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SpaceX Starship Updates -- NASA Artemis Update
My name is Felix and I am your host for today’s Episode of What about it!?
As always, there has been a lot going on in the space industry lately and thanks to 1400 votes, let’s dive right in!
Starship Updates
Anyone following my Updates closely has noticed a steady increase in testing activity over recent months.
By now, we’ve reached a point, where there’s testing going on in Boca Chica pretty much every day.
Every day is a testing day. Under this motto, SpaceX has had tests again throughout the beginning of the week.
Starship Serial Number 4 has to work double shifts right now with pressure tests, preburner runs on Raptor Serial Number 20,
currently installed on Serial Number 4’s thrust puck, and static fires.
Monday started off with high hopes.
SpaceX had Highway 4, leading past the test site, closed for yet
another test activity and the pad was cleared. Then came a long back and forth of pressurizing the tanks, venting and depressurizing.
It never came to the anticipated static fire though,
which still was needed for the 150-meter hop.
As Raptor Serial Number 20 is a new engine, that’s never been mounted under a Starship yet,
the static fire is needed to verify every system for a Go for launch clearance.
The Reaction control system was tested multiple times again and seems to be performing
well. Since there is no official word on how the test results are,
we can only observe from the outside. An RCS thruster though is a rather simple piece of equipment,
and so it should not really cause trouble. And
finally on Tuesday we got our static fire for Raptor Serial Number 20. And it was a good
one too. It’s hard to tell, but it seemed longer than the burns with Serial Number 18. Beautiful to watch as always.
Thank you very much,
Mary,
Rachell and Gene, LabPadre,
NASASpaceflight and Everyday Astronaut. All had streams going and cameras pointed at the site.
After the static fire had occurred though, a methane flame started burning on the outside of Serial Number 4. As you can see,
it’s a valve on the engine skirt. It must have been either leaking or it was just so hot, that it kept reigniting itself.
Automated water hoses
started spraying the area with water, with little effect for some time. A black burn mark became visible on the skirt. And the
situation seems to not be resolved even until today.
There were no tests since then and the pad has been clear and the road closed for a few days now.
One possible reason for this long closure might be, that the tanks are still slightly
pressurized, that SpaceX can’t depressurize properly and that it’s just not safe for workers to approach the vehicle at the moment.
It’s unclear, how extensive the damage is, but it’s pretty safe to say, we won’t se a hop this week.
I’ll as always keep you informed. Follow me on twitter, to get daily updates instead of bi-weekly.
This is a picture from Episode 92.
It shows the top dome segment for Serial Number 5 and there’s something I want to point out here. Do you see these holes?
It’s hard to tell right now, but these could very well be RCS thruster outlets.
The triangular alignment is typical for RCS thrusters and can be seen on many other
spacecrafts. Here
for example on Crew Dragon. Since reaction control systems need to be able to apply thrust into all directions,
and since the thrusters cannot gimbal, many of them are placed, pointing into all directions.
And that’s exactly, what we can see here.
It still is just an educated guess, but it would be great to see SpaceX implement more essential systems on future Starship prototypes.
The more of these systems are integrated right away, the more real test data can be collected.
One step closer to an orbital flight.
Sometimes it does feel really good to be able to say something for sure. Like in the case of this nose cone.
Starship Serial Number 5 seems to have found its nose.
Why am I so sure?
Because of this little label here. Up close it reveals that this nose cone is thought to be on Starship
Serial Number 5. Which makes this Starship the most advanced one yet by far.
It will not only have a nose cone, but integrated reaction control thrusters, three engines
and maybe, just maybe even aerodynamic surfaces like canard and aft fins. I
would love to take a look inside of this nose cone.
It might look rather simple from the outside,
but it’s pretty safe to say, that this piece of hardware is not at all empty on the inside. Header tank, plumbing,
COPVs. All sorts of components should now be inside, ready to be stacked on top of a waiting prototype
Starship rather soon.
The second test stand, I’ve talked about on an earlier episode, is almost done now as well.
It’s only missing the top ring, a place to put it and the plumbing towards the fuel farm.
Once done, SpaceX will be able to fly one Starship and prepare another one for tests at the same time.
Hopefully there will be many flights to come this year.
Next up we have another episode of funny descriptions on SpaceX ring segments. This one in particular is pretty good.
I am looking at you, Cory! Could you please explain to my audience,
what a Taco Dome is? Besides this thrust dome looking rather... well... not nominal in shape,
it also says not for flight on the ring segment.
So, it puzzles me, why the SpaceX crew in Boca Chica is sleeving this Taco Dome,
even though it most likely will never be used. Is the Taco Dome a pathfinder for something even better? A burrito Starship?
Cory, if you’re watching this, please enlighten us! As
always, huge thanks go to Mary aka BocaChicaGal for taking pictures of these sometimes really curious sights! You rock!
Cooper Hime took a few very nice pictures with a 2000 mm lens on Monday. You'll find a link to his Twitter in the description.
One of them shows a close up of the Heat tiles, installed on Starship Serial Number 5.
It’s not known, if these heat tiles are the final design, but SpaceX has been testing the hexagonally shaped tiles for a while now.
On the latest Starship Prototype
we can see a whole array of them on the thrust section again. As you can see in the picture,
there are a few differences here.
First of all, a few of the tiles are slightly brown in colour and others slightly blue.
Then, some of the tiles have holes in them and others don’t. Last but not least,
we have three different sizes. Large, medium and small tiles.
The colour likely is an indicator for different materials used as heat shield.
The holes are an indicator for the way, they’re attached to the hull. The ones with holes are attached
mechanically and those without are likely attached with an adhesive.
The different sizes show, that a Starship heat shield might either be built from larger or smaller
tiles or in combination. In places with round shapes,
SpaceX might go for the smaller tiles to be able to follow the bends more precisely. And
here’s another great one from Cooper Himes library! This one shows the hull of Serial Number 4 on the test
stand up close. What you can see here on the side is a Tesla motor. And the setup looks like it’s hydraulic.
This might mean, that Serial number 4 might either test the motor in a flight condition or it might receive fins for ground testing.
There’s no official word yet, but SN4 seems to be more advanced, than we thought!
Thank you for sending me these pictures! Cooper, you rock! Finally, as of today,
there are no test dates set. Today is the last day with announced dates.
I have to make a little correction too from my last episode.
Against what I said, there still is no FAA permit for a flight with Serial Number 4.
So, right now, we’re in a waiting position again for when the hop might be. and
if you want to get more info about Space X's Starship development details about what exactly they're doing and lots and lots of other interesting
insights into Blue Origin, NASA, Rocket Lab and many other launch providers and their rockets
I suggest you check out my quickly growing library of episodes here.
You can find tons of content about reusable rockets, SLS, the Artemis program and anything else space related.
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NASA Artemis Update
NASA is working on the Artemis program and NASA wants to land on the Moon. So far so good.
What seems to be more difficult with each month passing right now, is when and how exactly NASA is planning to do
this. So, let’s dive into the rabbit hole and take a closer
look at what’s the plan as of now and how exactly they’re planning the operation.
Artemis is the Greek goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, chastity and the Moon.
Artemis is the daughter of Zeus and Leto and the twin sister of Apollo.
And that’s why NASA chose the name for their next Moon Shot.
Artemis is supposed to repeat, what Humanity achieved more than 50 years ago with Apollo.
But it’s not only supposed to make a few more footprints in Lunar regolith. Where Apollo was meant to be a scouting party,
Artemis is meant to stay for longer, or as NASA likes to call it sustainably. For this, NASA had many plans already.
Involving many different countries and
subcontractors, the project does have the same scope as Apollo did. But, where Apollo always had a straight course,
Artemis seems to still be finding its way through a labyrinth of different ideas of how exactly to achieve the sustainability.
Just recently in February of this year, NASA
postponed the Lunar Gateway, once an absolutely essential part of the Artemis Program and the road to the Lunar surface.
Essentially a mini space station, the Lunar Gateway was planned to work as a stop for Astronauts and equipment on the way.
Where Apollo had a crew capsule, a lunar module and a lander and was able to do the trip to the Moon's surface in one
stretch and return to Earth. Orion and its European service module have different strategies.
There’s no lander.
So, the concept was to get the Astronauts to the Lunar Gateway on board an Orion capsule and then use a
separately launched lander for descend and ascend.
Since this involved an ever-growing budget, the US congress decided to change these plans.
Now, the Lunar Gateway is not on the critical path anymore
and NASA is forced to find different ways of landing their Astronauts safely on the Moon.
For this, private partners are brought in. Blue Origin,
Dynetics and SpaceX. All three are concepts that do not necessarily need the Lunar Gateway.
But does this mean, that the Lunar Gateway is off the table?
NASA’s primary mandate is to land Astronauts on the Moon by 2024. In a recent interview of Ars Technica with
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and head of human spaceflight Douglas Loverro, the official word
was that the Lunar Gateway is still essential for the long-term goal of making the stay on the Moon
sustainable. I have to make a little update here, as Douglas Loverro has left NASA as of May 18th.
So, one week before the Demo Mission 2 launch, NASA looses yet another head of human spaceflight.
This is not due to safety concerns for the launch though and everything for Demo 2 is still on track! And
NASA is still set to launch first parts of the Gateway in 2023.
According to the plans as they’re right now, an integrated nucleus will be brought into a Lunar orbit, featuring power and propulsion elements,
pressurized habitation and a logistics outpost. And the
agency made sure, that this first module can be launched as well.
SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy would be able to send it towards the Moon with an extended Fairing, SpaceX is
providing as a requirement for launches for the Department of Defence. So, the Gateway is still in the plans. What about Orion and SLS?
Even though SLS was recently delayed yet again to a launch date not earlier then late
2021 due to a Corona shutdown of the Stennis Space Center,
the system is still on its final stretch of
development. All major parts of the rocket, the service module and the capsule are either ready for a launch or very close to it.
Right now, Kennedy Space Centre is waiting for the SLS core stage to do a hot fire at Stennis.
Originally planned for August, the test will now likely slip to around
thanksgiving and the core stage will then be delivered to Florida early next year. Orion and the service module on the other hand are
pretty much done and ready for launch with Artemis 1, an uncrewed flight around the Moon.
After extensive thermal and vacuum tests at Plum Brook, Orion Capsule
002 and the European service module are now back at Kennedy Space Centre, awaiting Artemis 1 and the launch in 2021.
Artemis went through many changes to the plan and even more delays. Right now though,
it seems like we will see the first of at least 3 launches next year and a Gateway maybe as
early as 2023. All of this of course, if there are no further delays or yet another change of plans.
Space is hard. Especially, if the plan involves several countries and even more
sub-contractors, changing politicians and Administrators. Time will tell, if other straighter approaches will be able to repeat the success of
government run programs or if this concept will be the way to go for another 50 years.
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Link is in the Description! So, this wraps up todays Episode of What about it!?
How many Starship flights will we see this year
and how many SLS flights in the coming years? As always, tell me in the comments! And
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