SpaceX Starship Updates – Mars Mission Frenzy! Why Is The Whole World Launching Missions To Mars Right Now?
My name is Felix and I am your host for today’s Episode of What about it!?
And as always, there has been a lot going on in the Space industry lately, so let’s dive right in!
Starship Updates
I could have called this episode the unpredictable
Tuesday edition or something, because on the last Episode we were all looking forward to a Starship hop for the past weekend.
In retrospect though, the weekend turned out to be a little different than we all expected.
Hanna paid Texas a visit. And she did not agree with
SpaceX’s full schedule for the weekend.
I had plans to do a cameo on LabPadre’s camera and talk to the Nerdle on the hot mic,
SpaceX was in full preparations for a big party and everything seemed great… until the clouds arrived.
5.5 inches or around 14 centimeters of rainfall in Boca Chica alone.
Ground water pushing up. Huge waves clashing against the Boca Chica Beach.
It’s just not the type of weather you want for static fires or hop tests. And so SpaceX did, what anyone with a little
sense would have done. They pulled the plug on their plans and waited it out. The good news is nothing serious happened.
Hanna wasn’t that big of a deal for the SpaceX facilities
and no apparent damage was done. The topic of Hurricanes in combination with Boca Chica comes up
a lot in the comment sections of my videos and I’ve been asked many times, if Boca Chica was the right choice for SpaceX
and if the facilities there were safe enough to withstand any major hurricanes.
So, with the help of one of my Patrons, I did some research for you into the topic. Thank you, Markus,
you rock! Is Boca Chica safe enough for Starship construction? How real is the danger
and what’s the worst-case scenario we’re looking at?
What you’re seeing here, is a map of the general area around Boca Chica provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The lines you see displayed on the map are the tracks of storms that passed over the area since 1875.
The colors indicate, how severe the storm or hurricane was.
Red being category 3 hurricane, orange category 2, yellow category one, green a tropical storm and blue a tropical depression.
Storms and depressions can’t really harm SpaceX much. Hurricanes are a different story though.
They reach up to category 3. But those are rare. One in 1875,
one in
1945 and another one in 1970.
That’s three in over 100 years. So, even though the general area of Boca Chica is not completely safe from Hurricanes,
they’re rather rare down here. This does not mean at all though, that Storms have not had any significant impact on the area.
One dangerous aspect that has always been a part of the Rio Grande valley history are storm tides.
Welcome to the worst-case scenario. Hurricane Beulah for example in
1967 created storm tides of up to 14 feet. It devastated the area and re-shaped the coastline forever.
This is a map of the properties in the Boca Chica area. The lots under water are what was planned for a future of
Boca Chica Village, that never happened after the hurricane had passed.
More than half the lots that had been perfectly fine for settlements before have been below sea level ever since the disaster.
So, one thing SpaceX should definitely take into account for any infrastructure development in the area
is that the Gulf water sometimes comes for a visit and if you’re not prepared for it, it may just refuse to retreat again.
I hope, this answered a few more questions about the dangers of Hurricanes and storms in the area
and what kind of effects they might have on SpaceX.
Hanna though was not nearly as violent as Beulah and so for now, SpaceX is
safe. Charles Brothers, whom I featured many times on my episodes by now, has done one of his famous drive-bys again.
Thank you, Charles! You Rock! Link to the full video is in the description!
What we can see here, is the Shipyard just before Hanna arrived.
The new high bay is up to two wall elements now and the stacking continues!
It’s almost as high as the mid bay next to it and the size of it becomes more and more apparent.
Work also seems to be going on at the side of the road now.
This is the strip of land, that SpaceX workers used as a parking space before the two large parking lots were built.
I am curious to see, what SpaceX will be building here now that the cars are gone.
Maybe they’re making it a bit nicer and more pleasant to look at? Next up
we have the nose cone parade next to the old Mark 1 fairing.
Maria Pointer was on the road again as well, peeking into the tent where yet another nose cone is almost finished now. Thank you,
Maria! Check out her channel for the full-length video including her commentary! Link is in the description.
The tents are buzzing with activity on the inside with ring segment after ring segment being finished in preparation for Serial Number 8,
which according to Elon Musk will feature major upgrades and improvements over Serial Number 5 and 6.
What do you think? Are these segments already made of 304 L Stainless Steel? As always, tell me in the comments!
Back in Charles Brothers’s car, and fast forwarding down the road to give you a sense of how far away it is from the Shipyard,
we get to Fin Park. The new viewing and party area that’s being built by SpaceX right now.
The triangular stand has been covered with wood and here you can see, what the roof built from the Mark 1 fins
looks like right now.
Maria Pointer also visited the site at night and guess what? The rave cave is taking shape quite nicely.
This is a rocket enthusiasts geeky dream. At the foundation of the roof
you can see, where the worker from last episode left his concrete. I so wish, SpaceX would invite me to the party.
There’s nothing specific known yet though about if, how or when exactly the show will start. As always, I’ll keep you informed!
At the launch site, Starship Serial Number 5 is still waiting for its hop.
As of recording the episode there has not been a static fire yet,
but that might change any day now and with luck it already has when you’re watching this.
Preparations are done and SpaceX workers are applying some last-minute finishing touches to the test stand.
When exactly the hop will happen is unclear, but notices for test flight activity are given out to local residents on a daily basis.
The guessing game continues, and we’ll have to keep waiting just a little bit longer due to tropical storm Hanna.
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support. Link is in the description! The team is working relentlessly to provide you with updates twice a week.
Thanks to SpaceX's mind-boggling speed and with your support. It will be much easier in the future. Thank you!
I’d call this the calm before the storm, if it wasn’t so confusing with a storm just having passed over Boca
Chica. Everything is set and ready for launch and the window of opportunity is wide open in south Texas.
Mars Mission Frenzy
Speaking of windows of opportunity, another window is wide open as well and we can already see first results.
There’s some sort of frenzy going on right now. Space Agencies from all over the world seem to be
particularly interested in targeting Mars at the moment.
The hope mission, developed by the united arab emirates and the Mohammad bin Rashid Space Centre was launched on July 19th,
laying the foundation for Mars missions from the emirates.
A Mars orbiter aiming to broaden our knowledge about the martian atmosphere and its climate.
Launched onboard a Japanese H-IIA rocket out of the Tanegashima space port,
it’s already on its way to our red neighbor. The expected travel time of the Hope probe will be about
200 days on its journey of
493 million kilometers.
Next up. We have a cat that makes some noise in the corner.
Next up we have Tianwen-1, a mammoth mission towards Mars designed, built and launched by the Chinese National Space
Administration.
It took off from Wenchang space port on July 23rd and is joining
Hope on its way to Mars. The whole mission consists of an orbiter, a lander and a rover,
so it’s a difficult undertaking. Expected to arrive in a Mars orbit between February 11th and 24th of 2021,
and with a planned landing two month after its arrival on April 23rd,
the mission has multiple science goals. Find evidence of current and past life on Mars. Produce a detailed Martian surface map.
Characterize Martian soil composition and water ice distribution. Examine the Martian atmosphere, in particular its Ionosphere.
The list goes on and if the mission plays out as planned,
it should produce a treasure trove of knowledge about Mars. And on top of that, all this is soon to be followed by Perseverance.
A mission I featured many times on my channel before, as it’s the next car sized NASA rover to be exploring the Martian surface
including a small helicopter to take flight on an alien planet for the first time in human history.
It will hopefully launch on July 30th and I will of course be streaming it together with and for you.
But why is the world seemingly going crazy with Mars missions right now.
Why not spread the missions out a bit to not cause any traffic jams on final approach?
There’s a rather simple but very important reason for the 2020 Mars mission convoy.
It all comes down to travel time. How to get to Mars as fast as possible.
The first thought that comes to mind after watching Hollywood
sci-fi block busters would be to aim straight for Mars and just fly there, right?
This is, what would happen though, as our red neighbor is moving around the Sun in an orbit at around 24 kilometers per second.
That’s slower than Earth.
So, you’d never get there, if you fly straight out.
Instead, if you want to send your own little rover to Mars one day, you’ll have to wait for a so-called launch window.
For Mars, that’s up to 26 months apart. By using orbital mechanics and starting the journey while Earth is behind Mars,
the spacecraft can utilize Earth’s greater speed to slingshot out towards Mars. The trip might be longer this way,
but much more energy efficient.
This is what’s called a transfer orbit. Due to the orbits of Earth and Mars having to be in the right
position for this to work though,
the launch window opportunity is only open for a certain period of time.
That is why we’re seeing the space industry going crazy with Mars missions right now, as
Earth is behind Mars and just in the right spot for all this to work out.
This time around it’s created a whole firework of Missions launching towards the red Planet.
One of them is missing on todays Episode though. ESA’s Mars shot. If you want to know more about it,
make sure to tune in on Wednesday for our brand-new show and for Stefanie’s and Molly’s second episode of Wonders of the Universe!
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Todays special shout out goes to Alex, my new editor for doing an absolutely fantastic job of giving What about it?! a new look
and taking a huge amount of work away from me. Thank you for being awesome. You Rock!
