approach. And those numbers seem to line up within the regime you'd expect them to.