What causes the whole bottom (incl. legs) of this rocket to go from white to black? Yes of course there's heat at the start, heat at the landing, but it just looks so weird that it starts to go black below a clean straight line (see next picture)
>>52044495
and landing
>>52044495
>incl. legs
What legs, in the first picture?
>>52044495
Why does it matter if it turned black or not?
>>52044531
they are retracted (leaning upwards against the rocket)
>>52044550
I'm interestd in what caused the discoloration and why
>>52044559
Ask in /sci/ or the SpaceX subreddit. SpaceX employees post in the subreddit, and a few people who claim to be post in /sci/ from time to time, especially a few days before a launch. /g/ ain't going to know.
>>52044559
>they are retracted (leaning upwards against the rocket)
So, stupid question, they didn't just drop a heat shielding cover or something?
>>52044559
Cant you see the change in the live fotage?
>>52044596
>linking somebody to Reddit
Why are you doing this, anon?
>>52044495
>>52044559
Heat, dust and engine pollution.
>>52044495
The whole top of the rocket is also black.
>>52044559
I would imagine its due to heat and hot exhaust gasses which leaves behind some material. Probably it just flows past the rocket at that point.
>>52044611
He is only to get his answer from an employee.
I directed him towards the two easiest places to ask, and frankly, you can't verify whether or not the /sci/ dudes are legit or not but the guys on the Subreddit can because they're actually allowed to talk there about certain things. Every time I've seen someone on /sci/ who is apparently from SpaceX they can only talk about very general stuff like schedules for launches, how they're going to return (if they are at all on this specific mission), etc.
I remember hearing about the paint they use for the structure holding the rocket launching the space shutle, it was designed to burn or something, No idea if its true or not, just thought it might be something like that becuase its black and it just ends in line around the rocket.
>>52044600
What?
>>52044675
Ablative.
>>52044702
>Ablative.
From the wiki " Ablation is removal of material from the surface of an object by vaporization, chipping, or other erosive processes. Examples of ablative materials are described below, and include spacecraft material for ascent and atmospheric reentry, ice and snow in glaciology, biological tissues in medicine and passive fire protection materials." couldnt it be something like that then?
>>52044702
The top of the rocket also lost parts.
Maybe they did airbrake / powered brake the rocket facing backwards and dropped aerodynamic covers in the back of the rocket for this, to expose shielding.
>>52044726
Unlikely, they do several static fires before they actually do the launch. It is essentially the same thing as a launch besides going into outerspace. Note: It doesn't return from space in such a way that it would actually get hot in the same way the shuttle did.
>>52044740
MS Paint what you mean, also this is how the boost back went down.
>>52044596
I might ask there then, later maybe, thanks
>>52044605
The live footage starts in the early mornings when it's still dark. It's hard to see anything, and most of the time the camera is pointing downwards the rocket and you can only see the engine at the end
>>52044675
>>52044632
>>52044613
Sounds plausible
>>52044740
The covers that they blow off are at the very top on stage 2
>>52044746
>Note: It doesn't return from space in such a way that it would actually get hot in the same way the shuttle did.
So if it feel from low earth orbit like it went up to as i understand, that heat woulnt be enough for that to happen? Even if there as a Ablative coating thing?
>>52044805
Correct. You may as well be talking about paint being stripped on planes. The point where it is going faster horizontally when it was vertically is when it was actually in space, thus no friction. I honestly wish I had an answer for you Anon, but I don't know. You will have to ask around like I mentioned.
>>52044848
I see, and Im not the op, just kinda intressted in why it turned black.
>>52044880
I am curious as well, and I am certain several others are.
>>52044912
The more I read on the wiki about "ablation" the more I think it sounds like it is
"Firestopping and fireproofing products can be ablative in nature. This can mean endothermic materials, or merely materials that are sacrificial and become "spent" over time while exposed to fire, such as silicone firestop products. Given sufficient time under fire or heat conditions, these products char away, crumble, and disappear. The idea is to put enough of this material in the way of the fire that a level of fire-resistance rating can be maintained, as demonstrated in a fire test. Ablative materials usually have a large concentration of organic matter[citation needed] that is reduced by fire to ashes. In the case of silicone, organic rubber surrounds very finely divided silica dust (up to 380 m2 of combined surface area of all the dust particles per gram of this dust[citation needed]). When the organic rubber is exposed to fire, it burns to ash and leaves behind the silica dust with which the product started."
But As the anon said that it wouldnt be hot enough, so I guess it maybe isnt.
>>52044944
Also a spaceflight section in the wiki
"In spacecraft design, ablation is used to both cool and protect mechanical parts and/or payloads that would otherwise be damaged by extremely high temperatures. Two principal applications are heat shields for spacecraft entering a planetary atmosphere from space and cooling of rocket engine nozzles. Examples include the Apollo Command Module that protected astronauts from the heat of atmospheric reentry and the Kestrel second stage rocket engine designed for exclusive use in an environment of space vacuum since no heat convection is possible.
In a basic sense, ablative material is designed to slowly burn away in a controlled manner, so that heat can be carried away from the spacecraft by the gases generated by the ablative process while the remaining solid material insulates the craft from superheated gases. There is an entire branch of spaceflight research involving the search for new fireproofing materials to achieve the best ablative performance; this function is critical to protect the spacecraft occupants and payload from otherwise excessive heat loading.[7] The same technology is used in some passive fire protection applications, in some cases by the same vendors, who offer different versions of these fireproofing products, some for aerospace and some for structural fire protection."
>>52044944
>>52045012
interesting, thanks
I found this while searching
https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/2vj8rz/falcon_9_booster_reentry_question/coi3yr0
>the rocket itself is painted with ablative paint to protect it
not an official source, but that seems to be it
mystery solved?
>>52045096
Cool and maybe?
>>52045125
>>52045096
This has never been okay
Get the fuck out you stupid faggot autistic fuckhead retard cunthead.
>>52044944
>>52045012
sounds like similar thinking that went into making ERA for tanks.
Tanks have "armor" that explodes on contact. The thinking is that the exploding ERA will cause the munition that was attacking the tank to explode outside of the tank(especially if it was designed to explode inside of the tank, such as a rocket with a shaped charge), reducing the possibility of an explosion inside of the tank that would kill the crew.
