So there's a real fun mystery around Superheavy's upgraded gridfins for Block 2 and 3. Possibly even a new shape.
A quick thread compiling our theories and the evidence for them 🧵
Earlier today the FAA published a PDF regarding Starship's environmental review progress. in this PDF, we get the highest available resolution render that we have gotten so far of the new Starship vehicle.
(https://t.co/tQVFmqqCkH)
Heavy speculation warning ahead of course. This is just observing essentially pixel soup but hey it lines up to everything else we've seen
Following earlier debates on the # of gridfins that the booster will receive, some noticed some discrepancies in this new render. Notably, the fact that it appears as though the "back face" of the gridfin is visible to the camera, yet, the load point is still in front of the fins
Now you're gonna have to trust me on this but if you look real closely you can in fact see where the load point ends and where the gridfin behind it begins.
So me, @tibininin and a few others from the @Ringwatchers and @RGVaerialphotos discords went on to figure out what is going on here. Pretty simple really, the gridfin appears to be faceted on the end.
But you'll notice something funny. The center gridfin does not seem to feature these facets, you would assume they would be visible right?
Well....
...Upon further kind of prodding around @tibininin compared a rough model with my estimated lighting setup of the SpaceX renders themselves...and it's pretty damn close the estimated lighting makes the facets nearly invisible
And turns out if you look real REAL close. And I mean it's so hard to see this I could barely bring it out with photo editing, it is EVER SO SLIGHTLY different between these lines. The facets are indeed present.
Now that we can see where the facets actually begin on each side of the fin we can just cross compare. Turns out, everything lines up nicely on a grid. So this is what we propose the fins to roughly look like
comparison between the renders. Flipped to be able to view changes easier
Rough size comparison between the current generation of gridfins.
Block 1 gridfins at 3.38m long, 2.57m wide.
Block 2 gridfins at 4.41m long, 2.81m wide.
Once again I must reiterate this is all speculation but it certainly seems somewhat likley
So there's a real fun mystery around Superheavy's upgraded gridfins for Block 2 and 3. Possibly even a new shape.
A quick thread compiling our theories and the evidence for them 🧵 Earlier today the FAA published a PDF regarding Starship's environmental review progress. in this PDF, we get the highest available resolution render that we have gotten so far of the new Starship vehicle.
(https://t.co/tQVFmqqCkH) Heavy speculation warning ahead of course. This is just observing essentially pixel soup but hey it lines up to everything else we've seenFollowing earlier debates on the # of gridfins that the booster will receive, some noticed some discrepancies in this new render. Notably, the fact that it appears as though the "back face" of the gridfin is visible to the camera, yet, the load point is still in front of the fins Now you're gonna have to trust me on this but if you look real closely you can in fact see where the load point ends and where the gridfin behind it begins. So me, @tibininin and a few others from the @Ringwatchers and @RGVaerialphotos discords went on to figure out what is going on here. Pretty simple really, the gridfin appears to be faceted on the end. But you'll notice something funny. The center gridfin does not seem to feature these facets, you would assume they would be visible right?
Well.... ...Upon further kind of prodding around @tibininin compared a rough model with my estimated lighting setup of the SpaceX renders themselves...and it's pretty damn close the estimated lighting makes the facets nearly invisible And turns out if you look real REAL close. And I mean it's so hard to see this I could barely bring it out with photo editing, it is EVER SO SLIGHTLY different between these lines. The facets are indeed present. Now that we can see where the facets actually begin on each side of the fin we can just cross compare. Turns out, everything lines up nicely on a grid. So this is what we propose the fins to roughly look like comparison between the renders. Flipped to be able to view changes easier Rough size comparison between the current generation of gridfins.
Block 1 gridfins at 3.38m long, 2.57m wide.
Block 2 gridfins at 4.41m long, 2.81m wide. Once again I must reiterate this is all speculation but it certainly seems somewhat likley
yes
