Starship and a Human city on Mars

[Carl Sagan]

America's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has finished its look at the 2nd flight test, so we're now nearly ready to go with the third (a new licence must still be requested). But, meanwhile, SpaceX twice attempted what's called a wet dress rehearsal (to test the spacecraft and ground systems) last week, with Ship 28 stacked atop Booster 10, and it didn't work. As an indication the problem is with the spacecraft, Booster 10 has returned to the hangar for inspection and repairs while the Starship (28) remains at the pad. 

My guess is this means the third Integrated Flight Test won't launch until mid-March at the earliest. 

Edited February 27 by Carl Sagan

[Carl Sagan]

"Wet dress rehearsal" for the third Integrated Flight Test completed. And with some lovely photography:

You'd expect the launch within a few days from now. Another step further on the long road to Mars.

Edited March 4 by Carl Sagan

[Stive Pesley]

Applications are open if anyone is interested

https://www.usajobs.gov/job/779261100

[Comrade 86]

51 minutes ago, Stive Pesley said:

Applications are open if anyone is interested

https://www.usajobs.gov/job/779261100

Don't earn a lot do they? For running the risk of being fried alive during take off I'd be wanting a considerably more than £120k. Also, NASA aren't going to the sunlit uplands of Mars, are they? Meandering about in space breathing in my own farts has limited appeal, there's no pubs up there for a start. It's a shame as I'm otherwise well qualified.

[Carl Sagan]

Next Mars flight test is scheduled for Thursday 14th March UK, 6-8pm UK time.

This is much more ambitious than previously so, once in space, there'll be a test of the cargo bay doors (I don't think I can do that, Dave) and also a test of orbital fueling.

This flight test is Ship 28 on top of Booster 10. But SpaceX is building loads of these, so today Ship 29 was being tested out on another launchpad. The plan is to do a flight test per month from now on.

[Carl Sagan]

Thursday or Friday for flight 3, depending on the formal licence approval from the FAA and then the weather.

Despite this being much the world's biggest rocket, SpaceX has upgraded what is called the "tank farm" meaning they can fuel the vehicles incredibly quickly. Also, there's a new flightpath which will be shorter. It gives them a longer launch window and means the launch will be in daylight and the descent will be at night, which makes it easier to track the Starship in infrared. For the first time, there is a planned deorbit engine burn, and the hope is the vessel will come down in the ocean west and maybe north of Australia.

The booster will attempt a "soft landing" in the ocean in the Gulf of Mexico.

Elon has said they're hoping for at least six test flights this year. I'm surprised it's not more, but maybe he's being cautious for once. Already the next Starship (Ship 29) has been on the launchpad doing pre-flight tests.

[Carl Sagan]

The 110 minute launch window opens at noon tomorrow, UK time. 

You watch that video and marvel at how far SpaceX has come in such a short space of time. No other company can have such global dominance as they do in space launch. Massively ahead of everyone else. Elon is in a hurry to build our multiplanetary future. 

[Stive Pesley]

12 hours ago, Carl Sagan said:

SpaceX has come

Sounds like it's not the only one

[Carl Sagan]

The most amazing watch. Frequently I found myself applauding. As it happens, SpaceX is 22 years old today, and they have created such wonders. The Mars colonization programme is partly going to have to be funded by Starlink (genius business idea), which for the first time in history enabled us to get these views during reentry, when there'd normally be a comms blackout. Huge, huge congratulations to all involved.

This third flight test has pushed things much further along, using the cargo bay doors and moving fuel around the vehicle while in orbit. I would expect the fourth test (within the next 2 months) to carry and deploy payload into orbit (of more Starlink satellites)!

[Carl Sagan]

Here's a video capture of the moment of stage separation from space. For efficiency SpaceX has moved to "hot staging" meaning they light the engines on the Starship upper stage, while still attached to the booster, which caused problems previously but worked flawlessly this time. It's great to see the giant booster in the background - today it just went back to the Gulf of Mexico, but in future it will be caught by the launch tower! 

Then, when the screen splits in half, the left-hand side is that booster heading for home, while the right-hand side is the Starship itself, heading on into space. The graphics bottom right and bottom left, show you which engines are lit at any one time.

Edit: And, even as I typed this post, I get an alert on my phone that it's less than an hour until a SpaceX Falcon 9 is launching another batch of Starlink satellites. The Falcon 9's 25th mission of 2024. SpaceX is making the impossible look routine.

Edited March 14 by Carl Sagan

[maxjam]

14 minutes ago, Carl Sagan said:

Edit: And, even as I typed this post, I get an alert on my phone that it's less than an hour until a SpaceX Falcon 9 is launching another batch of Starlink satellites. The Falcon 9's 25th mission of 2024. SpaceX is making the impossible look routine.

Routine indeed!

[maxjam]

4 hours ago, Carl Sagan said:

The most amazing watch. Frequently I found myself applauding. As it happens, SpaceX is 22 years old today, and they have created such wonders. The Mars colonization programme is partly going to have to be funded by Starlink (genius business idea), which for the first time in history enabled us to get these views during reentry, when there'd normally be a comms blackout. Huge, huge congratulations to all involved.

Just watched some videos of the launch, incredible stuff - never gets old.  

IIRC the Starship weighed approx 5000 tons, is 40 stories tall and the biggest thing ever launched into space.  Every success is another step on the path to the Moon/Mars and beyond 

 

[cstand]

 

Edited March 14 by cstand

[TigerTedd]

1 hour ago, maxjam said:

Routine indeed!

Wow. I’ve never seen a graph that’s needed to do that before. 

[Day]

Genuine question, will Elon be going up to Mars on the first flight himself?

[Stive Pesley]

Good article about Voyager 1 here, and how they think they may be able to issue a Jet Set Willy-style poke to get the computer working again, but it at least demonstrates the problem of how long it takes to send and receive messages

https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/14/voyager_1_not_dead/

Quote

 A command from Earth takes 22.5 hours to reach the probe, and the same period is needed again for a response. This means a 45-hour wait to see what a given command might have done.

That's going to be heaps of fun for Johnny Martian - sat there holding his breath, waiting for an answer to the request he's sent back to earth to ask how he fixes the oxygen system...

[cstand]

[Comrade 86]

4 hours ago, David said:

Genuine question, will Elon be going up to Mars on the first flight himself?

[Carl Sagan]

9 hours ago, David said:

Genuine question, will Elon be going up to Mars on the first flight himself?

He's always said no, for the same reasons why he hasn't gone into space at all yet. We're at such a critical juncture in Human history that if something happened to him, it would still set us back decades (or potentially forever). For the same reason, SpaceX is privately owned to prevent shareholders taking control and deflecting the company from its mission of colonizing Mars.

Eventually, he wants to go to live on Mars.

[Carl Sagan]

22 hours ago, maxjam said:

Just watched some videos of the launch, incredible stuff - never gets old.  

IIRC the Starship weighed approx 5000 tons, is 40 stories tall and the biggest thing ever launched into space.  Every success is another step on the path to the Moon/Mars and beyond 

 

That video is great and then, bizarrely, ruined at the end by adding Sea Dragon - a 1960s concept vehicle that only exists in videogames. Why? Why would they do that? Meanwhile, look at how far Starship has come in such a short time: