Jin Lei Bowen from Oufei Temple
Qubits | Official account QbitAI
Just now, Musk turned his back on the "big rocket" and gave a blockbuster speech after two and a half years.
Related to SpaceX's latest developments in Starship:
This year, it will launch 50 more times, and it will reach the rhythm of "three shots a day" in the future.
If nasa's environmental assessment is passed by the end of the month, the starship will test fly as soon as next month.
By 2023, Japan's billionaire Tomosaku Maezawa will travel around the moon on a starship.
More related to Musk's ultimate goal:
To get humans to Mars "make it real".
So in order to realize this dream, what step has the starship of "Academician Ma" taken? And how will it develop?
A starship with Mars as its destination
At the scene, Musk first showed three sets of the latest data, which won a round of applause at the scene:
144 successful launches
106 successful landings
83 reuse (flight-validated) launches
(Musk laughed and said that the data was asked from netizens...) ）
Musk went on to say that the starship's goal this year will be to launch another 50 times.
To put it simply, it's the rhythm of launching once a week on average.
Based on this, Musk also made the next estimate at the scene:
As of now, the total mass of (spacecraft) in orbit worldwide is 15,517 tons.
If a starship is launched an average of 3 times a week, then within 1 year, 15,500 tons of supplies can be launched into orbit.
By analogy, if a starship is launched 3 times a day, the total mass of the launch in 1 year can reach about 110,000 tons.
If there are 10 starships, then the number of tonnage will reach about 1.1 million tons.
Musk's estimate is not unfounded, in his opinion:
The rocket's booster launch takes only 2 minutes and the return takes only 4 minutes, while the reuse of the rocket spacecraft (which continues to orbit after separation) takes about 6-8 hours.
That's why starships are able to launch 3 times a day.
Musk then introduced the latest overview of the starship.
From the outside, the starship is now "tall" at 50 meters and 9 meters in diameter.
Its fuel reserve (propellant capacity) reaches 1200 tons, propulsion force is 1500 tons, and the payload capacity is 100-150 tons.
Musk said that the above data will be updated over time in the future to reach Mars.
Next, Musk introduced the world's largest heat shield.
The heat shield is one of the keys to ensuring safety during the flight of the starship, but it seems that the components with high technology content, Musk only said lightly at the scene:
There's technology, so it doesn't cost much, and it's reusable and automated.
Musk then introduced another key technology for flying to Mars — Orbital Refilling.
This process is similar to "aerial refueling", which is to "fill the spacecraft with energy" in orbit in order to fly to distant Mars.
Musk also said confidently:
This is a technique that SapceX is very good at.
Then we come to the Super Heavy, the booster of the starship, whose detailed parameters are shown in the following figure:
Currently, the Super Heavy contains 29 engines, and Musk said that he will increase the number to 33 without increasing the diameter.
Finally, there is the engine Raptor V2, which in one sentence describes as "simpler and more powerful".
With fewer parts, the second generation reached 230 tons compared to the 185 tons of thrust of the first generation OfRatr.
Feel the feeling:
……
Of course, in addition to introducing the latest progress of the starship, Academician Ma also revealed his ultimate goal.
Why is Mars Musk's goal?
In the long run, we humans must become a multi-planetary species, eventually even beyond the solar system.
What opened the conference was Musk's usual view.
He explained that this is both one of the reasons why he has been doing SpaceX and his own consideration of the "future of life":
The sun will eventually expand and destroy the earth, and there are now too many problems for humanity to solve on Earth.
So, in order to survive in the long run, humans need to know more about things other than our planet.
Musk's first target is Mars.
At the meeting, he said that to terraform another planet, it must take a lot of work.
For example, for Mars to be self-sufficient, at least 1 million tons of supplies had to be transported from Earth.
Still, Musk said confidently
Someday, we can turn Mars into an Earth-like planet.
Of course, in addition to the vision of the distant future, there are planets closer to us and more recent missions:
DearMoon Moonshot Program.
The plan is scheduled to orbit the moon in 2023, and Japanese billionaire Maezawa Yusaku has purchased a full ferry ticket for the moon-circumlunar trip as the first passenger of SpaceX's circumlunar flight.
The "money is a seat" billionaire is currently seeking a (female) partner to travel to the universe and the moon.
At the same time, Musk also said that Starship has signed a mission agreement with NASA and will cooperate in the future to complete a series of missions such as the manned space station.
Finally, a short video of a starship spanning the solar system was released.
After the video ended, the video playback screen gradually fell, and Musk reappeared on the stage, saying:
Let's make it all a reality.
SpaceX rockets used to explode
In September 2016, at the 67th International Astronaut Conference, Musk unveiled the details of SpaceX's Mars program for the first time.
It was also the year that they flew the Starhopper spacecraft.
In August 2020, the prototype of the spacecraft code-named SN5 rose to a predetermined altitude of 150 meters, and under the premise of maintaining altitude, it moved laterally to the adjacent landing area and landed, and finally landed safely and smoothly, taking about a minute.
Just a month later, different prototypes of the ship completed the same mission again, verifying the reproducibility of its production and flight.
However, due to various technical difficulties, the SpaceX rocket was always associated with "blowing up".
The SN8 spacecraft launched at the end of 2020 exploded six minutes after liftoff, and Musk later said that he "had all the data."
After that, SN15 was a four-shot explosion, and the fifth launch in May 2021 was finally successfully launched and successfully recovered.
Entering the middle of 2021, SpaceX's rocket launches are gradually leveling off.
And with the end of this conference, can Musk and SpaceX really turn all new goals into reality?
See.
Video:
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1491954065084805128
Reference Links:
https://www.cnet.com/news-live/spacex-starship-event-live-every-major-announcement-from-elon-musks-update/