Article: "Space-X Appears Ready to Spin Carbon Fiber for the BFR spaceship"

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

neil_w

OpenRocketeer
TRF Supporter
Joined
Jul 14, 2015
Messages
16,642
Reaction score
11,415
Location
Northern NJ
Space-X Appears Ready to Spin Carbon Fiber for the BFR spaceship (Ars Technica)

I'll just share this picture:
carbon-fiber-980x694.jpg
 
I'd be curious to see that next to a Falcon9 segment (or a Sat V stage) to see a size comparison.
 
I am wondering if that is going to be a heat cured carbon fiber and if so, where is the the oven this will be baked in?
 
I'd be curious to see that next to a Falcon9 segment to see a size comparison.

Falcon is about 12' in diameter. Compare that to the car, and you should have a pretty good idea.

The really impressive thing to me is that there were barely line drawings of this thing 2.5 years ago.
 
That would take a hell of an autoclave.

I wonder if the mandrel itself might be heated to help cure the structure?


Sent from my iPhone using Rocketry Forum
 
It will probably be a lot of interns with heat guns. Throw on a few sides of beef at the same time and they can eat when they are done.

Really though, that almost looks fake it’s so big. But now that the FH has flown it seems less pie in the sky.


Tony
 
I'd be curious to see that next to a Falcon9 segment (or a Sat V stage) to see a size comparison.

Falcon is about 12' in diameter. Compare that to the car, and you should have a pretty good idea.

The really impressive thing to me is that there were barely line drawings of this thing 2.5 years ago.

F9 is 3.66m diameter, Saturn V first stage is 10.1m diameter, and the article says BFR is 9m diameter.

Heating the mandrel from the inside is an interesting idea. I don't think you'd need as much insulation since the heat has to go through the layup to get out of the system. I don't see equipment to do that in the picture, but I might just be missing it. It also looks like they are planning on lathe type construction where the mandrel spins and the fibers are wound on rather than a spinner type where the mandrel is fixed and the fiber heads move.
 
I had another thought today, wonder if this is being cured in the same autoclave that the A380 fuselage pieces are cured in. BFR is 3 ft bigger but maybe it will still fit? A380 production has pretty much ceased. Those ovens might become available.


Sent from my iPhone using Rocketry Forum
 
I had another thought today, wonder if this is being cured in the same autoclave that the A380 fuselage pieces are cured in. BFR is 3 ft bigger but maybe it will still fit? A380 production has pretty much ceased. Those ovens might become available.

Interesting, and I think plausible, idea.
 
I had another thought today, wonder if this is being cured in the same autoclave that the A380 fuselage pieces are cured in. BFR is 3 ft bigger but maybe it will still fit? A380 production has pretty much ceased. Those ovens might become available.


Sent from my iPhone using Rocketry Forum

I don't know enough about autoclaves to be sure, but it seems that putting the A380 autoclave on to a ship and taking it to LA would be more expensive than just building a new one on site that matches all requirements. Shipping something huge like that takes a very specialized ship. I suppose it might fit in an Antonov, but that would be even more expensive.
 
Back
Top