Musk's Mars plan moves towards new progress: 'Starship' test is successful, but there is still a risk of explosion

At this moment, we all look up at the stars.

At 9:30 pm on April 20, Beijing time, as the countdown ended, SpaceX in Texas At the launch base, a Starship rocket taller than the Statue of Liberty and its base took off into the sky, successfully taking off with more than 10 million pounds of thrust released by more than 30 "Raptor" engines (the engine was equipped with 33 station, but partially stalled during liftoff).

But unfortunately, the rocket exploded in the air and a complete test was not completed.

This is the largest and most powerful launch vehicle in human history - Starship. Musk described its launch success rate as like flipping a coin — only 50 percent. But this time, we didn’t seem to win the bet.

After the launch, SpaceX immediately stated that it seemed that the test flight was not exciting enough, and Starship experienced a too fast and unplanned disintegration before the first stage separation. The team will continue to review the data and work toward the next flight test.

And SpaceX still congratulates the entire team on the exciting first comprehensive flight test of Starship.

##The interstellar spacecraft has a total length of 120 meters and consists of two parts: the bottom is 70 meters high and is equipped with 33 The "Super Heavy" thruster of the "Raptor" engine and the 50-meter-high reusable Starship spacecraft on top. Its mission is to use a relatively cheap way to transport astronauts and supplies to Earth orbit to help humans return to the moon, travel to Mars and beyond.

Super Heavy and Starship combined are taller than the Statue of Liberty and its pedestal.

However, SpaceX did not plan to test the reusability of the rocket (vertical landing of the Starship or capture of the Super Heavy booster) during this first flight, nor did it Carrying any astronauts and payload. So, according to the original plan, both the starship and the Super Heavy would fall into the ocean.

In the original plan, the rocket completed the initial climb after launch, and then dropped the Super Heavy booster into the Gulf of Mexico, while the starship He flew alone across the Atlantic Ocean, the southern tip of Africa and the Indian Ocean, and finally landed in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii.

The flight test didn’t go all the way to Hawaii as expected. We can see the Raptor engine exploding after entering the spiral, ultimately terminating the flight as the vehicle was blown up just minutes into the test flight.

Musk’s vision for Starship is to launch people and satellites into orbit multiple times a day, just like jetliners crisscrossing the oceans. Last year, he mentioned that starships can carry 100 passengers and supplies at a time. In the future, he plans to build at least 1,000 starships to send groups of pioneers to Mars to build a self-sufficient city. If the launch is successful, he will be one step closer to that goal. He believes that this aircraft can open an era of interstellar travel for ordinary people.

In addition, unlike NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), which uses hydrogen as its main fuel, Starship relies on methane engines. Methane is cheaper and easier to use. And Mars also has methane in its atmosphere, which could allow SpaceX to one day get fuel on the surface.

After the launch, Musk said he learned a lot and would fight again in a few months.

If you dare to try, you can continue to move forward.

Starship and Musk’s “Mars Immigration Plan”

Today’s launch is Starship’s second launch attempt this week. On Monday, SpaceX halted the launch due to a frozen valve in the final minutes of the countdown to ignition. Although the first attempt failed, Musk said "I learned a lot today."

Globally, every launch of the Starship attracts much attention, because this rocket is closely bound to Musk’s dream of Mars.

Musk’s yearning for Mars has been around for a long time. As early as 2001, Musk planned a "Mars Oasis" project, planning to build a small experimental greenhouse on Mars to allow crops from Earth to try to grow in Martian soil.

In June 2002, Musk’s journey to Mars made substantial progress. He founded his third company: the space exploration technology company "Space X". Space

Musk said in an interview in 2009: "If we control the cost of moving everyone to Mars to about $2 million, we can create a big market. It is estimated that 1 Thousands to 20,000 people are willing to immigrate to other planets. People do not have to scrimp to buy a house on earth, and the money saved can be used to move to space."

SpaceX began developing Mars colonization around 2012 System (MCT, the predecessor of Starship), and the Raptor rocket engine used in the rocket began testing in 2016. SpaceX began building the first rocket prototype of the heavy-lift launch vehicle concept (BFR) in March 2018, and Musk subsequently announced follow-up plans for the BFR at a press conference.

At the press conference, Musk renamed the BFR. He called the first-stage booster Super Heavy and the second-stage spacecraft Star. Starship. SpaceX also said that its initial expectation was to launch a cargo spacecraft to Mars in 2022 and then carry out a manned program in 2024, but progress has not been as expected. Its prototype spacecraft has experienced multiple explosions, disintegration, landing failures and other accidents because the company always tried to land the prototype vertically.

However, in 2021, the Starship trials took a turn. After undergoing ignition and launch, ascending to an altitude of 10 kilometers and completing a series of complex maneuvers, the Starship prototype SN15 restarted its two engines and landed vertically at the Boca Chica launch site in South Texas, becoming the first spacecraft to fly. A starship prototype that survived high-altitude flight experiments. This helps Starship take an important step on the road to recyclability, and is also the core competitiveness of this series of aircraft (Musk once said that the goal of Starship is to reduce the transportation cost per kilogram of low-Earth orbit to about 10 US dollars) .

In February of this year, Starship conducted another important static ignition test, successfully igniting 31 of the 33 transmitters of the Super Heavy booster. This is the last major technical hurdle SpaceX needs to complete before preparing for the launch attempt.

Why is Super heavy needed? This is a considerable power upgrade for Musk’s next-generation launch system, because such energy is needed to land on the moon and eventually Mars.

The SpaceX team also built the world’s tallest rocket launch and reception tower. The launch and capture tower is 146 meters tall and is designed to support vehicle integration, launch and capture of Super Heavy rocket boosters.

Musk himself has been trying to lower everyone’s expectations for this launch mission. He said, "Success is not what we should expect... That's crazy."

Some netizens commented, "If you don't explode on the launch pad, you will pass." At present, it seems that the performance of the starship has passed the test.

## Picture source: Zhihu (https://www.zhihu.com/question/595711345/ answer/2988293668)

Starship, the hope of the whole village?

It is worth noting that the launch of Starship is not only significant to SpaceX and Musk. As a commercial aircraft, it is expected to undertake a variety of space missions in the future.

It is reported that NASA has selected "Starship" as the vehicle to carry American astronauts back to the moon to realize the manned U.S. "Artemis 3" mission. Moonshot. However, the relevant research and development process has been delayed several times. According to the latest timetable, the "Starship" can send American astronauts to the moon as early as the end of 2025. In addition, the dearMOON project led by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa will also use a starship to send 9 members, including him, to the moon to start a journey to the moon.

In addition to helping humans return to the moon, "Starship" can also promote the development of new astrophysics and planetary science because it can launch heavy scientific equipment that exceeds the load of other aircraft, such as Telescopes, observatories, satellites, and interplanetary spacecraft to carry these devices into space more cheaply.

SpaceX says Starship will be able to carry up to 150 tons of payload into low Earth orbit — five to 10 times the capacity of most current rockets. If Starship can launch regularly and safely, as SpaceX's family of small Falcon rockets has done in recent years, it could significantly reduce the cost of launching scientific experiment equipment and observatories into space.

## Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-65294084

In recent years, SpaceX has completed many landmark rocket tests and experienced many failures. Presumably today's launch will accumulate valuable experience for future efforts.

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