SpaceX engineers have manipulated another tech concept that violates rocket engineering;
perhaps they are trying to amaze us or tell the world how much they're damn good at developing
a monster-like rocket that hasn't been invented in history, something called the super-heavy
flaps.
Right now, making the super heavy flaps at the tail of the rocket glide like a wing – is
the latest outstanding achievement SpaceX engineers have invented for the world to behold.
Stick around as we show you how SpaceX engineers dramatically transformed super-heavy booster
flaps at the rocket's tail to glide, a mechanism that swings up and down while It flies in
space, just as birds do.
Let us first explain briefly how birds can fly in the sky, that is, the laws that govern
flying in the air, before moving on to the main functions of the wings at the trailing
edge of the rocket, and finally evaluate if it glides like a wing.
When a bird is flying, its wings are flat, allowing air to flow readily around it in
the direction the bird is traveling, like your hand cutting through the water or air.
However, something unusual and strange occurs here.
Since the wing is somewhat bent on top, air flows quicker over the top than it does over
the bottom.
And because the air is traveling more slowly, there will be more air beneath the bird.
And the air causes a push, and when they push against that large flat section of the wing,
it lifts the bird.
So, a bird wing cuts through the air in a forward direction and is pushed up from below,
leading in a flying bird!"
Aerospace engineers apply this same principle to make the aircraft fly; let me talk about
that in a moment;
When it comes to the commercial airplane, four forces are required for planes to fly.
They are lift, weight, thrust, and drag.
The airplane is propelled upward by lift.
The movement of air around the wings provides a lift for the airplane to lift itself off
the ground's surface.
The pressure that pushes the airplane towards Earth is called weight.
Airplanes are designed to distribute their weight evenly from front to back.
This helps to keep the plane balanced.
The force that propels the airplane forward is known as thrust.
Airplanes get thrust from their engines.
When walking against a strong wind, you may experience drag.
Airplanes are built to let air travel around them with as little drag as possible.
When all four forces are in equilibrium, an airplane can fly.
Most planes, however, require one extra thing, and that's a pilot to fly them!
Let's look at the take-off principle of an airplane; just as we all know, a rocket uses
vertical take-off and landing principles.
To an airplane, everything is a different ball game.
In the case of an aircraft, The wing's lift properties are determined by its cross-sectional
area.
Pardon, these details have to go with many engineering terms, but if you are watching
this video, you could have a thing for engineering.
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Let us stick together, buddy.
Now back to our discussion, the wing creates enough upward thrust to lift the airplane
off the ground at a specific velocity.
The aircraft will remain in the air as long as its airspeed remains greater than its liftoff
airspeed.
The amount of lift is controlled by the pilot using both airspeed and the wing's angle of
attack.
The greater the angle of attack, the slower the airplane must fly.
For many aircraft, the maximum angle of attack is roughly 17 degrees.
The wing will stall, and the aircraft will fall if the maximum angle of attack is exceeded.
This is referred to as the Stall speed.
Because the air at the top of the wing is longer than the bottom, the top air must accelerate
to reach the bottom air as it passes over the wing.
This results in a drop in top pressure.
The wing lifts compensate because of the increased pressure on the bottom and lesser pressure
on the top.
According to Bernoulli's Principle, faster-moving air has low air pressure while slower moving
air has greater air pressure.
Wings, propellers, and helicopter rotors all function in this manner.
Bernoulli's Concept is a single principle that explains how things heavier than air
can fly.
They all drop like a rock or Newton's apple when they are motionless (no airflow).
Now coming back to the newly designed wing attached to SpaceX super-heavy booster;
After a successful cryogenic proof test, SpaceX's first orbital-class Starship prototype was
photographed expanding its' wings'.
While this is a tiny step in comparison to practically any other testing milestone, it
serves as a reminder that the ultimate aim of Ship 20's test campaign is a launch on
Super Heavy to orbital heights and speeds.
If the launch proceeds as planned, Starship will seek to survive an orbital-class reentry
for the first time, pushing it to intense temperatures and putting its many thousands
of heat shield tiles to the ultimate test.
Dozens of things might (and probably will) go wrong, yet practically every system aboard
must function flawlessly to guarantee that the Starship survives reentry in one piece.
Even if all goes as planned, the same systems will need to hold on for many more minutes
to undertake a freefall, engine restart, flip, and landing maneuver that only two previous
Starship prototypes have done.
One of such critical systems happens to be the Starship's flaps.
Starship's four huge 'flaps' are only capable of rudimentary flapping motions, thanks to
actuators driven by Tesla Model 3 and Y motors and a pair of Model S batteries.
While they may appear to be wings, Starship flaps aren't intended to provide lift like
in the case of the airplane.
Instead, they function more like the hands and legs of a skydiver.
You remember what sky divers wear, that’s what we are talking about, especially one
wearing a wingsuit, allowing them to regulate their pitch, altitude, and roll while freefalling
belly-down to the Earth.
This same scenario allows Starship to get nearly all of the benefits of a structural
wing like the one on a skydiver while incurring a far reduced mass penalty.
Instead of gracefully slowing down with its wings, Starship utilizes its flaps to generate
as much drag during descent, falling to a terminal velocity of roughly 100 meters per
second or less.
Using a freefall trajectory with flaps incapable of creating lift will almost certainly lose
"cross range performance," which means how far the Starship can move horizontally in
Earth's atmosphere after reentry.
Starship's flaps are vital for managing vehicle orientation and direction during reentry and
letting it maneuver to a modest vertical landing platform (or enormous 'Mechazilla' catching
tower).
To play that job, the flaps must be able to activate over their entire range of motion
during reentry when Starship's supersonic attack on the thin upper atmosphere unleashes
a rush of superheated plasma eager to locate the cracks in its heat shield.
Shuttle engineers faced the same problem, eventually devising intricate seals to allow
the vehicle's wing and body flaps to react during reentry, without letting superheated
plasma seep inside, and destroy their fragile systems or structure.
Although Starship has the advantage of almost all of its structures being made of steel
rather than aluminum, it still faces the same challenges in shielding sensitive electronics,
actuators, motors, and other components from the reentry onslaught that its heat shield
and steel structure are designed to withstand.
It's unclear how SpaceX hopes to seal off the more sensitive, exposed components of
each flap's actuation mechanism – including motors, cabling, and the hinge itself – that
are only half-covered with heat shield tiles.
Starship's flaps and the cradle-like 'aero surfaces' slide appear to have very tight
tolerances and may rely on felt-like ceramic wool or TPS blanket to seal the minuscule
remaining gaps.
So, in a nutshell, the purpose of the wing on SpaceX super heavy is not to generate lift,
like in the case of an airplane, rather give it a balance during reentry in the Earth's
atmosphere.
They appear to be fins or wings, but they function more like air brakes on the Starship:
to create drag; more precisely, like the arms and legs of a skydiver for full control of
attitude, translations, and fall-rate.
I've been calling them flaps, but whatever SpaceX and Elon Musk name them, we should
call them.
But Elon Musk himself referred to them as flaps in tweets after SN8, so let's keep with
that.
Flaps would help to eliminate any mistake with Super Heavy's grid fins.
To an extent, if you get confused about the flaps, it'll appear as they work similarly
to aircraft control surfaces or wings that control and direct the primary lift of an
aircraft's wings or the Starship body.
What other use do you think the flaps will serve for the super-heavy booster?
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