As new footage of one of its ground-based monstrosities, known as the "Can Crushing," demonstrates, the company's entire job is rocketry.
Chris Bergin, managing editor of NASASpaceFlight, posted a video on the social networking site showing the "Can Crushing" testing apparatus, which is designed to test rockets by squeezing them with great force.
In this video, you can see that the can crushing machine is rolling down the Boca Chica, Texas base as it heads to test components for the new Starship B7.
Bergin's video is the latest glimpse we've gotten of this arachnid-esque Can Crushing device, but it's not the first time we've seen it at other places.
The spaceflight industry's can crushers are giant compactors that, in essence, do the same thing that aluminum can compactors do to empty soda cans, except these operate on a much larger, and much more dangerous, level
When NASA undertook the world's largest can crushing test at the time, they said to place a soda can on the floor in an upright position and then stand on it. It's similar to what a team of NASA engineers will do to an enormous aluminum-lithium rocket fuel tank in late March; their hope is to use data from the test to generate new'shell-buckling design factors' that will enable light-weight, safe and sturdy.
The force of takeoff and the test to make sure rocket components are ready for the stress of the whole experience are what can be done with cans.
While NASA's original cans look a lot like their smaller, consumer-grade counterparts, the one employed by the company is very similar. Previous renders show that thoseacle-looking things are spread out like bungees during testing to secure whichever part is being stress tested.
When it comes to pre-launch rocket testing, we don't often get to see the deflated equipment being rolled around on the launchpad.
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