Questions tagged [spacex-starship]
Questions regarding SpaceX's Starship, formerly the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) upper stage or BFS
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1answer
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Why did the SpaceX Starship MK1 prototype pop?
During a pressurization test on November 20th, 2019, SpaceX's Starship MK1 prototype "popped" at the SpaceX facility in Boca Chica TX.
Do we know what caused this apparent failure? Some claim that ...
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5answers
5k views
Why is SpaceX not also working on a smaller version of Starship?
SpaceX is planning to retire Falcon 9, which would leave it with only Starship. While a Starship launch is expected to be cheaper than a Falcon 9 one, a downscaled Starship launch would be cheaper ...
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0answers
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Power supply for StarShip?
Early renderings of the Mars Colonial Transport showed 2 fan shaped solar arrays deployed while in space. I haven seen any depictions of the StarShip with a solar array either in orbit or standing on ...
3
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1answer
178 views
What is the expected date for the first Starship 20km test flight?
What is the expected date for the first Starship test flight which is aiming for 20km flight? Is there any news about it?
Initially, it was 11th October but after September 27 presentation it is ...
3
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1answer
208 views
Why do two Starships dock in such a manner their heat shields face opposite sides?
In the Starship Launch Animation, first, a crewed Starship launches and reaches orbit. Then the fuel tanker Starship rendezvous with the former and docks like this for orbital re-fuelling.
It can be ...
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4answers
303 views
Why don't we use sound suppression system when rocket lands propulsively?
We know that the sound suppression system (water deluge system) is used to protect the launch vehicle from the acoustic energy produced by the engines. For most of the expendable launch vehicles, it ...
25
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2answers
6k views
SpaceX Starship landing on Moon or Mars: why doesn't it fall over?
How does the SpaceX Starship design accommodate uneven landing surfaces that might not be stable under the weight of the vessel?
I don't understand how SpaceX's Starship would be able to land on ...
3
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1answer
221 views
What are SpaceX's Starship's header tanks?
In the Everyday Astronaut video A conversation with Elon Musk about Starship after about 13:00 Musk shows Dodd a cell phone video that he shot in the top(?) of the ...
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3answers
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How will the crew exit Starship when it lands on Mars?
When SpaceStarship lands Mars, the crew will be almost 50 meters above the surface. How will they get out with all their equipment?
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0answers
135 views
Could SpaceX's Starship's landing and restart process work on Titan?
Gravity on Saturn's moon Titan is much weaker and the atmosphere is far denser than either Earth's or Mars's, which Starship seems to have been designed for. Could an unmanned starship do an Earth-...
3
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0answers
106 views
How do the mechanical properties of 301 stainless steel, carbon fibre composites, and Aluminium-Lithium alloys compare?
The design of Starship and its Super Heavy booster is based on the reported fact that 301 stainless steel is advantageous to advanced carbon fiber composites and Aluminium-Lithium alloys at both ...
2
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1answer
168 views
What might the description “tiny glass vermicelli at a microstructure level” refer to? (SpaceX Starship heat shield tiles)
In the Starship Update at about 21:05 Musk says:
We’ve gone through various iterations of heat shield, there’s a lot of ways to skin a cat here. Ultimately we ...
3
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1answer
217 views
What are these things in Elon Musk's tweeted Starship video?
I don't understand what I'm looking at in the video of this Elon Musk tweet. The text says:
Just leaving SpaceX Starship build site in Boca
These are reminiscent of funhouse mirrors. What are ...
6
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1answer
391 views
What will the role of a pilot be on the SpaceX Starship?
I suspect that near Earth, everything will be remotely automated. But for lunar operations, the latency of communication may necessitate SOME local human interaction, and it seems Mars operations ...
6
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2answers
351 views
Is SpaceX's Starship single stage to orbit?
A recent Space.com article says:
We should see the (Space-X Starship) Mk1 in action soon. SpaceX aims
to fly the vehicle to an altitude of about 12 miles (20 kilometers) in
October, then ...
7
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1answer
242 views
Why did August 28th, 2019 Starhopper's test roll so much to the left?
The last Starhopper test flight included a left roll of roughly 160°. It seems to have tried stopping the roll shortly after apogee using RCS thrusters, and once again shortly before touchdown.
...
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5answers
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Why doesn't Starship have four landing legs?
A counterpart to the question Why doesn't the Falcon-9 first stage use three legs to land?
This excellent answer states that the first stage of the Falcon-9 uses four legs because four legs are ...
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1answer
194 views
Is a Mars return mission by Starship possible without local propellant production, given the current specifications?
Let's imagine that Starship and Super Heavy were currently operational delivering the anticipated performance and reliably performing orbital refueling. As far as I know, Starship is capable of ...
1
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1answer
108 views
Could Spacex build a starhopper (starship prototype) at Vandenburg, CA launch site?
I know Spacex is building a starhopper (starship prototype) in Texas and Florida. Could they also build a starhopper prototype at the Vandenburg, CA launch complex? I know Vandenburg is better for ...
4
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2answers
456 views
How will SpaceX's Starship accommodate its 100 passengers from the effects of micro-gravity?
According to this Wikipedia article, Starship will take on average 115 days (3.8 months) to get to Mars and 150 days maximum (4.9 months).
with an average trip time to Mars of approximately 115 ...
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2answers
199 views
What are the ways in which launch cost/ kg could be reduced below that of the proposed BFR? [closed]
As seen in this spacex video, they claim that the BFR, when ready, would have the lowest marginal cost per launch. Also, it has the maximum payload of the rockets mentioned in the video. Is there any ...
2
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1answer
133 views
Is there any use for the “main body tool” of the BFR, now that the design has switched from carbon fiber to steel?
As far as I know, the BFR's main body tool was supposed to serve as a positive mold for the carbon fiber structure. Now that the design is deprecated and that SpaceX is building Starhopper without ...
4
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1answer
391 views
Could the BFR Tanker be used as an artificial gravity counterweight for interplanetary travel?
An alternative storyline to the Mars transport architecture: Tankers refuel starship, last Tanker gets mounted on the Starship for the Mars orbital injection burn, once on a Martian trajectory tanker ...
3
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1answer
237 views
For the Starhopper testing, how will SpaceX hold down the vehicle?
SpaceX is testing the Raptor engine on the Starhopper they built in Boca Chica.
For static fires of a Falcon 9/Heavy they use the pad itself, the holddowns to the pad, to keep it from taking off.
...
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0answers
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Has SpaceX been communicating with the German SHEFEX program about their actively cooled heat shield tests?
The German SHarp Edge Flight EXperiment has used some sounding rockets to test aerodynamic control surfaces during hypersonic reentry. The nose consists of thin ceramic plates bolted to aluminum with ...
4
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1answer
278 views
What type of propellant does Spacex plan to use in Starship for long duration missions?
For long duration missions such as ones to mars what type of propellant would be best suited?
5
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1answer
410 views
Will SpaceX vehicles orbit Mars before they enter the atmosphere?
When SpaceX starts sending vehicles to Mars, how will they handle landing on Mars?
Will the Starship (Upper Stage, transit vehicle) slow down enough to capture into orbit of Mars before entering the ...
7
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2answers
2k views
What are SpaceX Starship/BFR proposed abort modes?
From the different renderings of Starship no escape systems can be seen.
What will the different abort modes both during launch and landing be like?
What happens for example if the first stage ...
16
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1answer
619 views
How will SpaceX Starship deploy its payload?
Most modern orbital launchers like the SpaceX Falcon9 have their payload at the front covered by a fairing which splits in half, ejecting the fairings and exposing the payload for deployment.
With ...
4
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2answers
358 views
Active liquid cooling for heat shield
I have not found much about active liquid cooling for heat shields using cryogenic fuel. It has been mentioned but not researched in depth. It may never have been done. Now that the Starship seems to ...
7
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1answer
930 views
Why has SpaceX changed Starship from carbon fiber composite to stainless steel?
Recently, there was news that SpaceX changed the material used for the BFS/Starship (upper stage of the BFR) from initially planned carbon fiber to metal which seems quite counter-intuitive as carbon ...
4
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1answer
776 views
Why can't SpaceX Starship perform the same landing procedure as the Falcon 9 does?
I know... Elon Musk calls the redesign of the BFR "unintuitive".
I'm just trying to get ahead of the Starship introduction and hop test presumably in March/April timeline.
But isn't it better to use ...
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1answer
111 views
should spacex have 2 versions of the BFS (sub-orbital city and orbital BFR)? [closed]
The Big Falcon Ship (BFS) has been renamed to Starship. The Big Falcon Booster (BFB) has been renamed to Heavy Booster.
Will the sub-orbital version of BFS Starship for Earth to Earth missions, be ...
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0answers
141 views
Details about the BFR abort procedures?
What kind of emergency procedures will the BFR have during landings? I can see an abort to an alternate landing zone but what about when you have a an emergency ten seconds after engine shutdown?
3
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0answers
167 views
How much noise would the BFR make at launch?
In addition to multi-planetary travel, SpaceX has plans to use the BFR for intercontinental travel. However, would the sound generated by the BFR's launch disrupt local communities and therefore make ...
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3answers
2k views
Will it be possible to see BFR approaching the moon from earth, with naked eye?
The title pretty much sums it up. I'm not old enough to have experienced any of the previous manned moon landings. Given that Big Falcon Rocket will go around the moon in 2023, I'm wondering if one ...
6
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2answers
264 views
Drawbacks and advantages of two slidable & rotatable control surfaces for BFS sized spaceships
BFS (SpaceX's Big Falcon Spaceship) is in development and has seen between 2016 and 2018 three major design modifications.
January 2018 I asked here how BFS planned to manoever during aerobraking.
...
12
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2answers
576 views
How does SpaceX plan to deal with boiloff on the trip to Mars?
Both BFR booster and BFS are to run on Raptor engines, fueled with liquid methane and liquid oxygen - cryofuels.
The trip to Mars will take at least a couple months, and BFS requires fuel for powered ...
6
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3answers
1k views
Will spacex launch in an inclined fashion while returning from mars?
Considering the toughest thing in launching a rocket is to achieve the tangential velocity, launching horizontally might give us an added advantage for delta V requirement.
This can't be done in ...
7
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1answer
583 views
Can BFS land on the Moon?
Can BFS land on the Moon and return? No aerobraking, no ISRU resources to refuel on the surface for return, but much less delta-V than going to Mars. Landing legs are there, though the engines may be ...
2
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1answer
180 views
How the new BFS is supposed to dock for refuelling?
The previous design iteration of BFS called for flat tails to connect the tanker and the passenger version and facilitate propellant transfer through acceleration.
But the new version is depicted to ...
2
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2answers
200 views
Why Spacex Lunar Mission date postponed?
Previously SpaceX Lunar mission date was 2022, but it is mentioned in the wiki that it is no earlier than 2023.
Why the date has been postponed?
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2answers
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Is SpaceX lunar mission only a flyby mission, or it is going to land on Moon too?
Is SpaceX lunar mission only a flyby mission, or it is going to land on Moon too?
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2answers
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SpaceX Lunar Mission when possibly will it take place in future?
As SpaceX has delayed the crewed Lunar Mission which was going to happen in 2018 and now as currently, BFR is in progress, and also as SpaceX has mentioned in the first half of 2019 it will conduct ...
5
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1answer
201 views
Silly concept: repurposing BFS into a spin-gravity habitat
The idea is the following: Launch four passanger carrying (but empty) BFS and a fifth, (satellite deploying version) which carries the central hub, outfitted with spin-up engines. Then manouver the ...
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2answers
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Can a spaceship land on an icy body using retropropulsion? wouldn't the ice melt?
Can a spaceship, say Musk's BFR, actually land on the ice surface of Titan, or Europa, or Enceladus?
It seems to me that the hot exhaust gases would make the surface melt where the rocket is trying ...
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2answers
3k views
Why will the BFS reenter broadside rather than engine first?
Musk has stated that they added the delta wing to the BFS design because; from one flight to the next the ship may have differing payloads and differing fuel loads. These changes shift the center of ...
9
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3answers
720 views
Would it be possible for SpaceX's BFR to return the Hubble Space Telescope to Earth in the future?
Ever since the Space Shuttle retired, there was an unpopular decision to leave the Hubble Space Telescope until it eventually stopped working, since there was going to be no way to return it to Earth. ...
25
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4answers
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Why is SpaceX building the Big Falcon Ship before the Big Falcon Rocket?
I believe that SpaceX is planning on building the BFS (Big Falcon Spacecraft) before the BFR (Big Falcon Rocket), which serves as the first stage for the second-stage BFS. Does anyone know why they ...
