In September 2019, Elon Musk unveiled the first iteration of his next-generation vehicle Starship.
SpaceX continues to push the limits and this
next endeavour may be its most ambitious yet.
The company was founded with the intention
of one day creating a human colony on Mars,
and Elon Musk hopes that Starship and the
Super Heavy rocket will be the way to get
there. So how are they going to do it?
First things first, let’s clear up the names.
Over the years, the transportation system
has had multiple name changes starting with
Interplanetary Transport System to BFR a.k.a.
Big Falcon Rocket, although allegedly Elon uses the "F" in a very different way, and finally, Starship.
Built to carry 100 passengers, Starship will
serve as the spacecraft to shuttle both people
and cargo to Earth’s orbit and beyond.
At 50 meters, Starship was initially supposed
to be built with carbon fiber, but in January
2019, the team made the switch to stainless
steel. The material is denser and has greater
thermal properties allowing it to better withstand
the heat during re-entry. It’s also cheaper,
and of course, it looks awesome. The
spacecraft is powered by six Raptor engines,
three for its time in the atmosphere, and the
rest for propulsion in space. Each Raptor
engine is fueled with cryogenic methane and liquid oxygen.
While Starship has its six raptors, the real
power behind this transportation system comes
from the Super Heavy rocket. Standing at 68
meters high and with 72 meganewtons of thrust
at liftoff, the Super Heavy can carry more
than 100 metric tons. That’s because this
rocket has thirty-seven Raptor engines.
In its final iteration, the combined Starship
and Super Heavy will be the world’s most
powerful launch vehicle ever developed. Once
it reaches Earth’s orbit, the booster and
spacecraft will detach. Starship will continue
on its way to its destination, while Super
Heavy will return to Earth, landing vertically
like previous Falcons. As for Starship, when
it returns from its galactic voyages, this
behemoth of a spacecraft will re-orientate
itself and re-enter the upper atmosphere at
around at a 60-degree angle. Then, as it nears
just a few hundred meters from the ground,
the ship will turn its engines on to adjust
itself for a swift vertical landing. Needless
to say, this will make for a nail-biting,
edge-of-your-seat, viewing party.
And SpaceX is working fast to bring this project
to life. In the spirit of healthy intra-company
competition, the company is building multiple
Starship prototypes at different locations:
The Mark 1 in Boca Chica, Texas and Mark 2
in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Other versions
are planned, however the lucky version that
will fly,  will most likely be a later iteration
of Starship.
At this point, you may be wondering, how on
Earth is SpaceX going to pay for all this?
Well, by building one ship and one booster,
SpaceX envisions that this system will allow
it to pool its resources to focus on just
one fully reusable system instead funding
multiple like the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy,
and Dragon capsule. Starship would continue
to run re-supply missions to the ISS, with
the added bonus of being able to shuttle both
crewmembers and cargo at a relatively lower
cost than the Falcon vehicles.
SpaceX would continue to launch satellites,
and thanks to Starship’s massive 9m diameter
forward payload section, it would be capable
of delivering payloads even larger than the
James Webb Space Telescope into Earth’s
orbit. Finally, there’s also the lofty idea
of using Starship as a new, high speed way
of commercial travel, transforming the 14
hour plane ride from New York to Tokyo to
just under an hour.
But it might be awhile before we take those
types of flights. As for the final Starship,
Musk envisions its uncrewed orbital test flight
could happen by spring of 2020. So until then,
it seems that Musk may be one step closer
to his vision of getting humans to the red
planet.
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