Posted on 04/20/2023 8:39:48 AM PDT by Morgana
Elon Musk's SpaceX's Starship exploded into a ball of fire on 4/20 during its second failed orbital launch in a week.
The world's largest and most powerful rocket – which was unmanned - lifted off in South Texas and successfully cleared the launchpad, its first milestone.
But the craft was sent into a tailspin when the booster - called Super Heavy - failed to separate from the rocket in mid-air.
The mission ended at around four minutes when the failure sent both stages crashing toward Earth, imploding mid-descent over the Gulf of Mexico.
Despite the failed launch, the team at SpaceX reportedly cracked out champagne bottles and chanted 'go Starship' after the rocket's explosion. The entire Starship program cost around $3billion.
The companies leadership - including Musk - has repeatedly stressed the experimental nature of the launch and said any result that involved Starship getting off the launchpad would be a success.
Musk himself claimed last month that there was a 50 percent chance his spacecraft could explode during the launch.
The billionaire congratulated the SpaceX team on an exciting test launch of Starship' about 20 minutes after the explosion.
'As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation,' SpaceX tweeted.
The company shared on Twitter that its team will review data and work toward another flight for the rocket.
'With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today's test will help us improve Starship's reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multi-planetary,' SpaceX tweeted.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I should have also mentioned that what little air there is on Mars is almost all carbon dioxide (which begs the queation: Why no global warming lol) and the atmospheric pressure is more than 100 times less than on Earth.
So, even forgetting killer cosmic rays, no air, the cold temps and little water, there’ll be no free standing humans on the surface of Mars. Pressure suits of some sort required.
Do not disagree, but these young people, Generation Alpha, they don't go outside to begin with. So, in some deep irony, once this first group moves to Mars, Musk will have Marslink in place and of course local wifi, and if they want to watch anything live-on-Earth -8 minutes, there will be a fair amount of that.
As someone posted yesterday, equatorial temps can make a run at 70F, it's 'easier' to heat an underground dwelling than to cool it, as underground will seek the equilibrium of the crust/mantle.
And if probes have already found cave systems, the irony of Lascaux reborn with forced-air O2 pressurization? A vast open space with no suits and diamond windows or better ("Provide the formula for transparent aluminum, comput-ah.") to the sun, enhanced to mimic Earth-strength sunlight.
The rest of your concerns are already baked into the Martian cake, with long-term minor-gravity exposure the only one that Musk has only briefly addressed in white papers.
Sounds like the US, esp. of late.
Here is another look at the rocket taking off and exploding....
Robin Reliant
https://youtu.be/pJdrlWR-yFM?t=479
Here is an earlier model test flight of Elons rocket...
A Big Bang
https://youtu.be/ynyRqUXhHik?t=79
Noted.
Ah, you are correct! My memory failed me.
Mea culpa.
This is obviously a case of Klingon sabotage.
A lot of things can be done - in the looong term and I’d like to live long enough to read about the progress.
Successively larger domed enclousures, strong enough to survive the occasional dust storms, blocking the harmful rays, securing open spaces and heat & air, but allowing for food producing agriculture and livestock. Under and above ground structures for habitats, labs, small factories gathered together and communities connected by suitable roadways for Martian transport.
We’ve all read about the water ice deposits at the poles, ready for collection and use. Air mining for oxygen and trace elements. Conventional mining and processing of the regolith for the raw materials to form products of all sorts.
Somewhere down the line, terraforming efforts such as the proposed or dreamed of drilling of huge holes kilometers deep to release heat from the core of Mars. Mass planting of litchens or any survivable open-air plants that will release oxygen. All good but we’re talking generations.
As far as the people you mentioned - imo, most who would make motivated colonists aren’t the sort we have now that stay glued to a screen all day, need safe spaces, are unsure of what sex they are, have pronoun issues and might know how to use a shovel but would likely not be inclined to do so. Cabin fever would be a real issue.
But all in all, I’m for going. Pre-position the equipment and supplies, load a ship with suitable colonists and everything imaginable and blast off! Eventually, I would imagine the trips would be one way - a sink or swim sutuation.
I should of used the term excavating huge holes, as drilling calls to mind small holes bored with a mechanical drill. We’re talking truly huge diameter deep holes, sufficiently large to allow for the natural and continuous flow of warm air rising. 500 meters, probably more across.
That’s a big undertaking but generations of time allow for accomplishing big goals, if there is the will.
It’s also been speculated as to how Mars would become populated with various factions - such as one wishing to physically change Mars ‘for the better,’ in their view and perhaps another vowing to keep Mars in a pristine condition, as it was found.
Mother Earth would have a new sister, Mother Mars lol
You know Elon, this isn’t exactly.... oh wait. Never mind.
Agreed. It was a fun launch to watch. I really like that they aren’t afraid of failure. The only failure is not learning and moving forward.
definition of rocket scientist: someone who blows shit up until something flies ...
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I am so stealing that....
I have known some rocket scientists.
Sounds like coming down after celebrating 4/20.
“I am so stealing that”
sadly enough, that statement isn’t original to me ... it’s been around for quite a while ...
As I’ve asked on other threads, I wonder why SpaceX doesn’t use water (lots of it) to cushion the launch blast?
The SpaceX Starship test flight was intentionally terminated when the first stage failed to separate. Hence the “explosion.”
Heh, looks like China has been pretty busy... I wonder what tonnage to orbit figures look like for 2023?
As for THIS headline, more accurate would be: “SpaceX uses up old parts to gather data, in flight with dramatic ending.”
Ok, yeah, that wouldn’t sell well. Maybe “”SpaceX uses up old parts to gather data, then self-destructs rocket in massive explosion.”
(People like “boom”.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13KtGfpZtDw
(Pretty good early analysis of the launch. See the comments regarding the launch pad damage.)
bump
Mind you, not a Rocket Scientist, but my educated guess is that, up to now, the deluge ring was adequate. But that was using 5 and 6 engine clusters, not 33 like yesterday.
The interactions between 33 engines likely exceeded the models they had made.
But no worries: SpaceX tests to destruction **on purpose** . . .
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