Very disappointing watching the BFR becoming more & more complicated over the years. The original concept was the simplest because it had 1 purpose: moving humans & cargo to Mars. For every trip, it landed with everything it took off with. They could load it with Martian regolith for the return trips. This way, the center of gravity was the same for every trip. The nose payload would always balance the weight of the engines, allowing it to reenter as a blunt body. Spaceships need to reenter as a blunt body rather than nose first, to lighten their heat shields.
It had header tanks on the top of the mane tanks. The header tanks fueled the landings. By having them as high as possible, it would reduce the amount of ballast required to weigh the nose down during reentry. By having them inside the mane tanks, they would be insulated for long duration flights.
The problem was to make money, the vehicle had to be repurposed for the core satellite business. Payloads would be dropped off in Earth orbit & the vehicle had to return without a payload. This was the same problem NASA encountered with the shuttle.
Like NASA, SpaceX added wings to try to make it pitch down without a payload. The problem was to still satisfy its original role of moving humans to Mars, the wings needed variable lift. To give the wings variable lift, they had to move forward rather than reenter as a blunt body. This required a heavier heat shield.
The shuttle worked around the
...Continue Reading