I learned only today
why the art on the side of Starship 31
had a cartoon of a banana on it that was holding another banana marked "FOR
SCALE." It was because part of the test of the Starship was to carry a
banana into space. For scale some reason I can't explain.
The banana is quite visible in this photo inside the ship while it was
traveling toward its reentry.
Screen capture from SpaceX's own video during the Flight Test.
Little did I know that bananas are used as standard measuring sticks on some
social media sites. This is the entrance to the rabbit hole of trying to
understand how bananas became a standard when bananas aren't all the same
size. They vary widely in size.
Amazon sells
a "standard" banana just for this. (As always, the link is for information
only, I don't make anything if you buy the banana squeeze toy.) I recommend
not trying to answer that.
Picture saved from the Amazon product page. I don't know if Starship carried
this, a grocery store banana or something even weirder.
There are pictures on the product page showing this "Official Banana for Scale by Citadel Black - Stress Relief Toy," alongside actual grocery store bananas demonstrating that bananas vary widely in size.
All that aside, I haven't had the time to search for explanations of why
Booster 13 aborted trying to be captured in midair like last month's flight.
The Ship's hovering and splashdown was much like last month's, but was supposed
to have been pushing the ship's capabilities a bit more. The inflight restart
of the Raptor engine seemed to have gone as planned and then vertical landing
and splashdown in the Indian Ocean looked much like last month's. This time,
instead of just having a camera on a buoy, there was a vehicle close enough to
the spot to allow an aerial camera - or crewed vehicle - to photograph it.
I can see it now:
ReplyDeleteElon's Absurd Frivolity In Flight Endangers Millions.
Anonymous sources seemingly confirmed that Elon Musk faces big wampum fines from FAA. The concern centers on inclusion of an unapproved long, yellow object onboard the ship. An unnamed source said to be in a senior position at the ffffffFAA said the entire launch licensing is in jeopardy.
Unconfirmed rumor has it there was a malfunction on the tower. Stay tuned. All will be revealed in due time.
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting to watch the booster blow up. And then the Starship lying on its side with fires venting from cracks in the hull.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely looking forward to the after-action report.
As to the banana, apparently it's a thing in the machining, manufacturing world. How fast can you super CNC pop out a 3d 'banana.' Or 3d printer.
Also in the home machinists' world. As in, "I made this thingy and it's 1.5 bananas long" showing a photo of said thing with a banana next to it. With comments being, of course, Metric or Imperial Banana?
Something I hadn't noticed is the decal of the pixelated banana is about the size of a person. Ironically, that statement is as accurate as "for scale" on the banana is. That's an article on Orbital Today that links to Tory Bruno of ULA talking about the ULA Standard Banana, referred to as the USB.
DeleteMy wife was poking around last night and found someone selling a version of the decal that's 4 feet tall.
I don't recall those events...
DeleteI suspect the inclusion of the banana is because Elon Musk, and many of his employees, have a wicked but twisted sense of humor.
ReplyDelete"...a wicked but twisted sense of humor." Could be the best thing about working there.
DeleteWell, I've seen bananas used for a general sense of scale in a lot of venues, where a dB in size variation doesn't matter. Perhaps the subtle message is "Starship may get a lot bigger, a banana is close enough."
ReplyDelete