[V.Narayan]

SpaceX Starship

Background

Starship is Elon Musk’s big project to develop a reusable moon rocket that can carry a useful payload of a staggering 150 tonnes. It is a super heavy-lift launch vehicle under development by SpaceX. Standing at 119 m (390 ft) tall, it is the tallest and most powerful launch vehicle ever built, and the first intended to be fully reusable. The Starship will be more powerful than the Saturn V rockets that powered the Apollo missions to the moon half a century ago.

The original launch was scheduled for 17th April. A technical snag has postponed the launch to 20th April. If Elon Musk, for all his faults succeeds it will be a mind blowing achievement given that this is not being funded by the tax payer. And this is a real space project as opposed to those recent ego massage sub-orbital flights by Branson & Bezos.
https://www.firstpost.com/explainers...-12467692.html

The closest comparable rocket in terms of power and payload was the Apollo mission's Saturn V {called Saturn Five} which cost US$1.23 billion per rocket. Elon Musk claims his rocket will on mass production & use cost $2 million per launch.



The two stages when first mated


The Starship

The Starship launch vehicle is made up of the first-stage named Super Heavy booster and the Starship proper as a second stage. The second stage functions as a self-contained spacecraft for carrying crew or cargo once in orbit. Both rocket stages are powered by Raptor engines, which burn liquid oxygen and liquid methane propellants in a highly efficient full-flow staged combustion cycle. After completing their flight, both rocket stages will be recovered separately, including the Super Heavy booster which would be caught by the launch tower's mechanical arms!


The second stage or the Starship proper that carries the payload. The small wing surfaces are to provide control while landing back and within the atmosphere.

Starship is planned to have a payload capacity of 150 tonne to low Earth orbit in its fully reusable configuration and 250 tonnes to low Earth orbit if fully expended. It is designed to be flown multiple times to spread out the cost of the spacecraft. The spacecraft is planned to be refuelable in orbit before traveling to destinations that require more change in velocity to reach them, such as the Moon and Mars. Proposed near-term applications for Starship include delivering astronauts and large satellites to Earth orbit, building the Starlink internet constellation, and facilitating the exploration of the Moon and Mars.


Engines


View of the engines

It is powered by Raptor rocket motors. This is a family of rocket engines developed by SpaceX exclusively for use in Starship and Super Heavy. It burns liquid oxygen and methane in a highly efficient multi-stage combustion called full flow staged combustion in the ratio of 3.6 of oxygen to 1.0 of Methane. The engines operate at 300 bars which is claimed to be the highest pressure of any rocket engine so far.


Mission Profile - launch & return to Planet Earth



A birds eye view of the launch site

Two minutes after launch at an altitude of 65 kms Super Heavy will cut off its engines and release the inter-stage latches, causing the rocket stages to separate. The Super Heavy will then flip its orientation and ignite its engines briefly. As the booster returns to the launch site via a controlled descent, it will be caught by a pair of mechanical arms! – not sure how exactly that will be achieved though. After six minutes of flight, about 20 tonnes of propellant will remain inside the booster for any last minute challenges or re-siting.

Meanwhile, the Starship proper spacecraft accelerates to orbital velocity. Once in orbit, the spacecraft can be refuelled by one or more tanker variant Starships, increasing the spacecraft's capacity. To land on bodies without an atmosphere, such as the Moon, Starship would turn on its engines and thrusters to slow down. To land on bodies with an atmosphere such as Earth and Mars, Starship will first slow down by entering the atmosphere via a heat shield. The spacecraft will then perform the "belly-flop" manoeuvere, by diving back through the atmosphere body first in a 60° angle to the ground and control its fall using the four flaps.

Mean time after completing its mission the Starship proper will use its separate Raptor engines just before landing to orient the craft to the vertical. The vertical navigation system ensures that the rocket can be straightened from a 20 degree angle on any side. And then the rocket slows to a crawl using its rockets as brakes.

Overall Rocket Super Heavy + Starship

Height:119 metres; Diameter: 9 metres
Weight: 5,000 tonne
Payload to low Earth orbit
150 tonnes / Volume 1,000 m³

First stage – Super Heavy
Height: 69 metre
Gross Weight: 3,600 tonne
Propellant {ie Fuel} weight: 3,400 tonnes
Maximum thrust :16,700,000 lbf – like ~270 Boeing 747 engines firing at full thrust.

Second stage – Starship
Height: 50 metre
Gross weight:1,300 tonne; Propellant weight: 1,200 tonnes
Powered by: Raptor engine x 3 and Raptor Vacuum engines x 3 – used for sustaining speed built up and manoeuvring the re-entry & vertical landing
Maximum thrust : 3,300,000 lbf – like 52 Boeing 747 engines firing at full thrust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5QXreqOrTA

A 38-minute video but worth it if a reader has the time

[SmartCat]

Moving thread from Assembly Line. Thank you for sharing!

[Jeroen]

I was born in the late 50s. So I grew up amidst the Apollo program. I watched every launch I could and I saw the first moon landing live on television. This was in the days that not everybody had a TV in the Netherlands.

Both Gemini and Apollo have been huge and impressive undertakings and to date I am still studying them. There are some very interesting YouTube videos about some guys who managed to get hold of some of the original navigation and communication equipment. They managed to power it up and give some extremely detailed explanation on how this equipment works.

If you really want to know how the Apollo guidance system worked and what those pesky errors were that almost caused the moon landing abort have a look here

https://youtu.be/B1J2RMorJXM

I must admit I have not kept up much with modern space exploration. Especially anything with Musk name attached to it. Sorry to say, but I find him to be one of the most despicable persons on this planet. And I have met the man twice. Can’t wait for him to bugger of to Mars! The sooner the better.

Mind you, this rocket of him is something else. No is likely to surpass Apollo on many fronts. I really like to understand how that tower is going to grab that Super Heavy. Sounds like something from a SciFi.

Jeroen

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

The closest comparable rocket in terms of power and payload was the Apollo mission's Saturn V {called Saturn Five} which cost US$1.23 billion per rocket.

Originally Posted by Jeroen

I was born in the late 50s. So I grew up amidst the Apollo program. I watched every launch I could and I saw the first moon landing live on television. This was in the days that not everybody had a TV in the Netherlands.

If one reads up on NASA/Soviet Space program, it looks like there was a flurry of activity between 1960 and 1980. Setting up of a space station, probe to Venus/Mars and moon landing all happened during this period.

But after that, the major space powers have nothing significant to show for. Is it just my imagination or did major powers "lose interest" in space exploration during the last 3 or 4 decades?

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by SmartCat

If one reads up on NASA/Soviet Space program, it looks like there was a flurry of activity between 1960 and 1980. Setting up of a space station, probe to Venus/Mars and moon landing all happened during this period.

But after that, the major space powers have nothing significant to show for. Is it just my imagination or did major powers "lose interest" in space exploration during the last 3 or 4 decades?

Correct. Even the last moon landing did not have anything like the first moon landing in terms of publicity, people watching. Yes, we had space station and of course the US space shuttle, but public interest tapered off.

The space race was very much a result of the Soviet Union and the USA competing about who got the farthest. Initially the Soviets led, with Sputnik, first man, woman etc. But with the Gemini program the Americans caught up. And the Soviets never got anywhere with a manned moon landing.

Both Soviet and American space programs were completely funded by their respective gouvernementsgebouw. So basically, public money. And it took a lot of money. It became difficult to sell these sort of tens of billion dollars programs to the public. Well, at least in the USA.

One thing we have seen from the 80/90s is space exploration is becoming a commercial business. Satellites are being launched as part of regular commercial business. Same with a few other space initiatives. You could argue whether that is a good thing or not. But it is definitely the way forward. NASA relies on commercial enterprises to get back to the moon too!

Jeroen

[aargee]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

The space race was very much a result of the Soviet Union and the USA competing about who got the farthest. Initially the Soviets led, with Sputnik, first man, woman etc. But with the Gemini program the Americans caught up. And the Soviets never got anywhere with a manned moon landing.

Both Soviet and American space programs were completely funded by their respective gouvernementsgebouw. So basically, public money. And it took a lot of money. It became difficult to sell these sort of tens of billion dollars programs to the public. Well, at least in the USA

If you may kindly permit me to add Sir - In addition this was also the era of cold war that was fueling the space race. And finally when the cold war ended, they agreed upon the pact no one should set up moon as base station to launch a nuclear or non-nuclear war head.

Simon Sinek mentions an awesome point in one of his books {I think Infinite Game, not sure} about the end of cold war {which taught a profound lesson for me personally}. When both countries keep racing each other trying to beat one another, USSR finally gives up their race by bringing the cold war to an end. While US were preparing for their next agenda, imagine their shock to see the competitor is no longer participating in the game leaving them not knowing what to do next & turning their attention towards other things & thus the race to space programs were abandoned.

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by SmartCat

But after that, the major space powers have nothing significant to show for.

There's actually a lot going on! There have been several missions launched with regards to space exploration, but those are very scientific in nature. Hence, don't make for sexy news / PR / ego trip.

Just a few weeks back, ESA launched JUICE to study three of Jupiter's moons.

Last year, NASA's DART shuttle deliberately crashed into a meteor:

https://youtu.be/CkUf_dAHpAs

And then, when we "heard" a celestial body; sounds from a comet, courtesy Rosetta:

https://youtu.be/iCv7OlpV8jU

Here's a good page talking about them: https://www.planetary.org/space-missions

Is it just my imagination or did major powers "lose interest" in space exploration during the last 3 or 4 decades?

The "space race" from the the 60s - 80s was an unconventional war between the Soviets and the US. Courtesy a fair bit to this man:

https://youtu.be/8ygoE2YiHCs

As it got prohibitively more expensive, loss of man/equipment piled up, and the novelty of it wore off, especially after the fall of the USSR, space exploration went back to being about science.

[Red_Phantom]

The SpaceX Starship's maiden voyage ended mid-flight as it blew up after the Super Heavy booster and the Starship spacecraft failed to separate. It seems as they intentionally let it fall before blowing it up themselves after the separation failure became apparent. The spacecraft was also spinning around multiple times and appeared to have been out of control. Prior to all this, some of the raptor engines of the Booster appeared to have gone off.

Nonetheless, SpaceX calls the test a success, as they only wanted it to launch properly and Musk himself states that "he learned a lot" from the launch. And I agree, the data which they obtained from this launch will be huge and it will be very useful for them in the future, so calling it a success is hardly a stretch!

Here's a clip of the Starship prior to explosion:

[DigitalOne]

SpaceX Starship launches but blows up after take-off

Source: BBC

• SpaceX's Starship - the most powerful space rocket ever built - has blown up shortly its after launch in Texas
  
• There were tense scenes as the launch was halted with two seconds to go, before it was given the final go-ahead minutes later
  
• It took off, but when the booster tried to separate, systems failed and it appears the flight's termination system was triggered
  
• Elon Musk congratulated his team on an exciting test launch - and said they would try again in a few months' time

SpaceX will be thrilled with how far they got - they didn't destroy the launch pad, they got clear and they got tonnes of data.

I think for a first go, they will be amazed at what they achieved. They already have another rocket virtually ready to go, and that rocket has a huge range of improvements on what they learned building this one.

[V.Narayan]

Rapid unscheduled dis-assembly in flight!!! a.k.a. explodes.

https://www.deccanherald.com/science...t-1211446.html

The ability of these P.R. agencies to spin the words is quite amusing.

Some more for our thoughts...

-Rapid unscheduled deacceleration and frontal compression- a.k.a. head on collision

-Involuntary non-energizing failure of kinetic energy - damn car isn't starting

-pneumatic mobility device de-pressurization - puncture ho gaya

Think of some more.

While I am no fan of Shri Musk to be fair to the team such eventualities are not unexpected and a part of the learning curve.

[Jeroen]

About that launch tower grabbing Super Heavy, just came across the FB video

https://fb.watch/k3I5Q5ICyR/