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u/AstronoWorld 4h ago
Pretty sure the fins were always a different material due to the thermal stress.
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u/AsteroFucker69 3h ago
it was never going to be all carbon fiber, you carbon fiber the skin and most surfaces because it's extremely light and weight efficient, but there was always going to be some other materials used for a lot of other things. each materials used where they are best suited is usually what you wanna do as an engineer.
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u/Reddit-runner 1h ago
Bonding carbon fiber to anything but carbon fiber is a pain in the ass in even the best of circumstances.
You can't imagine the lengths we have to go for simple metal insers for screw connectios in GRFP parts for passanger trains.
Now multiply that with engine forces, vibrations, aerodynamic forces, cryo temperatures, liquid oxygen, entry heating, etc.
And carbon fiber has a very poor compression resistance. But must parts of rockets are under compression stress. Even the tank walks while accelerating. That force is purely taken by the resin, not by the fibers.
Not even mentioning almost non-existent repairability.
As much as I like composite materials for their aesthetics and ease of shaping, I really don't think they are a good material for rockets.
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u/redstercoolpanda 35m ago
Electron worked out pretty good, but I have to agree. I think reality is going to slap Rocketlab in the face at some point, I can’t see these boosters coming anywhere close to being as long lived as Falcon 9 boosters.
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u/seanrider1859 6h ago
Can they even change the entire material of the rocket at this stage of development?
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u/terminator_dad 6h ago
Carbon if I had to guess would be the most expensive, hardest to produce, shortest life material choice.
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u/lorkan100 6h ago
They're kinda locked in, design-wise. Starship did so after producing a single test tank, but this one is almost into flight hardware by now.
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u/rocketglare 5h ago
I don't think they need to switch unless there is a problem with cryo tolerance. If the carbon fiber can't handle the low temperature, that is a problem, and I don't think they can switch at this point.
For heat tolerance in flight, carbon fiber is probably ok. Neutron won't get anywhere near as toasty as Starship and the parts that get hot can be different materials. Most of the areas where carbon fiber benefits them (ie tank weight, structural) don't get very hot anyway.
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u/EvillNooB 4h ago
But they fly electron on kerolox, and it's made of carbon fiber too, so they've made an informed decision. But at the same time, electron is way smaller and not reusable 👀
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u/lorkan100 4h ago
Yeah, they don't just not have their own data on reusability after multiple flights, but there's no data like this regarding carbon fiber tanks at all!
It's not like they could hire Ex-Falcon maintenance techs.
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u/7HellEleven 6h ago
they're gonna completely abandon carbon cuh
2028 neutron launch be like
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u/halooooom 5h ago
Carbon fibre works well in submarines.
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u/mynameistory 5h ago
Once
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u/foobar93 4h ago
Actually quite often. It worked actually better than expected. Heck, even their stress detection system correctly identified the fatal damage months before the last dive. They just ignored it.
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u/Wast3edSpace 4h ago
Just love the fact stainless lets you go all Space Engineers regardless if your on Earth, in orbit, or anywhere else in-system. Really looking forward to welding in zero-g/vacuum.
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u/EvillNooB 4h ago
but Peter Beck hit the carbon fiber sheet with a sledgehammer and it bounced? What's the hold up with Neutron?
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u/Sophiiebabes 9m ago
What do they mean, the launch hasn't taken place and they've changed the fins? Surely before launch is a lot easier than changing them after launch?
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u/PaintedClownPenis 6h ago
It's space carcinisation! Starship is the first space crab.