Why a big rocket? How to go from a small company to a giant Mars rocket: A trade-off between engineering and space exploration, and Musk’s plan
In South Texas, there is a company that is about to test a big rocket. The machine could one day carry humans to the moon, Mars and beyond.
Again, the decision to use such a large number of engines is a trade-off, according to Lozano. It allows the rocket to produce an enormous amount of thrust, which it needs to get off the ground. He adds that it is quite difficult having a lot of rocket engines firing at the same time. I think that’s going to be one of the biggest challenges.”
Musk was standing before a giant rocket about a year ago and said that eventually the Sun will expand and destroy all life. It is essential that we become a multi-planet species.
Musk hopes Starship will provide a critical step to becoming multiplanetary, by allowing large payloads to be carried into orbit for cheap. He wants to transport the first people to Mars.
There seems to be happy investors who want to let the company try out its rocket. He says if the launch fails then it could affect the business of all of them, and especially in the current climate.
Since it is nearly 400 feet tall, there is no reason for it to not be made of titanium, however it is made of a different type of steel. The Space Studies Board of the National Academies was told that Musk began looking at advanced, lightweight composites for Starship. He realized steel was cheap, abundant and extremely tough after a while. It could tolerate the intense heat of re-entry better than any other material.
Methane is an unconventional fuel choice for the rocket. H2o is lightweight and efficient for fueling high-powered rockets.
But methane does have some advantages: It is cheaper to produce and easier to handle the hydrogen, and trace amounts of methane are present in the atmosphere of Mars. It means that a future spaceship mission to the red planet might be able to get fuel from the atmosphere or a local source.
The Mission to the Moon and Back: Starship, SpaceX, and the Satellite-Based Internet Service (STARLINK), a Project of SpaceX and SpaceX
To make up for its extra weight, Starship depends on Raptors. The booster for the space mission uses 33 engines and six Raptors, but the spacecraft only uses six.
The Soviet Union tried to get to the moon at the end of the 1960s. It built a massive rocket called the N1, the first stage of which used 30 engines. Four prototypes were destroyed and a single engine failure caused the rocket to explode, even though the program was abandoned by the Soviets. America uses five large engines for the first stage of the rocket. The reduced complexity allowed the rocket to carry astronauts to the moon.
Assuming everything works, Musk believes that the cheap, durable design of Starship will make it a workhorse for getting things into space. Speaking last year, Musk said he hoped Starship could be reused every six to eight hours, and the booster might be reusable, in theory at least, every hour.
It won’t be carrying interplanetary missions in the near term. Instead, SpaceX needs it to transport satellites into orbit for its satellite-based Internet service known as Starlink. Starlink is a major revenue-maker for the company and there’s been strong interest from users. The size of the Starlink system is limited.
To meet demand, it would take thousands of additional satellites. Smaller rockets can only carry a limited number of people at a time. The company can use heavier satellites to increase profitability.
It’s not too late for NASA to buy a version of Starship to go to the moon, though it’s not likely to happen until several years from now.
SpaceX Announces “Expitement Guaranteed” in a Tweet from Musk about a Mission “Understanding the Unpossibility of Missions”
The first attempt to launch was to take place in South Texas during a period of 150 minutes. Just about 10 minutes before the anticipated liftoff, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in tweet that a pressure valve appeared to be frozen, meaning the mission would be untenable.
It seems that the company understands the risks. When the company recently posted its timeline for Monday’s test flight, it replaced “liftoff” in its mission timeline with two words: “excitement guaranteed.”