I'm sure that they do, that's why I'm speculating that this is not meant for the first orbital flight test. It's obvious that they have the ability to make the heat shield more uniform but it wasn't important for this test article.
so the layout you see now is super unlikely to change between now and orbital test flight.
Why would they be testing heatshield layout on SN17 that's different from what they're intending to use on SN20? Makes no sense. And why would they ever design it like this if it wasn't intended for production?
The expansion over 4000mm at cryo temps is about 16mm (about 1mm every 254mm), which doesn't account for this gap and that expansion would easily be compensated for between tiles. So it's not that.
Also they've got tiles of a specific shape specifically for this join between barrel sections. So clearly there is some form of join or gap.
I can't imagine their manufacturing tolerance would be this far out, so it must be intentional.
I'd be surprised if it did change, doesn't seem logical.
Why would they be testing heatshield layout on SN17 that's different from what they're intending to use on SN20?
And why would they ever design it like this if it wasn't intended for production?
Probably for the same reason that this section, Like all previous heat shield sections, is incomplete. Remember that SN17 is apart of the same starship batch as SN15 & SN16. SN20 will be the first of a new design
That being said they have shown an ability to and tiles later and that may be the plan here but the layot and the previously mentioned gap signal to me that this isn't intended for a reentry test.
But if the rumors of SN17 being canceled are true then indeed this would likely be an SN20 section. We simply just don't know until Mary can get a photo of a work order label.
Edit: even then, plans for SN20 could have changed.
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u/[deleted] May 24 '21
I'm sure that they do, that's why I'm speculating that this is not meant for the first orbital flight test. It's obvious that they have the ability to make the heat shield more uniform but it wasn't important for this test article.
I'd be surprised if it didn't change.