Humans have long looked up to the night sky and longed to explore it. Today, we are living through an era when the sci-fi dreams of previous generations are becoming a reality, and a very large rocket is likely to lead the way.
We're talking about SpaceX's starship. The giant spacecraft is likely to be the latest — and most public — of Elon Musk's many entrepreneurial efforts — but it has the potential to open doors to the stars — and send humans to Mars.
But what exactly is a starship? Why does it keep exploding? Will it reach Mars?
Some of these questions have undoubtedly kept Musk up all night, and maybe they'll pique your interest as well. Starship is a fascinating project, and as we sit on the edge of the cliff where Starship first orbited, learning more about it is an inspiring and exciting prospect.
The basics of starships
If you've seen headlines about Starship, you might be a little confused about what it is and how big it will be. "Starship usually refers to the entire system [the 'Starship' spacecraft and the reusable 'Super Heavy' first stage], although some will refer to only the previous level as Starship," said Dr. Abhi Tripathi, director of mission operations, at the University of California's Space Science Laboratory, tripathi, who has worked at SpaceX and NASA's Johnson Space Center.
No matter how you define it, Starship is big. The upper spacecraft is 50 meters tall and can carry between 90 and 136 metric tons of cargo. It alone can produce 3.2 million pounds of thrust, which is minuscule compared to the first stage booster. Known as the "Super Heavy," it can be traced back to the Falcon Heavy, and this section of the Starship configuration is 9 meters tall and can produce 17 million pounds of thrust. Obviously, if Starship is going to carry everything we need for the next phase of human space exploration, it will require a lot of power.
The starship spacecraft and super-heavy rockets (seen here with the starship at the top) are about 120 meters tall when fully assembled. That's higher than the Saturn V rocket used to send astronauts to the moon.
Starship target
When it comes to space exploration, you might be wondering why Earth needs a combination of rockets and spacecraft with such power. According to Tripathi, Starship has three goals:
1. Its immediate goal is to send a large number of Starlink satellites into orbit cheaply
2. Fulfill the manned landing system (HLS) contract with NASA and return to the moon
3. Establish permanent human settlements on Mars
For a private company, these are ambitious ambitions because even decades of funding for NASA has not made similar goals a reality.
But according to SpaceX, Starship will be able to:
1. Delivering goods and personnel to the International Space Station
2. Used to develop bases to support future space exploration
3. Transporting large quantities of cargo to the moon for research and human space development
4. Carry people on long interstellar flights and build cities on Mars
But "the ultimate goal of the Starship program is to build a fast and fully reusable heavy launch vehicle," Tripati said. Elon Musk has said that in his view, this is the key innovation needed to make life more planetary. Everything SpaceX does is a means to that end. ”
When it comes to the true goals of the Starship project, the word "fast" is key. "A large number of products need to be rolled out in quick succession," Tripathi explains. "The 'fast' part is important because the pace of launches required to put enough tonnage into space to take advantage of each Mars launch window (two years apart) is much more than current (and most planned) technology can do."
The ultimate goal of SpaceX and Starship is to send humans to Mars, as this futuristic rendering shows.
Starship with NASA's space launch system
For years, NASA has been building its own starship and super heavy at the same time, called the Space Launch System (SLS). SLS actually predates the development of Starship, although Musk has likely had this idea for a long time.
"Compared to NASA, part of the agency has been instructed by Congress to build a large (heavy), extremely expensive and single-use rocket called the SLS," Tripatty said. "Other departments of the agency are working to spur innovation through commercial competition and help bring to market many of the innovations needed for future human exploration."
This divergent goal creates some inefficiencies that put NASA behind in this particular "space race," though some within NASA might say that private companies like SpaceX are better places to innovate and grow faster. Given the announcement that the International Space Station will run until 2030, it's clear that NASA is seeking a private sector take over from America's continued excellence in space exploration, and SpaceX is well positioned to lead that effort.
"In my opinion, SpaceX has the advantage of 13 years of experience, and that experience is built on top of itself in a multiplicative way," Tripathi said. "After mastering something simpler that some other companies have just learned and demonstrated, they're trying to do something."
NASA's SLS predates SpaceX's starship. It is a skyscraper-sized SLS rocket and Orion chimney, about 115.8 meters high, slightly below the 120 meters height of the Starship.
Starship tests to date
SpaceX may be leading the space race, but not all starship launch tests are going well. Most of the prototypes have exploded so far, and some haven't even taken off yet. The others experienced a fiery forced landing, while one successfully took off and landed, but exploded minutes after landing on the launch pad.
But finally, on May 5, 2021, Starship conducted successful flight tests, with the prototype powered by three Raptor engines, each of which shut down sequentially before it reached its highest altitude (about 10 kilometers from Earth). The starship then reorients itself for re-entry and controlled descent before landing safely.
What Starship failed to test was its first orbital launch.
The plan is to launch the Starship into orbit from Starbase in Texas. The booster phase will take off after about 170 seconds, then perform a partial return and land in the Gulf of Mexico, about 32 kilometers from the coast. The starship will continue to fly and enter orbit before making a targeted landing about 100 kilometers off the northwest coast of Hawaii's island of Kauai.
Prior to an orbital test launch, SpaceX is awaiting a final environmental review from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Originally scheduled for February 28, 2022, it has been postponed twice. The target date for the audit is now March 28, 2022.
Starship has experienced several failed attempts and spectacular crashes in its test flights over the past few months.
In the long run, Starship is just the next level of rockets our species are trying to explore beyond Earth. If SpaceX can complete the development and certification of Starship, it will open up all new avenues for unmanned scientific and commercial tasks and human exploration.
This should be exciting for many people on Earth, even if they have never reached space. I believe that the future will definitely affect the future of the whole space, even our planet, and I am looking forward to that day.
Thank you for watching, I am the Cosmic Explorer, welcome to comment, like and follow, we will see you in the next issue.