Elon Musk will Reach Mars With This Amazing Starship: SpaceX has experienced enormous success in the space industry. Developing technologies that for most of us seem to be out in the distant future and more suited as the destiny of science fiction writers. At least until recent times.
Despite some obstacles encountered in the early testing stages, Elon musk created the largest spacecraft in history Starship. But what exactly is this giant and on what journey did it embark in an effort to set a man on Mars as soon as possible.
Starship formerly codenamed BFR Big Falcon Rocket is a manned reusable spacecraft designed to serve the needs of those in near-earth orbit. As well as missions to both the moon and mars.
This two-stage aircraft comprises a launch vehicle with a rather uncomplicated name super heavy and the spacecraft itself starship. Superheavy is the first stage booster of the next-generation launch system.
It has a total launch mass of over six million six hundred and thirteen thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven pounds. And employs supercooled liquid methane and liquid oxygen ch4 lox as fuel.
This was one of the main differences from the falcon 9 which burns rocket fuel. Following a successful launch, the accelerator returns to the launch pad setting down on a total of six supports.
The Starship represents the second stage of the system, has an integrated payload section, and will be able to transport passengers and cargo to low Earth orbit and other planets, as well as transport them between various fixed points on Earth.
In the past, when a spacecraft needed to return to Earth, engineers used parachutes or designed the spacecraft’s core so that it could land on the runway. SpaceX, on the other hand, took a different approach.
When the constellation is ready to descend it will enter the atmosphere at a 60-degree angle and then operate a kind of belly flop on Earth’s surface in a horizontal position. This return method relies entirely on the atmosphere to slow the descent of the ship.
As an added deceleration factor, four steel landing flaps are installed near the front and rear of the aircraft to control its descent, similar to the way a skydiver uses his arms and legs to control his freefall
Musk argues that this approach could be used to safely land a rocket on any surface in the Solar System. Starship is a unique project because if for anything else it offers to send 100 people into space at once or load 100 tons of cargo per flight. Even the largest spacecraft cannot boast of such transport capabilities.
For example, this spacecraft could not deliver more than 16 tons of cargo to the ISS and only seven people. In addition, it is Starship that will form the basis for the process of colonizing the Moon and Mars in the near future.
The founders of SpaceX have long been already established on the best option for the future of humanity. In his view, people have become an intergalactic civilization and an interplanetary species. An exclusively terrestrial biological species prefers not to live in anticipation of its imminent extinction.
Elon Musk aims to send the first humans to Mars in the mid-2020s and establish the first city on the Red Planet by the year 2050.
And if that sounds like nothing more than a joke to you then again BFR was originally announced back in 2017 and just a year later the project got a new name Starship which it still uses today.
As the basis for future spacecraft, Musk planned to use the carbon fiber that was so familiar to the space industry. But in 2019 he announced his decision to do away with it, saying the spacecraft would instead be made of stainless steel.
During his 2019 presentation, the billionaire talked about the unusual appearance of the ship, which remotely resembles a classic starship from the golden age of science fiction sporting a nose cone and landing plumes.
According to Musk, he is obsessed with using steel so he chose it as the base of the ship. The addition of shiny stainless steel Starship is coated with a thin layer of transparent refractory ceramic to withstand the many temperature changes.
While many people still think that steel is too heavy, this is a misconception. It is actually one of the lightest designs and according to Musk was the best construction solution.
Originally the Starship prototype used 301 stainless steel which is a mixture of nickel-chromium and iron. This material is extremely resilient to corrosion and is much cheaper than carbon fiber in the way most spacecraft today think of it.
While the cost of carbon fiber in 2020 was already more than $130,000 a tonne, the cost of steel was only $25,000 a tonne, as Musk announced in early March 2020 that some parts would be made from 304L stainless steel.
This decision was due to the fact that its nature hardens even more at lower temperatures. At the same time, Musk stressed that in the future the company intends to switch to an alloy of its own making.
Other advantages of steel The SpaceX chief also pointed to the high melting point. In the case of aluminum or carbon fiber engineers are limited in constant operating temperatures to around 300 degrees Fahrenheit and sometimes spikes to 350 degrees.
This simply wasn’t enough considering that Musk’s plans include about 1,000 launches and landings per year. The spacecraft needs to be as resilient as possible to sudden changes in temperature, plus the material plan for the engines installed on the ship has changed since 2019.
The first was six reusable Raptor engines to consume metal locks which are a mixture of methane and oxygen, the number of which will soon be increased to 7. It’s also worth noting that the Raptor managed to reach a pressure of 269 bar (3900 psi). -Year record of the Russian rd-180 engine capable of withstanding a pressure of 258 bar (3725 psi).
Also, the physical dimensions of the Raptor are not much larger than SpaceX’s Merlin engines installed on the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. If this trend of gradual power growth continues, the Raptor will be revolutionary in space travel.
The number of Raptor engines installed on the Super Heavy has also changed. Initially, 35 were installed, then this number was reduced to 31. They have since increased again, but only to 37 locomotives.
Not all of them will be deployed for each of the upcoming missions, but according to Kasturi himself, it would take at least 24 Raptors to send such a massive craft into space. Ironically, one of the starship’s design changes was based on the 2012 comedy The Tyrant.
In which the hero said that the round is not scary, the fangs are scary. Refers to the appearance of the rocket created by its engineers. The head of SpaceX said that this is why the nose of the new Starship prototype for 2021 has become quite sharp.
The Starship System’s first prototype was the Starhopper low-altitude vehicle, whose exterior appearance resembled a steel-tipped tank rather than an aerodynamic rocket.
SpaceX evaluated engine performance in 2019 with four small tests. On its first flight, Starhopper made a short jump of less than one foot (0.984 feet) lasting only 3 seconds.
Its last launch however was 500 feet thus progress is apparent. Subsequent prototypes include:
- mk1 was destroyed during the tank pressure test,
- mk2 was abandoned due to a new design.
- mk3 or sn1 destroyed during the containment airtightness test.
- sn2 successful pressure test.
- sn3 destroyed during a pressure tank test.
- sn4 destroyed in a static fire test although several previous models were successful.
- sn5 and sn6 reached an altitude of 500 feet thereby solidifying the success of starhopper.
- sn7 purposefully destroyed during ground tests in order to collect data for subsequent test flights
- sn8 flew into airspace and performed difficult maneuvers such as flips. but failed to land successfully due to the fact that the engines could not provide sufficient thrust for a successful landing. this was caused by low pressure in the methane tank.
SpaceX then proceeded to test three more devices sn9 sn10 and sn11. All of them stayed in the air for about six minutes, nevertheless all three experienced technical difficulties that led to either a fire or full explosion almost immediately after landing.
Musk, in turn, always shared information about problems that led to regular improvements to the ships to make subsequent efforts more successful.
The three prototypes that followed sn12 sn13 and sn14 did not have time to prove themselves against any of the tests.
sn12 was eliminated in the winter of 2020 and both sn13 and sn14 were also not completed. The sn15 then overcame the flaws of its predecessors, reaching 33,000 feet and then landing without a hitch except for a small fire at the base of the ship.
The latest Starship model was officially recognized as the tallest rocket ever built in August 2021. By comparison, the Saturn V, NASA’s largest rocket used in the great Apollo missions of the 1960s and ’70s, stood at 363 feet versus the Starship’s 395 feet.
Today the SN20 prototype awaits in anticipation of making the orbital flight. According to the current plan, it will travel around the world and then land off the coast of Hawaii 90 minutes after launch.
While the first stage of the super-heavy rocket will return to the platform in the Gulf of Mexico after 6 minutes. SpaceX is now facing difficulties with the FAA’s environmental assessment, which has put the companies’ plans on hold.
Kasturi’s team will not be able to launch the ship until the evaluation is complete. Starships in the future will be able to transport people and goods in our solar system to gas giants as far away as Jupiter.
But for now, the head of SpaceX has said that this is a long-term goal. On the other hand, what we just covered was only fiction two decades ago. But today the Moon and Mars do not seem so far away.
What do you think Elon Musk’s Starship will be able to send the first ship to Mars by 2024 Tell us in the comments?
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Information Source: Youtube – Wild Iron
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