Hello everyone, welcome to another new episode
by Engineering Today and back to back updates
on our favourite topic - SpaceX Starships.
Not only that, we will also like to share
some updates regarding United Launch Alliance
as well.
So stay tuned with us till the end.
From 6th of May 2002, SpaceX started their
journey setting a clear goal to reduce the
cost and time of space transportation, and
to materialize SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s dream
to colonize Mars.
They have added a number of achievements in
its path so far and now SpaceX wish to take
its pioneering work to the next level.
SpaceX is now trying to set up its starship
launch pads upon the chuck of salt.
As per the SpaceX and Elon Musk, the ocean
based Spaceports would be around 20 miles
away from their cities.
He has given some hint for ocean-based spaceports,
in the end of 2019 as well.
He has hired an offshore operations engineer
related to this project from SpaceX job listing.
The idea of building a Spaceport on ocean,
20 miles away from the city is somewhat came
from the noise problem in Airports.
Peoples, who lived near the airport, can clearly
recognise the exploding sound of aircrafts
landing or taking off.
SpaceX Starships are likely to generate more
intense noise compared to aeroplanes and because
of that, Musk said that Spaceports would be
set on ocean, a certain range away from cities
to maintain noise levels at their minimum,
especially for frequent daily flights.
SpaceX building its starship to fly three
times per day, which stands for 1000 times
a year.
If they are building same number of rockets
as Falcon that will be 20,000 times more compared
to the amount of current annual payload.
As per SpaceX CEO, 57 out of 100 SpaceX’s
flights took off from the land based Space
Launch Complex 40 (SLC 40), located at the
north end of Cape Canaveral, Florida so far.
However, the way that frequency of flights
has increased, it would require covering great
deal of distance from land.
Musk proclaimed that, after completion of
Spaceport, Earth-to-Earth travel would be
super-fast.
SpaceX Starship can transport 1000 passengers
from one point to anywhere on Earth, before
that, basic flight tests would be taken to
check if it works as smooth as SpaceX wants.
So we may need to wait another 2 to 3 years
for the first First Earth-to-Earth test flight.
So far so good, let us get into the next segment
now, where we will be discussing SpaceX's
lunar contract updates.
SpaceX, with having five lunar launch contracts
on hand, now has reached an unbeatable place
in the global space launch industry.
According to the recent information, Masten
Space Systems, currently taking its lead on
vertical landing technology, has given its
lunar mission contract to SpaceX.
August 27 at midnight, Masten twitted “WE’VE
GOT A RIDE!
We’re thrilled to announce our partnership
with SpaceX to take Masren Mission One (MM1)
to Moon in December 2022.
SpaceX, Apart from Mastens XL-1 lunar lander,
still has four more lunar lander to launch.
In 2019, February when SpaceX successfully
launched Beresheet lunar lander, under The
Israel Aerospace Industries.
Beresheet lander programs aimed to land its
scientific instruments along with a digital
time capsule, though the Spacecraft crashed
on lunar surface as the main engine shut off.
The CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk, is optimistic
for the upcoming lunar missions.
SpaceX is also building Falcon 9 rockets for
ispace, a private Japanese space company.
These launches has scheduled in between 2022
and 2023.
Launch under The Planetary Transportation
System (PTS) is also in SpaceX’s hand, though
the German Company went bankrupt and their
Alina lunar lander's future is in full of
uncertainty.
In April 8, 2020, NASA’s new Commercial
Lunar Payload Services (CLPS), planned four
lunar landing programs, one of them is Masten
Space System’s XL-1, which will be the first
moon mission of this company.
The agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services
actually wanted a partnership with other Space
Companies and Aerospace Manufacturer for its
lunar missions, as this will somewhat benefit
their cost.
It will also be future proof for NASA’s
Artemis program, in which NASA is planning
to send first woman and next man to have their
feet on the lunar surface.
XL-1 Moon lander has been in construction
for five years.
Masten says, these previous years of work
offers one of the advanced and futuristic
design with less hardware build.
Now in recent contract, Masten has made some
minor adjustments to its structural layout,
apart from that, other systems does not show
any sign of modification.
Commercial Lunar Payload Services has paid
of $75.9 million to Masten for this fine piece
of work.
XL-1 weighted 675 Kg (1488.12 lb) and 2675
Kg (5897.366 lb) choked with fuel, is quite
in large.
Masten claims that, even with all its equipment
and communicating devices it can offer up
to 100 Kg (220 lb) of payload on lunar surface
for straight 12 days.
After taking Masten’s lunar launch contract,
SpaceX is planning to land XL-1 lunar lander
to the South Pole part of the Moon.
This mission is mainly concern of the South
Pole landing position.
Loaded with multiple experimental equipment,
the XL-1 lunar lander will observe the conditions
and collect all the details it could, about
the area.
In addition, NASA wants to include one of
its astonishing inventions, a robotic arm.
This high functioning robotic arm is a modified
version of Mars rover parts.
Gathered information, later, will play a key
role in NASA’s Artemis program, which will
be landing on the same part of the Moon’s
surface.
Let's see what type of lunar contracts SpaceX
has with NASA.
SpaceX in partnership with NASA, developing
a starship to send the next man and first
woman to Moon in history of lunar space travel,
which NASA named Artemis program.
Having invested a value of $35 billion in
this program, NASA aims to deliver a better
and safe travel for its crew to lunar orbit.
“NASA’s commercial partners will refine
their lander concepts through the contract
base period ending in February 2021.
During that time, the agency will evaluate
which of the contractors will perform initial
demonstration missions,” NASA, later stated
in a press conference.
The gigantic two-stage vehicle, containing
a spacecraft and a super heavy booster to
lift it out of Earth’s atmosphere is under
process at Boca Chica Beach.
Lunar optimised SpaceX starship does not offer
aerodynamic fins and extra heat shield coat.
“A lunar optimized starship can fly many
times between the surface of the Moon and
lunar orbit without flaps or heat shielding
required for Earth return,” Spacex said.
Later, The CEO, Elon Musk explained, “We’re
working on new legs.
Wider stance and able to auto level.
Important for landing into wind or landing
on rocky and pitted surfaces”, also stated
“No need to bring early ships back.
They can serve as part of Moon base alpha.”
Loaded with a number of modifications, SpaceX
Starship offers forward thrusters to provide
a stable landing on Moon’s atmosphere.
CLPS will be holding other three lunar lander
missions, also having ULA in its list.
ULA’s two-stage-to-orbit rocket, Vulcan
Centaur, which was in development for some
years, will take part in this mission.
It has decided by CLPS, that ULA will take
Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander vehicle to
the Moon.
For now, this launched has scheduled to June
2021, followed by Astrobotic’s Viper launch
of Griffin lunar lander in 2023.
That's what we had regarding SpaceX today.
Let's look into some updates from ULA now.
United Launch Alliance has launched 40 of
Delta IV rockets, 41 is just up ahead.
The Delta IV rocket is a heavy lifter, has
completed missions for Space Force, National
Reconnaissance Office (NRO), and NASA.
The Delta IV, once at its orbital test flight,
launched NASA’s Orion capsule and The Parker
Solar probe to touch the Sun’s atmosphere.
The launch date was originally one day before
the current date, but delayed due to a customer
issue.
ULA stated that, NROL-44 is the first of final
five missions to be flown by Delta IV Heavy,
the other four, NROL-82, NROL-91, NROL-68,
and NROL-70 will be launched before 2024.
After that, ULA plans to retire the Delta
4 heavy lifter.
This 235-foot rocket has two stages.
Three main core boosters surround first stage,
each powered by Aerojet Rocket dyne RS-68A
with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.
It is the world’s most powerful hydrogen
fuelled rocket engine.
ALL three combined, capable of producing more
than 2.1 million pounds of thrust.
An AR RL10B-2, a cryogenic rocket engine using
the same liquid fuel as propellant, powers
the next stage.
National Reconnaissance Office’s (NRO) missions
are known as the most expensive and heavy
satellite mission that only the Delta 4 heavy
rockets are compatible.
NRO has paid ULA a huge amount of $2.2 billion
for five Delta IV heavy missions.
“Delta IV heavy is a very special vehicle,”
ULA’s director, Tony Taliancich said, “It
was designed to be able to lift the most critical,
really big satellites into orbit that can’t
get any other way”.
Until now, ULA has successfully completed
about 140 missions with outstanding works.
As keeping the name of “Nation’s most
experienced and reliable launch service”,
this community is focused on these five missions.
After 2024, The NRO heavy missions will completed
by ULA (60%) and SpaceX (40%).
The rival SpaceX is planning to fly Falcon
9 and Falcon Heavy to carry out missions.
Two years ago, SpaceX CEO, Musk twitted “A
fully expendable Falcon Heavy, which far exceeds
the performance of Delta IV heavy, is $150M,
compared to over $400M for Delta IV Heavy.”
To keep up with SpaceX, ULA is taking Vulcan
Centaur, replacing its Delta IV Heavy.
That's all for today my friends, hope you
have liked it.
Please take care of yourself and stay healthy,
we will soon come back with more updates.
