SpaceX - On to Mars

BTW, Elon Musk made an announcement about Mars plans a short while ago. The idea is to send 5 cargo Starships to Mars in the window end of 2026. If the landings go well, there would be crew flights next window, early 2029.

That does not sound very likely. Announcement made shortly after Chinese made public plans for Moon and Mars missions. Speculation was, that it was a signal from Elon Musk to the White House and Congress. If you want to beat China to Moon and Mars, you better stop inhibiting Starship advancement with red tape.

Maybe some pressure was put on FAA to enable Starship flights as a result. That's all speculation. But NASA talking with FAA about Starship has happened.

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Originally Posted by Takeovers

beat China to Moon and Mars

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The notion that the first country to land a man on Mars would be China, with a Chinaman up there planting the Chinese flag on it, red planet with a red flag, must scare them more than Wuhan Bio-Med opening a test-lab in Washington.

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Originally Posted by Edmond

The notion that the first country to land a man on Mars would be China

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Many US citizens argue, we can't be beaten. We were first, in 1969. That's like bragging, does not matter I am fat and lazy, my granddad won the world chamiponship in 100m sprint in 1969.

Others argue, people are inefficient in space. Send rovers. I think, going with NASA declared goals for Artemis, OK, send a black female rover.

SpaceX has now received the launch license for flight 5. Launch window opens Sunday 7:00 AM Florida time.

Launched perfectly. Starship in nominal orbit.

Insane, booster has been caught by the chopsticks on landing. Most crazy thing ever.

Looking forward to reentry in the Indian ocean.

Attachment 119073

Booster caught. Picture just seconds after landing. A little fire at the side. Fire went out a little later. Can call that a full success so far.

Waiting for Starship reentry.

Reentry ongoing, already past peak heating. Looks good so far. Ship will go into the Indian ocean. No recovery, except possibly fishing it out of the water, if it stays in one piece after touchdown.

Some burn through of flaps again. Next Starship flying wlll have different, better protected flaps. Landing this time on target, video from a camera ship. They will need a few more flights until they can attempt Ship landing.

Booster touchdown on chopsticks a huge success. SpaceX thought they may need a few more tries before success.

It was amazing to see something as big as that booster steered so precisely.

It was indeed. Was it remote controlled?

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Originally Posted by DrWilly

It was indeed. Was it remote controlled?

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Well there wasn't anybody on it....

Was half watching news with sound off and assumed a crash, utterly amazing technology to "reslot" a firing rocket.

“That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” Neil Armstrong, July 20, 1969.
Another incredible accomplishment!

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Originally Posted by DrWilly

Was it remote controlled?

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Only the decision to go for catch was done by flight controllers. That signal given, the rocket avionics did it all.

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Originally Posted by Takeovers

Only the decision to go for catch was done by flight controllers. That signal given, the rocket avionics did it all.

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Thanks. Amazing engineering.

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Originally Posted by DrWilly

Was it remote controlled?

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Originally Posted by Edmond

Well there wasn't anybody on it...

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:smileylaughing:

What would the tower 'chop sticks' be made of to endure the heat from the flames ?

XThe craft is stainless steel.Made of the right stuffStainless-steel’s high melting point is a major advantage when it comes to space travel. Aluminium or carbon fibre are limited to a steady-state operating temperature of 150°C, with short periods operating at around 180-200°C, but which lead to a weakening of the material. Some carbon fibres can operate continuously at 200°C, but these come with compromises in strength.
Steels, with appropriate heat dissipation controls, can perform at temperatures as high as 820-870°C. As such, an innovative steel-built system will be used for the Starship’s heat shield, which protects the vessel from the high temperatures experienced during entry into a planet with an atmosphere such as Mars or Earth.


The heat shield features two stainless-steel layers joined with stringers, with water flowing between them. The exterior has micro-perforations which then allow for water to ‘bleed’ out, keeping temperatures low through transpiration cooling.


Lowering the cost of travel to Mars is crucial to the project’s overall success and here stainless-steel vastly outperforms its competitors. Carbon fibre costs $135 per kilogram, and more than a third of the material is scrapped during the production process, meaning the real-terms cost is around $200 per kilogram. The equivalent amount of stainless steel will set you back just $3.

I hope to live long enough for my drinking buddies to enquire

'IS THE WIFE ON MARS'

"NO SHE'S STILL A LUNATIC THANK YOU"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZKcl4-tcuo

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Originally Posted by david44

XThe craft is stainless steel.Made of the right stuffStainless-steel’s high melting point is a major advantage when it comes to space travel. Aluminium or carbon fibre are limited to a steady-state operating temperature of 150°C, with short periods operating at around 180-200°C, but which lead to a weakening of the material. Some carbon fibres can operate continuously at 200°C, but these come with compromises in strength.
Steels, with appropriate heat dissipation controls, can perform at temperatures as high as 820-870°C. As such, an innovative steel-built system will be used for the Starship’s heat shield, which protects the vessel from the high temperatures experienced during entry into a planet with an atmosphere such as Mars or Earth.

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Those were the arguments, Elon made for switching from carbon composite to steel for the Starship body. Carbon composite is better at room temperature, steel is better at cryo temperature of liquid oxygen and methane and, most importantly, much better at high temperatures on reentry.

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Originally Posted by cyrille

:smileylaughing:

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There’s nobody on Ingenuity either, genius.

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Originally Posted by DrWilly

Amazing engineering.

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SpaceX have some of the best software developers. They poached a few of them from the computer game industry.

There are a lot of stories in the new book by Eric Berger, Reentry. SpaceX made a presentation of software development for Crew Dragon to NASA, by a former game developer. NASA staff was so shocked and mad it almost killed Crew Dragon.

A compilation of different angles of the catch, by SpaceX, including the moon dance of mechazilla. Amazing!

https://litter.catbox.moe/x6t2ho.mp4

despite the name, it is real. It is not (yet) on YouTube.

About that fire during landing. It may be intentional, to burn off residual methane. No confirmation yet.

Some of the Raptor engines in the outer ring of engines were damaged due to heat and wind forces during reentry. Elon said, it can be easily fixed.

The Falcon booster also needed a lot of improvements after first landings, until it was as reliable as it is now. Early boosters needed a lot of refurbishment before reflights and did only a few reflights. The present version does over 20 reflights and counting.

Starship too will need a lot of improvements until it does what it is supposed to achieve.

SpaceX is pushing hard for a next flight ASAP. They have the next booster on the launch mount and did a lot of tests, ending with a static fire of all engines. Flight 6 is expected some time in the second half of November.


A very good recording of a NSF Forum live stream. They have invested in a lot of very good cameras. Go to 2:58 in the stream. That's shortly before the test. Watch just the few minutes of the test or continue watching for may replays from different angles.

https://youtu.be/qxLAYSRJTiw?t=10722

I have linked to the relevant spot of the video. Or so I thought, seems it does not work. Just go there manually.

SpaceX is showing components of their HLS Moon lander for the first time. The graphics are done from memory by by a person who has seen it. They emphasize, this is not how it is intended to look like, just a collection of components intended to be in there for evaluation by SpaceX engineers and NASA astronauts. Astronauts have visited the facility.

Attachment 119632

A twitter thread, where this was discussed, with more pictures.

https://x.com/mcrs987/status/1852757671268487340

A picture which was seen in that mockup. It shows an arrangement of 20 bunks, which might be used in the first Mars Starship. These bunks for each person are very spacious.

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A picture of the nose cone at Boca Chica. That Starship nose cone is a left over of an earlier build and was then used for the HLS mockup.

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Plenty of comments, this is very poor use of the available space. But there is really that much space in HLS Starship and it already shows way more systems than the NASA requiremens. NASA requires 2 crew accomodation and this is alreay set up for 4.

According to a recent statement by NASA officials they believe SpaceX will land the uncrewed demo HLS Starship on the Moon in 2026.