The Challenge of a Multi-Engine Space Flight: Astrophysics for a Mission to Extra-Solar Planets in the High-Energy Range
The commercial spaceflight company is testing a huge rocket in South Texas. One day the machine could transport humans to other planets.
The decision to use a large number of engines is a trade-off. The rocket can produce so much thrust that it needs to get away from the ground. It’s actually hard to have that many rocket engines firing at the same time. One of the biggest challenges will be that.
“Eventually the Sun will expand and destroy all life,” Musk said, standing before the giant rocket about a year ago. It’s essential that we become a multi-planet species.
The SpaceX-Starship project: launching a rocket from a gleaming stainless steel for re-entry and rocket fuel
The company is interested in seeing its rocket fly. The company provides “Starlink” satellites which could be used to launch large numbers of them. Starlink is seen as a key part of SpaceX’s future, and Starship would allow the network to rapidly grow, says Tim Farrar, the president of TMF associates, a telecom consulting firm.
The first test flight of the Starship rocket will be extremely risky and unlike any other rocket. The launch attempt will take place during a 150-minute window that opens at 8 a.m. Eastern on April 17. When the company recently posted its timeline for the flight, it replaced “liftoff” in its mission timeline with two words: “excitement guaranteed.”
Standing at nearly 400 feet tall, Starship is made of gleaming stainless steel, an unusual choice in a business where every pound of weight matters. In fact, SpaceX started out looking at advanced, lightweight composites for Starship, Musk told the Space Studies Board of the National Academies in 2021. He realized that steel was cheap and tough in a very short time. It could tolerate the heat of re-entry better than other materials and hold rocket fuel.
Methane is an unconventional fuel used in the rocket. Most high-powered rockets use hydrogen for fuel because it is lightweight and highly efficient, Lozano says.
Methane has some advantages, such as being cheaper to produce and easier to handle, as well as trace amounts of methane present in the atmosphere of Mars. It is believed that a future Starship mission to the red planet could be refueled by drawing methane from the atmosphere.
The Design of Spaceship, a Satellite System for Launching and Landing the First Moon Missions of the Space Shuttle, as Described by Elon Musk
Starship consists of two parts: the Super Heavy booster, a gargantuan rocket that houses 33 engines, and the Starship spacecraft, which sits atop the booster during launch and is designed to break away after the booster expends its fuel to finish the mission.
In fact, the Soviet Union tried a similar approach to reach the moon at the end of the 1960s. It built a massive rocket called the N1, the first stage of which used 30 engines. However, even a single engine failure was enough to cause the rocket to explode, and four prototypes were destroyed before the Soviets eventually abandoned the program. The first stage of the Saturn V rocket was powered by five enormous engines. The astronauts were able to go to the moon because of the reduced complexity.
Assuming everything works, Musk thinks the inexpensive design of Starship will make it a workhorse for getting things into space. Last year, Musk spoke about the possibility that the booster might be able to be re-used every hour.
It won’t be carrying interplanetary missions in the near term. It’s not necessary that it be transported into space for the Starlink satellite internet service. There’s interest from users in Starlink, a major revenue-maker for the company. But the Starlink system is limited in how many subscribers it can support, says telecoms consultant Tim Farrar.
It could take thousands of additional satellites to build a system big enough to meet the demand. Right now, SpaceX’s smaller rockets can only launch a few dozen at a time. The company can use satellites that are larger and heavier to increase profitability.
SpaceX’s contract with NASA to use Starship for the space agency’s Artemis III moon landing later this decade leaves much of Starship’s development work to SpaceX. A $2.9 billion deal, inked in April 2021, was awarded to SpaceX over several competitors. It was later expanded to include a second lunar landing mission in 2027.
After NASA created the most powerful rocket ever flown to space, Musk is planning to create his own rocket, which could be nearly twice the power of anything flown before.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is trying to keep expectations low ahead of the test flight. “If we get far enough away from the launchpad before something goes wrong then I think I would consider that to be a success. Musk talked in a chat on Sunday night about the dangers of blowing up the launchpad. “The chances of us triggering an abort and having to postpone the launch are high.”
The inaugural flight test will not complete a full orbit around Earth. It can travel well into outer space if it is successful, as it will travel 150 miles above Earth’s surface.
Less than three minutes after takeoff, it’s expected to expend its fuel and separate from the Starship spacecraft, leaving the booster to be discarded in the ocean. The Starship will use its own six engines, blazing for more than six minutes, to propel itself to nearly orbital speeds.
After doing a partial lap of the planet, the vehicle will return to Earth’s atmosphere. It will land off the coast about an hour and a half after liftoff.
On the status of the FAA certification of the Super Heavy Booster Launch and Mission Plan for the 2020 lunar landing mission at Johnson Space Center
Its ultimate success or failure can be very consequential. It is crucial to the company’sfuture as a company and is also important to the US government’s ambitions for human exploration.
There is more riding on this inaugural test flight. When it comes to refining the design of its craft, the company has always embraced the risk of making mistakes.
The first launch of the companys Falcon Heavy rocket was supposed to be in the fall of 2018, but Musk predicted only a 50 percent chance of success.
Musk told CNN at the time that people from all around the world come to see what will be a rocket launch or fireworks display.
The Super Heavy booster is not the only one that will be prepared for flight. The massive, 230-foot-tall (69-meter-tall) cylinder is packed with 33 of the company’s Raptor engines.
The local community, including environmental groups, objected to the certification of the launch site as it would pose risks to people and property.
The FAA granted a request of the company for an uncrewed flight test of the rocket to be conducted in South Texas.
The FAA has been watching the compliance with the actions that have still to be worked out, even as the company prepares for launch, says an official in the agency.
NASA has been working over the past year to hash out a work flow between the space agency and SpaceX. It’s a dynamic the two organization have had to iron out in previous SpaceX-NASA projects, including an ongoing partnership that uses SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft to get astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
NASA is not, however, involved in planning the flight profile for this test flight or directing SpaceX on what to do, according to Lisa Hammond, NASA’s associate program manager of the Human Landing System at Johnson Space Center in Houston.
She said that there will be one uncrewed test flight next year and that it will be on top of the SLS rocket.
“I think that would be a great goal,” Shotwell said Wednesday, when asked whether that target was still feasible. I don’t think we’ll do 100 flights next year, but maybe we’ll do 100 in the years to come.
The first lunar landing mission is scheduled to happen in 2025, and will see astronauts transferring from the space capsule into the spaceship, which will take them to the moon. The vehicle that ferry the crew to the moon will be called the Starship.
The Starship-Super Heavy Booster Launch Test Run at the SpaceX Complex – Can It Be Re-Used?
Scheduled liftoff time: New York: 9.20AM / San Francisco: 6.20AM / London: 2.20PM / Berlin: 3.20PM / Moscow: 4.20PM / New Delhi: 6:50PM / Beijing: 9.20PM / Tokyo: 10.20PM / Melbourne: 11.20PM
SpaceX eventually intends for Starship and its Super Heavy booster to be landed and re-used. But for the vehicle’s first test flight, the company isn’t focused on Starship’s reusable design features yet. To catch the Super Heavy booster, both vehicles will sink to the ocean floor, instead of attempting a vertical landing.
The Monday test was intended to help engineers improve future launches and fix any issues that arise during the flight if the launch is successful. The New York Times reported that there could potentially be issues that prevent the test flight from taking place.