Source: Internet
Author: Levin
Internet of Things think tank collation and release
Guide
The starship program, which has been "stopped" for nearly two and a half years, was updated today by Musk himself, and the background is still a nearly 400-foot-tall starship spaceship.
Yesterday, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) announced the list of new academicians, and Musk with a "bachelor's" degree is also on the list. This morning, Academician Ma held a media conference in Boca Chica, Texas, to announce the latest progress in the development of the Starship.
Starbase, located in Boca Chica, can be seen as a new city built under Musk's auspices, with massive space facilities. Behind Musk's podium is a huge launch pad and tower, where future Starship launches will take place.
At this blockbuster press conference, Musk talked about several important plans and the progress of the starship this year:
This year SpaceX plans to launch about once a week
In his speech, Musk talked about the success of SpaceX so far, and has 106 successful landings, so many launches that he almost got to launch "PTSD", and he also hopes that SpaceX can carry out 50 launch missions this year, and in the future can reach the goal of launching 3 times a day.
Although he handed over a fairly good "report card", what Musk never forgot was the next generation of large rockets used to launch cargo and personnel to the moon and Mars - Starship. Designed as a stainless steel rocket, the starship is designed to be reusable and can fly three times a day in the future, capable of sending 150 tons of items or 100 people into space at the same time.
In 2017, Starship debuted under the name "BFR", but after two years, the first full-size prototype Mk. 1 was only built, and for the next two years, SpaceX spent most of its time in show-don't tell mode, with four prototype tests from SN4 to SN10 ending in explosions and failures: from directly hitting the ground to exploding 8 minutes after landing. But in the various forms of failure, we can also see starship's continuous advancement in landing technology.
It wasn't until last May that SpaceX test-flyed the 15th starship prototype, the SN15, flying at an altitude of about 9,000 meters, and successfully landed vertically for the first time without exploding or catching fire on the launch vehicle intact.
Late last year, Musk said at a meeting of the National College's Science, Engineering and Medical Space Research Committee that he hoped to conduct Starship's first orbital flight test in January next year, launching more than 12 times this year, but the plan was delayed due to the timing of regulatory approvals.
It is worth mentioning that in all the test launches so far, the public has seen the upper part of the starship, while the complete starship is a nearly 400-foot-tall steel rocket booster (Super Heavy) and spaceship (Starship) combination.
Starship - The giant booster is 395 feet (120 meters) tall, 30 feet (9 meters) taller than NASA's Saturn V satellite rocket.
Not only does SpaceX hope that the Starship (the black head above) can return to Earth for reuse, but it also hopes that this giant superweight booster (pictured below) can also repeatedly land after launch in preparation for multiple future missions.
To accomplish the goal of reuse, Musk also introduced a pair of huge "chopstick" arms installed on the launch tower: this is both the launch pad of the starship and the capture device of the starship spacecraft and its heavy boosters. When the starship returns to land, it will be captured in mid-air by this pair of huge robotic arms, which function like chopsticks. This is different from the way the Falcon 9 booster is used now, which is cushioned by landing directly on the platform.
By "clamping" the rocket in the air, it is possible to get rid of the weather and wind limitations that cranes are subjected to when lifting large objects. Theoretically, the giant rigid arm fixed to the tower could prevent windy weather from causing starships or overweight boosters to wobble. On the coast of South Texas, the base where the starships are launched, strong winds often last for months, which is critical to being able to quickly repurpose the starships.
Hope SpaceX can help build "Mars City"
In addition to this year's launch plan, Musk also expressed hope that Starship can deliver a large number of supplies in the future to build a self-sufficient "Mars city" on Mars. At the same time, the hardships and dangers of the mars journey will also become a major "selling point" for SpaceX.
Long ago, Musk unveiled his long-term goal: he hopes to build a city of a million people on Mars by 2050.
As the most important part of the Martian colonization program, the importance of the starship spacecraft is self-evident. The success of last year's test launch gave people hope for Martian colonization, but these are just the beginning.
In order for the largest vehicle ever to enter a set orbit, it takes more than 22 times the speed of sound to do so, and to achieve this goal, 29 Raptor engines need to be equipped at the bottom of the booster to generate about 12 million pounds of thrust at launch. Today Musk also said that he will increase this number to 33 without increasing the diameter.
On November 12, 2021, the Starship prototype is testing its 6 Raptor rocket engines
Known as the next generation of rocket engine technology, the Raptor engine is the most advanced and efficient "full-flow graded combustion engine." It uses liquid oxygen and methane as rocket fuel, which means astronauts can not only fly to Mars, use Mars' resources to refuel, or return to Earth, but even explore farther afield as part of a planet-hopping network.
As a result, SpaceX has been pinning its hopes on the Raptor engine. As of now, SpaceX has invested a lot of money in the Raptor, but the effect is not ideal. Musk even stressed in an email to SpaceX employees that if the production problems of the Raptor engine cannot be solved, what awaits SpaceX will be bankruptcy.
However, today Musk unveiled the second generation of the Raptor engine (above), with fewer parts, compared to the first generation of 185 tons of thrust, the second generation reached 230 tons, this thrust has a higher probability of achieving the launch goal. So the biggest constraint on starships has now become how fast they can build the raptor engines they need.
The cost of a single launch of a starship is less than 10 million
In terms of economic benefits, Musk claimed at the press conference that SpaceX is a rewrite of industry rules, and the output of SpaceX in the future may be 100 times the input. He said that in the future, SpaceX will be able to build an average of one Raptor engine per day, and the manufacturing cost of each starship will also be reduced to several million US dollars, and the cost of a single launch will be less than 10 million US dollars.
Over the past few years, SpaceX has raised billions of dollars to fund Starship and the satellite Internet project Starlink, and the company's valuation has reached $100 billion, but these are also a drop in the bucket for future investments. Musk believes that SpaceX's primary goal is to advance space technology that will enable humans to become a multi-planetary species and eventually a space civilization, and in order to achieve this goal, it will probably need 1,000 starships or something similar, which will consume astronomical amounts of money.
In order to raise money to achieve these long-term goals, SpaceX even took on some "private jobs":
In 2018, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa bought the opportunity to travel around the moon in 2023 aboard a starship.
In 2021, in a $2.6 billion contract with NASA, SpaceX will modify the starship to develop it into a manned lander for the Artemis lunar exploration mission, and the modified starship spacecraft will also land on the moon with astronauts.
Musk even estimated that in about two years' time, SpaceX would be able to launch a starship spacecraft at a cheaper price than the Falcon 9, even earlier than SpaceX proposed for NASA's Human Landing System (HLS).
In addition to using Starship for extraterrestrial exploration missions to generate revenue, Musk even said that he plans to use rockets to transport people between cities on Earth at a very fast speed, and it will take less than an hour to travel from the United States to Singapore in the future, or use Starship to launch its Starlink broadband satellite.
Write at the end
After today's launch, SpaceX's next phase is to wait for a launch permit from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to send the starship into orbit for the first time.
Under the plan, during the projected 90-minute flight, the starship will take off from the Launch Base in Texas, disconnect from the booster about two minutes after liftoff, the rocket booster separates and lands on a rig in the Gulf of Mexico, while the starship spacecraft itself will end its flight 60 miles northwest of Kauai, Hawaii, for a soft landing.
If this orbital flight is successful, the Starship will become the most powerful rocket ever launched by humans, and it will also be the first fully reusable orbital launch vehicle, a key breakthrough needed to achieve multi-planetary life.
As the first person to colonize Mars, Musk has always wanted to "make it real" his various ultimate dreams: promoting electric vehicles and using clean energy, releasing brain-computer interfaces, creating humanoid robots, etc., and even after the volcanic eruption, SpaceX also said that it may use Starlink to help Tonga restore the network that has been disconnected. In Musk's various seemingly unattainable dreams, we find that the goals he wants to achieve are "late but late", and almost all of them are constantly being realized. Hopefully this time too!
Today, at the Beijing Winter Olympics, the eyes of the world are once again focused on China, and the mainland Winter Olympic service team has also shown a high level of business capabilities, bringing professional services to participating teams and media journalists around the world, and dedicating high-quality Winter Olympic opening ceremonies to the world.
Based on this, the Wisdom Powerhouse Internet of Things Think Tank hereby holds the ""Intelligence Winter Olympics Together" - Looking for the Heroes Behind the Scenes of the Winter Olympics" activity to find those who provide guarantees and support for the event management, media broadcasting, viewing experience and other aspects of the Beijing Winter Olympics, to help the technology enterprises presented by the Beijing Winter Olympics, so that more readers can enjoy the wonderful events of the Winter Olympics while understanding the "black technology" power behind them and cheering for the heroes behind the scenes!
Resources:
1. "Goodbye Mars!" Musk said: SpaceX may go bankrupt, Mars can not go! Yan said information
2. "Shanghai metro passengers are caught dead, is fully autonomous driving safe enough?" Electronic Enthusiast Network
3. "Musk: Starships orbit next January Thousands of starships will turn humans into multi-planetary species," Sina Technology