Posted on 04/16/2023 2:00:15 PM PDT by BenLurkin
...150-minute window that opens at 8 a.m. Eastern on Monday, April 17.
Standing at nearly 400 feet tall, Starship is made of gleaming stainless steel, an unusual choice in a business where every pound of weight matters. SpaceX started out looking at advanced, lightweight composites for Starship...steel was cheap, abundant, and most importantly, incredibly tough. It could hold cryogenic rocket fuel and tolerate the grueling heat of re-entry better than other materials.
The rocket also uses an unconventional fuel choice – methane. Most high-powered rockets use hydrogen for fuel because it is lightweight and highly efficient...
...methane does have some advantages...cheaper to produce and easier to handle the hydrogen, and trace amounts of methane are present in the atmosphere of Mars. That means that a future Starship mission to the red planet might be able to refuel by drawing methane from the atmosphere or another local source.
To make up for its extra weight, Starship depends on powerful engines called Raptors. The spacecraft itself uses six Raptors to fly, but the super-heavy booster that will lift it into space uses 33 of the engines, working together.
Again, the decision to use such a large number of engines is a trade-off, according to Lozano. It allows the rocket to produce an enormous amount of thrust, which it needs to get off the ground. But, he adds, "having that large number of rocket engines firing simultaneously – it's actually quite hard. I think that's going to be one of the biggest challenges."
Musk believes that the cheap, durable design of Starship will make it a workhorse for getting things into space. Speaking last year, Musk said he hoped Starship could be reused every six to eight hours, and the booster might be reusable, in theory at least, every hour.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
Hope all goes well! The space & most other future looked bright to me as a HS graduating senior in 1969.
So long ago now...
I’m thinking of signing up. I’ve always loved the thought of being a Starship Ttooper.
That’s Trooper
Wanna kill some bugs?
Our next food staple?
Get up early, FReepers. Can find the launch of YouTube.
I was referring to those “bugs” in the Starship Trooper movie, so probably not.
You are just a few years older than I.
Musk intends to put Starlink sats in orbit around Mars.
It won’t take many since human habitation will all be along the equator. On a bright summer day on Mars at the equator temps of 68F are not uncommon... but oh those nighttime temps would be brutal with virtually no humidity to hold heat.
At the equator, during the daylight hours, often the spacesuits will have to employ active cooling to keep the wearers from getting way too hot.
Underground housing will be the norm on Mars, basically what you need is a cave and an airlock :-)
Last night at Starbase (Boca Chica, TX)
https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/1647429205947211778/photo/1
You forgot to include “Warp Drive,” which is mathematically possible. Go here for an introduction to a very fascinating subject:
https://www.space.com/physicists-give-warp-drives-a-boost
“But, he adds, “having that large number of rocket engines firing simultaneously – it’s actually quite hard. I think that’s going to be one of the biggest challenges.””
It is so difficult in fact that I don’t believe Russia ever got one of their BFRs off the ground successfully. One resulted in one of the largest non-nuclear explosions.
Relaunching in an hour seems pretty far fetched. Musk is like that.
Did you read Red, Green, Blue Mars books? And in the Matt Damon movie, where only a pressurized helmut is necessary and the rest is a tight fitting, strong mesh material. Cooled (and heated) as needed, as you say.
I don’t know if that will really work but that’s how it’s presented. As I get it, even with almost no atmospheric pressure, the fitted suits serve to maintain adequate body pressure.
Underground (or othervise protected): Yeah, necessary b/c of little magnetic field shielding from the cosmic rays.
“”SpaceX gets stuff into orbit at <5% of the cost compared to when NASA did it.””
Robert Heinlein is smiling down from Heaven. The bottom booster has 33 engines. Starship can be configured to carry 100 people, or just a great deal of stuuuuff. Both the booster and the Starship are reusable. That is just one of the ways SpaceX has revolutionized and reformed space travel. Some of the Falcon9 boosters have been reused 14 times! Watch some of the mockups on the SpaceX site. A Starship will launch into Earth orbit, and it will refuel from another Starship, for trips to Mars and elsewhere. One of the Mars rovers just proved we can make oxygen out of the Mars atmosphere.
This first Starship and booster launch is experimental. SpaceX actually ‘tested to failure’ previous Starships, just to determine limits, and, of course, improve design.
God Bless and keep safe everyone at SpaceX
Texas launch?
Before that: Project Orion would have carried a crew of 150 to the Moon, Mars, and the rest of the solar system - bigger ships would carry crews of thousand to the stars.
Design and concept for nuclear explosion propelled vehicle. Launched from ground on conventions rockets. Concept, design and model built. System worked. Larger the better. Small 10,000 ton vehicle with crew of 150 planed. Would cost same or less than Apollo. 40 million ton (= 265 supersized oil ships) interstellar vehicle next.
Motto: Mars by 1965, Saturn by 1970
Killed in 1964 due to massive political will failure. Reasons: Government inter-agency infighting, NASA Apollo conflict, perceived treaty obligations, lack of political leadership. “...the first time in modern history that a major expansion of human technology has been suppressed for political reasons.” - Freeman Dyson.
Test fire of 33 engines went off just fine
Yes Boca Chica
OFT Preview - If Starship explodes, is that still a successful first test? And what if it lands? - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6tQHzyGMrk
Absolutely correct.
But they will get you out of Earth's gravity well, so you can build your interstellar ship from materials in the asteroid belt -- possibly centuries in the future, but we have to start somewhere.
SpaceX has a launch facility in South Texas. That is where the first launch will be attempted.
For us all:
by Jim Robinson
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