The quality of your production is beyond reproach. Masterfully done.

@CSIStarbase

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@xxtoptankxx6873

Жыл бұрын

@@CSIStarbase absolutely my favorite space news channel!!!

@davemanmartin

Жыл бұрын

Seriously! I learned a lot and it was so well put together

@psycotria

Жыл бұрын

@@CSIStarbase Missed you during your melt-down. Great video. Great details. Thanks!

@gregedmand9939

Жыл бұрын

One would think, in a region with tremendous natural gas supply that the production of electricity has its most economical starting point. In Western Canada, we have a vast gas supply network that has been in development since the late 1950's. Added to and complimented by Hydro electrical grids. Why there isn't a gas pipeline supplying a Starbase contained power generation plant, is rather baffling.

This is a great video. I am the lead electrician in a steel foundry. Our main power supply is 1500 KW with an input voltage of 575 volts. So you were speaking to me. The main line coming into our switchgear (the part that distributes the HV to all of our onsite transformers) is 25.5KV. We have a power down every year where we shut the HV off to the plant and have a contractor come in and do oil samples of our transformers and goes through everything. Thank you for your videos.

@CSIStarbase

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing! Glad you enjoyed it. Wasn’t sure if anyone would actually like this episode lol

@JoshuaFranta

Жыл бұрын

@@CSIStarbase Possibly your best episode to date! Looking forward to future deep dives

@RedRyan

Жыл бұрын

​@@JoshuaFranta It was a pretty darn good video for sure

This episode shows how complex problems SpaceX deals everyday and most fans don't even think about it. Thank you for sharing that perspective, high quality as always.

@krozareq

Жыл бұрын

Yep. 1 part rockets, 9 parts facilities, training, production, testing, administration, procedures, research, support ops, IT, transportation, communications, etc. Amazes me all the things NASA and its contractors did from 1958 to the end of the 60s. An army of engineers and workers having to develop so many different solutions and technology. Such as the machine that tests the machine that makes the machine that makes the parts for a training vehicle. Yet they worked together very well from Apollo and Gemini era engineers I've met. Great organizational teamwork. SpaceX seems to be working fast to get the site ready for the refueling tankers and Starship HLS they'll need for Artemis III. Many big milestones to hit before they can crew.

@carholic-sz3qv

Жыл бұрын

No!!!! The episode shows how much important and flexible oil and ICE are to all those operations and yet people are talking nonsense about oil and ICE!!!

@Ant3_14

Жыл бұрын

@@carholic-sz3qv both things can be true at once. Oil for sure gave some temporal flexibility. It wasn't efficient use of money, but was nesesery until permanent solution is ready.

@thomaswilks9256

Жыл бұрын

​@@carholic-sz3qv😅😅

@MultiCconway

11 ай бұрын

Zack illustrates on a practical level just how complex things are, but also how fundamental addressing the problems are. THIS is something that NASA is incapable of.

I love that we are the POV of the bartender and there's just this one guy in the pub talking endlessly about Starbase

Zack, you are the most professional and in-depth web cast of anyone. Thank you 👍

@CSIStarbase

Жыл бұрын

Appreciate that! Thank you!

I have a real hard time believing you're an amatuer content creator. This channel is way too good. Everyone should at least start sharing this to get more subscribers. I expect you should get millions.

@MultiCconway

11 ай бұрын

Don't who has the job . . . BUT . . . I nominate Zack for Chief Engineer of STARBASE!

As an electrician who has been digging trenches and laying conduit for weeks now, with most of the summer looking like it will be more of the same, I found this not only particularly interesting, but it also made my own "endless" conduit laying seem paltry in comparison to the years long effort at Starbase.

@nickcollins1528

Жыл бұрын

Isn't to bad until the summer and the trench boxes cook ya

Quite excited to enjoy the CSI Starbase deep dive into the electrical infrastructure. Quite a fan of Zack and his team’s work.

The way you are able to able to look through old and recent photos of starbase and piece together entire stories from them for these is incredible by itself, never mind having the knowledge/experience to understand what is going on.

@jonathanjehan2284

Жыл бұрын

I agree, and it would be great to see an episode on how you and the rest of the team gather this information and distill it to extract so much in depth knowledge. Keep up the fantastic work!

What can I say nothing, I am speechless, super job Zack and all the CSI Team.

@CSIStarbase

Жыл бұрын

Thanks PK!!!!

"For those of you who demand metric units' 😄 Straight face, stone cold. I love it!

Another 55 minutes wait but i’m giving this a thumb up cause i know this is going to be another master piece just like all videos before this one!

@M167A1

Жыл бұрын

Agreed, probably the best in-depth space coverage available anywhere.

Wow that 40 mins flew by! I was completely engrossed. Learnt so much. This part of starbase isn't something I think many give much thought, but is obviously as crucial as everything else. Great video Zack. Thanks!

"Stage 0" is my hero!

Cannot imagine the number of hours it took to produce this video. Well done!

@CSIStarbase

Жыл бұрын

Way too many hours! Thats for sure

No idea how you made such a topic interesting and fascinating to me, but you somehow did it. Well done, Thank you!

CSI Starbase is the best. Most insightful in depth coverage one can find! I'm a fan!

@carholic-sz3qv

Жыл бұрын

It's not

@SamuelMellert

Жыл бұрын

@@carholic-sz3qv what’s your favorite then?

Thnx Zack- how you get all this information together is a mystery. But you really belong with just 4 other Space tech reporters at the top of the pyramid...

@CSIStarbase

Жыл бұрын

A lot of research hours went into this one that's for sure. Way more than I expected would be necessary.

Honestly I think if you have a podcast with Tim Dot it will be the most watch podcast in the rocket community. This Chanel is so underrating. Much love 💪🏽✊🏽

@CSIStarbase

Жыл бұрын

That would be an awesome idea. Maybe one of these days we can attempt that. If he's not too busy

I always enjoy this deep-dive investigation, regardless of the topic. Helps me learn so much...Thanks a million, Zack.

Can't believe how legit the site is gonna look in like a year from now. They grow up so fast 😭

As a EE engineer, I was quite impressed with today's episode. 3-phase power is a tough sell to a lot of people, but not to me! 🙃

@CSIStarbase

Жыл бұрын

Yeah lol I was really hesitant to do this episode because I thought there wouldn’t be many people who were interested in hearing about this topic. Thank you!

95% of the world uses metric, including NASA and the scientific community. Even Cola bottles in the US are 2L. So hey man you have an amazing show. I love how you talk about things that nobody else is talking about. Genius 100%

After following spacex activities for several years, this is the first time I watched one of your videos. Thanks to Ellie In Space for introducing you to me. This is absolutely fantastic and the level of depth that I just totally enjoy. Time to subscribe.

@CSIStarbase

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! Will have to do a livestream with Ellie one of these days soon!

@737smartin

Жыл бұрын

It’s good stuff, Chris! Fascinating for those of us who don’t work in industry to see how this “space sausage” is being made.

No one does it better than you Zack. Every minute of your videos are packed with new, interesting details that come directly from your research. Other Starbase content creators repeat and reuse info to fill their episodes, you are unique and the best in how you present the progress at Starbase. Thank you!

My Favorite Engineering-explainer is back!

Thanks for the latest episode Zack, one thing that occurred to me while watching, is that although (as you said at the end) this is not one of your typical (excellent) deep-dives, it is nonetheless important as in years to come it will be considered as a historical document. Looking back at your content 5-10 years from now, the evolution of Starbase will be uniquely documented by you, and an important resource for coming generations. So, on behalf of future Historians, thanks for all of your hard work, and may your subscriber count be always increasing.. Cheers.

@CSIStarbase

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! Definitely appreciate hearing things like this!

Good video. I can guarantee you that anyone interested enough in Starbase to watch a 40+ minute deep dive video will be completely happy with just about any topic you care to cover so long as it's made with the kind of care you've been putting into these. I dare say you could do a deep dive into SpaceX/Starbase HR practices or accounting operations and still get a relatively enthusiastic response from this audience.

Another 5* episode. You are documenting history!

You are an expert content creator buddy

Absolutely amazing. Power distribution and infrastructure is such a critical but overlooked part of making this whole operation work. Thank you for all of your hard work in shining a light on this.

@carholic-sz3qv

Жыл бұрын

It's not that a big deal lol!!!! You should look at the operation of building a power plant or even upgrading it!

I love your very in-depth videos. Nobody else provide this kind of content. Thank you very much!

I've noticed your channel a couple of times over the last year, but never watched, just thinking it was another space x channel that wouldn't give me much more. Oh how I was wrong. This vid was awesome! So much more info than I expected, and imteresting too! And great production. U earned a subscribe! Thanx bro. Will be trawling thru tho older vids 👌🏼

Top notch presentation of a lot information and the engineering knowledge to back it up! Thank you for being an Engineer!

This is badass dude. Thank you ❤

Your team rules Zack, great work

Holy cow! I never realized there is so much complexity to the electrical needs of SpaceX. Thank you for the deep dive!

@carholic-sz3qv

Жыл бұрын

They should have obviously started doing it right from the beginning instead of all those wasteful operations.

wouldn't be surprised if spacex were to become an early customer for tiny nuclear plants on site

I hit like 70 minutes before the video started, because I already know I’m going to love it! Can I get a Tim-style “More Power!”, please?

Zack, I would like to thank you for adding the closed captions to the video! Excellent detail and very interesting!

Great narrative put in a form that is very clear and understandable.

Another simply outstanding deep dive. They just never get old.

really appreciate the explanation for why the pumps were not installed. Also understanding why the Air Separation probably hasn't been used much is very helpful.

Elec engineer by trade here so enjoyed this one!! Nice work and good job keeping track of all those conduits, imagine it was a nightmare without an actual drawing showing the routes. Like you say be good to see where all these LV transformers get installed once the 11kV is all pulled in across the site, looking forward to see how this progresses.

Another great deep dive. One note to add, for motors using 3 phase means there are no wasted windings or switches needed to start the motors. Jeremy Fielding has a video on how the starter switch works. It seems odd to go all the way down to 11KV at the site when 32KV is the source (but that may have to do with burial as arcing and conduction through salt water soaked land may the the driving factor). Running wire at its rated ampacity is never done as NEC code requires at least 20% derating, and losses for this length would be huge. It seems a bit late in the game to finally address this. Thanks for the update.

Fascinating. Raw data made into information. Adds another level of sophisticated analysis to the massive data gathering happening around Starbase.

Another thing: Since Sanchez was a gas generation location, that means that it has a NatGas pipeline, you don't use trucks and tanks for gas. If they can get the pipeline repurposed to flow TO Sanchez, that would potentially supply bother the co-gen unit and the LNG compressors.

I don't know why but I really like this kind of in depth content. Maybe because it's like putting a whole bunch of pieces of a puzzle together.

So many of my longstanding questions answered! Thanks!

That was a nice one :) Looking forward to the next dive!

Fantastic episode. I've often wondered where Starbase was getting its power from. I wonder why they didn't run a natgas line to the site and then generate their own power with their own turbine. I'm guessing the peak load is much greater than the average load and turbines aren't efficient at part load.

@Jaker788

Жыл бұрын

Running a generator is probably not worth it long term, the upkeep is gonna suck considering they're piston engines. Combined cycle is more efficient, but still the upkeep as a sole operator on the small scale probably not worth it. Just take the grid power and supplement with solar and megapacks as a buffer. What I'd have assumed would be more worth it is a nat gas line to purify and liquefy for use instead of trucks. But the environmental approval and upfront cost to install for a site that can only launch 6 times per year is probably just not worth it. Maybe the cape will do something better for propellant since it's probably going to be much higher use.

@carholic-sz3qv

Жыл бұрын

​@@Jaker788lol!!!! Nonsense!!! Why didn't they use turbine gas generator!? Significantly way more powerful and also those things are actually reliable and can output gigantic amounts of energy 24/7

@Jaker788

Жыл бұрын

@@carholic-sz3qv Combined cycle or more commonly just simple jet turbines single cycle are still the most expensive power generation, they're used for peak demands by grid operators and not 24/7 because it's so expensive. Sure it's cheaper than diesel or possibly a natural gas based piston engine, but grid power is even cheaper by a lot. A simple jet turbine would've been the most likely feasible option for SpaceX, but that's a small upgrade over the piston engines in efficiency, so your fuel cost is still very high over grid power. Combined cycle brings the efficiency up to 60% or more but takes a significant extra footprint for the second cycle of a steam turbine that isn't feasible or worth the upfront cost after having all this grid power installed. Tesla megapacks are the exact thing that have been putting gas turbines into retirement because it's significantly cheaper to charge them off base load plants and use them for peak demands and load balancing. Adding solar and wind on top is just extra icing.

@carholic-sz3qv

Жыл бұрын

@@Jaker788 Tesla packs arent putting no turbines to retirement! Those are peaker power plants and also the grid is generally powered with all kinds of sources including those much bigger turbines at higher scales since it's cheaper! With a direct supply of gas and also heat and other récupérations systems it's also very efficient. The excess heat can also be reused or sent to be used for many other applications around the power plant.

@carholic-sz3qv

Жыл бұрын

@@Jaker788 batteries doesn't provide a significantly very high and reliable energy all the time! Imagine a steel mill trying to run on batteries!!

Thanks for all early photos for the before and after scenarios, the use of other creators content was very helpful. The number of hours spent studying all the different aspects of Boca Chica was like preparing for a propellant loading test. The amount of information delivered without a bunch of random stock photos an video clips was greatly appreciated, I think you should do your own skillshare course do other creators could learn that. Would love to see in the future a time lapsed of the different areas using rgv, nsf etc. Also would be curious to know some of COST associated to building a large site like this, such as how much does SpaceX have to spend on electricity, cost to rent/buy heavy equipment, what does a spool of wire, stainless steel cost, cost of a huge tank, how much fuel does a generator need and comparison to cost of solar vs grid vs generator. Thanks again for the time you spend, it really shows in the quality of your work and all those that help you.

@CSIStarbase

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! I'm usually hesitant on assigning costs to things but when it's necessary I definitely do it! But yea there is definitely a lot of hours that goes into these episodes!

Awesome Episode... as always. :)

I was fully prepared to watch a boring presentation about power transmission, but WOW! I was wrong. What a fascinating look into this topic! Your level of research and detail is astounding. Very impressive production! It give me a huge appreciation for the level of effort at Starbase. It is hard to fathom that they have done all of this work simultaneously while going full bore with ship production and testing!

@CSIStarbase

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! This wasn't an easy topic to make interesting.

Most excellent. Nobody else has spent any time on this critical resource.

I had no idea power infrastructure could be so fascinating. Please continue to surprise us with other aspects of rocketry that don't get much attention!

Been waiting for your next video for a while. Your information is great and the videos are very captivating.

@CSIStarbase

Жыл бұрын

Thank you very much!

You have very quickly become the number one resource for this material. I particularly like that you have an engineering background, giving you the tools you need for a thorough objective analysis.

Exceptional production values. Almost everything presented was new to me. Thanks.

Bro, this was such a great breakdown. Most underrated channel.

Excellent episode. You touched on many questions I had about the ASU and gave great info on the power infrastructure. Thanks.

Another excellent deep dive, brilliantly researched and put together as usual.

You are a very skilled content creator. Thank you for your diligence and teaching acumen

Hi Zach. Nice work on this. I'm new to your work and am liking the content so far. I enjoy deep dives with academic depth. I agree with your guess that the extra methane and LOX pumps were added to increase loading speed because they were already operating with a full set of redundant spares. They would only be adding more to increase the mass flow rate during loading..... as far as other content....have you considered (or have you already done) a deep dive on a risk assessment for if StarBase were to take a direct hit from a hurricane? This building site location presents a substantial risk to mother nature...hurricane, loss of power long term, storm surge to the launch site affecting infrastructure, etc.

@CSIStarbase

Жыл бұрын

Thanks, that would be an interesting topic to cover. I can consider looking into that once they finish making all of their changes to the tank farm! The redesign will have an affect on that analysis.

@hamjudo

Жыл бұрын

There are two types of infrastructure at Starbase. There are the parts that can withstand hurricanes and rocket failures, and the infrastructure that can be replaced quickly. The permanent structures are intended to be very robust, I think designed for category 4 or higher storms. SpaceX moves fast and makes mistakes. It corrects them and moves on. The vertical tank farm is being replaced, as it wasn't strong enough.

Once again, CSI Starbase covers the important infrastructure progress that other, lesser, blogs ignore. Thank you Zack. You and your crew have once again added a significant dimension to SpaceX activities necessary to get Starships into orbit and beyond.

I appreciate that you always use the right units, and you don’t assume your audience doesn’t know the difference.

@geoffallan

Жыл бұрын

Sadly it’s been proven over and over some don’t. I’m with you, I understand both metric and imperial. I always enjoy the response from metricists when I point out that a mile is imperial.

Zach (and all your agents) - This is another piece of amazing work! Thank you and well done to you all. So much information presented and done in such a clear, effective and professional manner (and the graphic overlays just finish it all off perfectly!) Lovin' all your vids on this channel and your work on RGV's too (though, you all need a subject/time wrangler over there, Lol!). Already impatiently waiting for more! :)

Great topic! The fewer diesel/gas generators the better. They run A LOT of welding machines and air conditioners. Bare burial of the power lines avoids the issue of buoyancy. Amazing episode!

It is refreshing watching your show. Very informative and no political drama. Keep up the great work 👍

I’m an old Industrial Electrical Contractor in (sorry) California. Just finished an insurance project that had just one 150KW on site, running in prime power (24 x7).The generator ran for 67 days. With schedule PM on every other Sunday. This had refrigerated product on site. There was a backup generator (phased and ready). Just paid the bill on just the generator operation. Generator, fuel, hookup and maintenance average out to $2967.57 per day plus $2674.00 for 4 PM’s. Total Cost for just one 150KW Genset, Prime power was $209,4696.19 This will give you an comparison.

Excellent. You never disappoint. this topic also has been very undercoverd, so thanks for the information.

Great episode. The methodical research shines through. Enjoyed every minute.

Great video, as always.

Great video as always, thorough both in the full topic and the full timeline

Take all the time you need Zack, I know it will worth the wait. Good job to you and your team. 👍

How it is possible, that you have only 48k subscribers. I would guess you will have milion by now! Great quality content!

@CSIStarbase

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! I’m just looking forward to hitting 50k!

Well worth the wait!

What a great and educational video about how SpaceX has solved its past and future power needs. Top notch video! One you started could not stop watching.

You used our pre-SpaceX drone footage. Glad that we could document the beginnings for the SpaceX scene.

There’s an absolutely amazing amount of invaluable detail in this video! As an IT professional who’s always been interested in power infrastructure, I found this deep dive especially fascinating. (Although, all your deep dives are fascinating.)

The rolls of power cable are normally a 2,600' or 5,000' rolls. Hard to tell from a distance.

@CSIStarbase

Жыл бұрын

I put a good closeup of one of them later in the episode!

@BigSlim

Жыл бұрын

@@CSIStarbase Looks like an 800 meter reel, 2,625ish feet.

Damn, this is crazy! Amazing documentation and production! Congrats to the entire team working on this!

Excellent job. Few people realize the infrastructure required for facilities. This is all good training for SpaceX for planning a city on Mars.

Wow, such a detailed and extremely well explained video. Love the SN11 urn too. Thanks Zack

As my former employer's site locations were remote, we had Diesel Gensets for power. Both for normal operations and for emergency power. We could not afford to be down, period. The longest we were ever down at out worksite was from Monday Aug 24, 1992 to Friday Aug 28th. From that point on for 5 weeks we operated solely on our Gensets as there was no commercial power available. In fact, the power lines themselves did not exist due to Hurricane Andrew. On the same day as we got power back at work, we also got it back at home. We too had been running on a generator for 5 weeks. One of the things that the people working at the SpaceX locations will be happy about is that when the commercial power becomes available, they won't have to listen to the noise from the Gensets. Except for weekly test runs and if they have to do load peaking.

Outstanding episode. Please keep up the good work!!

Another great informative video. Keep up with the great work. Been enjoying a lot the channel.

Thank you Zack. Another great update. Already looking forward to your next deep dive.

You guys do a great show. Production values and content are great.

Electrician in the power industry here. You are factually incorrect in a number of areas. While the utility poles may only have 2 wires, they are not delivering "two phase" (or split phase as it is technically called) utilizing a hot and a neutral. They are 2 out of 3 phases of the 3 phase system, and are used to distribute power in areas that do not need all 3 phases. 3 phase power is normally only available to commercial and industrial customers in the US. The split phase with a neutral is created at the transformers that steps down the utility distribution voltage, typically ~13kV for residential distribution systems, to the 240/120 split phase voltage used in homes and light commercial buildings. Since split phase power is created by transforming the power between any 2 conductors of a 3 phase distribution system, split phase can be delivered from either the normal 3 phase/2 wire power distribution poles, or from 3 phase/3 wire systems between any 2 of the 3 wires/phases. 33:30. What you refer to as "conduit tubing" is actually high voltage direct burial wiring, with one conductor for each phase. Based on the power poles, I would guess that it is ~30 to 60kV 3phase/3 wire on the top of the pole to be used by SpaceX, and ~13kV 3 phase/2 wire underneath that for residential areas, and possibly some parts of SpaceX that do not require 3 phase or have large power draws, such as offices.

Excellent review of infrastructure logistics engineering. Being a retired engineering manager I understand the depth of investigation that you have had to go to to analyse the available data over the years. Well done.

@CSIStarbase

Жыл бұрын

Yeah it was a bit ridiculous honestly. I thought I could put this together in a week off of memory. But, then I realized I had to search through 3 years of images in order to find proof of everything and somehow turn it into a story. 😅

@deniswilloughby2662

Жыл бұрын

@@CSIStarbase hi, yes, understand completely, I've used spreadsheet to load St Pancreas Station in London to allow for diversity and timed usage to get an overall typical moment of electrical load for an 11KVA transformer and then use that to load the 11kv ring feeding all the transformer, but your dealing with higher loads, so why didn't they go direct to 11kv motors on the Mechazilla for lifting arms. And your version of UK 415V 3 phase supplies for pumps etc ... You could have an 11KV ring main serving local transformer power centres. Even if they were coming from 11kv generators....?

Every time I get home and see a video of yours in my feed, that's an instant click. Never stop doing such great work :)

Thank you Zach! Another awesome deep dive video 🤗 I wait impatiently for your latest deep dives and they are always worth the wait 😉

The level of detail you and this channel provides blows my mind. Incredible work investigating all this, enjoyed every second! The change management involved with SpaceX and Tesla during their facility construction is crazy, I don't know how they keep up with it all.

Great video Zack and team CSI Starbase 🎉✨️🦄

excellent research and presentation on a critical system that doesn't get a lot of press. Kudos!!

Amazing progress of the site. I can't wait to visit the RGV and South Padre again, hopefully during a launch.

There has been a number of times I've wondered where the power was coming from. Now I know!

Great content ... I really appreciate the deep context for Starbase ops. You have a great knack for making me want to watch the entire video. I learn something with every one of your videos.

great stuff, Zack. love the footage of boca chica from the before times. i managed to visit starbase around thanksgiving a couple years ago when the new power lines/poles installation was just getting started. only a couple dozen on brownsville end of H4.