What is the super rocket Starship that could change space history and put humans on Mars?

No doubt SpaceX It has revolutionized the aerospace market. In the past 10 years, it has not only introduced and perfected the world’s most used rocket Hawk 9But the reuse proved to be almost considered Holy Grail Career, it is possible.

Falcon 9 today A vast dominant of the market initiatorsIt is scheduled to arrive in 2023 100 throws, An average of one mission every 4.5 days, figures that were completely unthinkable just a few years ago. But there is another important detail, He doesn’t throw them, he lands them and throws them again. SpaceX already has Falcon 9 rockets and some of them have already achieved 18 launches and landings.

SpaceX It is the company that puts the heaviest mass into orbit in the world. And through many differences, take into account Trade works For customers, and their own constellation Starlink To provide service Website Worldwide, added Manned tasks and cargo to the Space Station (which is NASA’s main partner today), and the Falcon Heavy.

But despite all these achievements, the work towards achieving its main goal and mission as an organization has just begun and another step is about to be taken from it. Boca Chica, Texas With the launch of the second test flight of SpaceX’s impressive new vehicle.

The powerful Starship rocket, the world’s largest ship, is about to launch This Saturday morning, The first flight test scheduled for yesterday from Texas was called off.

CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk, It states its mission thus: “To revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that people can live on other planets.” It’s something Starship is starting to thank for, its new rocket, its new transportation system.

The idea wasn’t just to prove that a rocket could exist 100% reusableBut to achieve it in a vehicle that allows us to radically change the way humans access, explore, work and live in space.

“The space industry should be like the aviation industry,” Musk reiterates, “if we don’t get rockets to fly multiple times, we can’t keep the cost of access to space down.”

If you want to have the chance to move entire industries to low earth orbit, develop and establish economies Human settlements Elsewhere in the solar system, in addition to recycling, it becomes essential. loading capacity, The new SpaceX rocket will surely open the doors to the unknown.

The Starship system concept has already been in development for years, with name and design changes, but it began to take shape in 2019 when Musk presented the world with the first version of the ship from Boca Chica, Texas. Call today. Starship, la MK1.

Since 2018, SpaceX has established its bases in South Texas to promote this particular project, conducting all kinds of open-air experiments and building its own city.star base”, with the sole intention of using it as a production hub, followed by the launch of Starship.

After years of testing, explosions, learning, changing designs (refactorings), more testing, and more explosions, SpaceX finally has a prototype that finally made its first comprehensive test launch on April 20. Although the plane get out As he achieved important goals, he also met great ones difficulties It damaged almost the entire floor of the launch pad during its launch.

Never in the history of the space program, regardless of country, have we experienced the design and development of so many rockets using such a small budget in such a short period of time. The ratings speak for themselves Hundreds of millions of dollars, When used to dealing with billions for projects that sometimes take decades.

It is made up of the first phase known as computer “Super Heavy” oh Super heavyAnd the second stage, called the shuttle “ship”Or simply Starship. No more or less than that Transport system SpaceX plans to use To take humans to Mars and makes the human race a species Many planets.

A fundamental feature that makes a starship unique is the secondary stage, or ship itself fully recovered, since his goal is to return to Earth. It does this by re-entering the atmosphere and using its engines to land vertically, but not before performing a daring maneuver a few hundred meters above the ground, where the ship moves from its horizontal position into free fall. Vertical that touches the ground.

To launch Starship, SpaceX had to design a new engine RaptorIt basically works Methane In the liquid state, and liquid oxygen as an oxidizer (Metalox), A trend setting composition in a new generation of launchers, very economical and easy to handle at low temperatures.

– It is 120 meters high, Calculation of super heavy booster and ship (70 meters for first stage and 50 meters for second stage)

– There is 9 meters in diameter

– It is 33 machines Raptor at base of Super Heavy and 6 on board

– It has a thrust of 7,600 tons

Loading capacity:

– 150 tons for low orbit of Earth, Moon or Mars

– 250 tons in its disposable or non-reusable version.

This is without a doubt The largest and most powerful rocket ever built. The numbers show the back and forth in the history of space exploration in terms of the payload a Starship can carry into orbit around Earth, the Moon or Mars.

The SLS (Space Launch System) currently holds that record NASA, which made its first flight exactly one year ago, sending the Orion capsule toward the moon. The SLS is 98 meters tall and capable of producing 4,000 tons of thrust.

Starship also caught the attention of NASA, through a contract 2.8 billion dollars SpaceX has selected a new spacecraft to serve as the lunar module for the next mission Artemis III and Artemis IV, In other words, the next astronauts to set foot on the moon again in more than 50 years will do so in a modified version of the Starship.

Another potential benefit is that Constructed of a special stainless steel alloyAn object Abundant, cheap and able to tolerate high and low temperatures well, avoiding the expensive insulation layers used in most of today’s rockets.

Starship S A true monster, But designed and built very simply to achieve one objective: To minimize the cost per kilogram sent into space, And thereby open the door to becoming a multiplanetary species.

A simple analogy can help put things into context regarding the stuffing scale of a starship. International Space StationIt took 20 years for NASA and its international partners to come together.

Starship is the beginning of a new phase that undoubtedly promises to change everything.