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 ...
Wouldn’t be any more boring than months on a nuclear sub.
Or years in Mom’s basement gaming...lol.
I’m gonna have to set my alarm clock. Historical, indeed!👍👍👍
The weather looks good!
Well, that sure did not take long to go from the drawing room to the launch pad.
He should have negotiated an Air Force contract to launch something for free. Air Force launches are exempt from most of the environmental piddle.
Interesting article.
That’s going to be a ton of space junk, is it not? Microcollisions, even some macro, presumably unavoidable...🧐🤨
NPR, state run media, or affiliated democrat, whatever, softly criticizes Elon Musk.
They’re secretly hoping something goes wrong to the point of relishing an explosion.
What kind of shielding does he plan to use on this already-heavy ship to protect humans from the large radiation doses they would receive on such a long trip?
Musk and his team learned their trade from their predecessors, at least their documentation.
The radiation levels aren’t as bad as so many wish to believe. It will take fairly thin shielding.
Try reading the section on Biefeld/Brown propulsion...
So was I…have you seen what’s going on with the worlds leadership and our food supply?
“I’ve always loved the thought of being a Starship Ttooper.”
I ran across an old paperback copy of that book today. It was on the shelf at a pub we visited.
L
I really don’t see a technical challenge here. Just a cost.
There is no incentive ($$$) for dealing with this, so there is no solution.
Win big.
I saw them perform that song live and in the round way back in the day.
L
The only way I can see to be ready in case of a dangerous solar flare’s radiation would be to have a place on the ship that is surrounded by their fresh water supply..
The hydrogen in the water is a shield for neutrons... heavy water would be even better but even though heavy water is not really toxic in small amounts I would not want to drink it on a regular basis.
Heavy water(deuterium or D2O) has extra mass and is more effective at retarding neutrons than plain water is.
I don’t see this one on the launch schedule?
Sorry, my bad. It’s going from TX I guess
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