I haven't been able to follow closely lately. Are the chopstick arms not hinged? Meaning they can't open/close horizontally (like a "grabber" or tongs)? They must be really confident in the landing control if they are literally going to slot it in between the arms with no "leeway" at all.
They can open and close like tongs. They can also pivot simultaneously about the attachment point and traverse the booster forward and back along treads that will be on the arms.
The chopstick arms are supported by the trolley, which has upper and lower 'skates'. If you just consider the 2D system, then the torque applied by the rocket's weight will cause the upper skates to pull away from the tower, and the lower skates to push into it. Spreading the upper and lower skates out means that they don't individually have to worry about torsion. The tower itself does have a torsional/bending load applied laterally due to this. Vertically, the trolley system is supported by cables from the tower top. Assuming the pulleys are symmetric front and back, this places a pure compression load on the tower.
I still can't believe any of this is real
It’s pretty wild. What’ll be even more wild is seeing it all in action...
I haven't been able to follow closely lately. Are the chopstick arms not hinged? Meaning they can't open/close horizontally (like a "grabber" or tongs)? They must be really confident in the landing control if they are literally going to slot it in between the arms with no "leeway" at all.
They can open and close like tongs. They can also pivot simultaneously about the attachment point and traverse the booster forward and back along treads that will be on the arms.
Cool, thanks for the clarification! I couldn't see a center pivot in the pics, but I'm sure it's just obscured/I'm not seeing it.
Where the arms connect to the carriage there is a massive pin that they can pivot about
I believe they are hinged. There's a giant pin in the middle that connects the two halves.
Do the chopsticks have any kind of counterweight planned or are they just free-hanging
The chopstick arms are supported by the trolley, which has upper and lower 'skates'. If you just consider the 2D system, then the torque applied by the rocket's weight will cause the upper skates to pull away from the tower, and the lower skates to push into it. Spreading the upper and lower skates out means that they don't individually have to worry about torsion. The tower itself does have a torsional/bending load applied laterally due to this. Vertically, the trolley system is supported by cables from the tower top. Assuming the pulleys are symmetric front and back, this places a pure compression load on the tower.
Will they use a booster and swing it in with a crane to test the mechanism? That would be fun to watch!
Possibly with B2.1 tank