Questions tagged [spacex-starship]
Questions regarding SpaceX's Starship, formerly the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) upper stage or BFS
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One mothership and many doneships concept in place of Starship
In sci-fi movies,like Independence Day, we find one big mothership flanked by small droneships.
Take-off and landing giant spaceship, like SpaceX's Starship, is technically difficult and dangerous. ...
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What is the Starship forward dome?
What is the Starship forward dome?
How does it look like?
What other parts are connected to it and what is it good for?
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What is the purpose of the inverted cone at the center of a Starship thrust puck?
In the center of the Starhip's thrust puck, where the lowest portion of the LOX tank should be, there is a heavily reinforced inverted cone. Why is it there? Why not just complete the tank in a ...
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Starship vs submarine hull [duplicate]
Just out of curiosity, which can endure higher internal pressure - submarine hull or starship fuel tank? Any comparative figures in bars? I guess, in vaccum explosion can happen and under the deep sea,...
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Could SN8 miss its “bellyflop” if Center of Gravity is too far forward?
Very excited about the upcoming Space X Starship SN8 test flight, but was concerned about the ability to perform the high drag horizontal belly flop with some of the rocket thruster hardware missing ...
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What is the use of the belly-flop maneuver?
Why the Starship needs a bellyflop maneuver?
Why not to return vertically like Falcon 9?
The term is used in articles like this one:
During such a flight, experts believe SN8 will perform an unusual “...
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1answer
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How can Starship take off from moon's surface without a launch pad
No launch clamps and no launch pad on the moon or Mars, then how the starship is going to take off, forget the perils of landing, at the first place? If it is a one way trip, why fuel tanks for the ...
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How much will Starship SN8 weigh on liftoff?
Apparently SN8 recently underwent a 'Cryo' pressure test and to do that the press stated that 1000 tonnes of liquid Nitrogen was used! Is that really true? That got me thinking: just how much does ...
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How does a Starship nose cone/fairing maintain its structural integrity?
I am wondering how the whole non-tank upper portion of Starship maintains its integrity during high-stress situations (ascent, reentry, belly-flop). The tanks are pressurized, but I assume that the ...
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Issues with multiple raptor engines working in tandem in starship
To get the super heavy starship structure airborne and accelerate vertically, SpaceX is considering using multiple raptor engines. Clustering together huge powerful engines such as Raptor in a ...
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If Starship works, how much would it cost to create a system of rotable space mirrors that reduces temperatures on earth by 1° C?
There are many proposed geoengineering solutions that could reduce temperatures on earth. Unfortunately, a lot of them have a mix of side effects and lock-in effects where the changes in temperature ...
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How much fuel, (in tons) will a dedicated tanker be able to deliver to a starship in LEO?
The starship tankers that will refuel starships in orbit will only carry fuel. I’ve heard it described that at first they will simply be normal starships, but with more fuel leftover when they reach ...
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Why are the SpaceX Starship, “rings” the width that they are?
Why are the SpaceX Starship, "rings" the width that they are? Wouldn't creating the rings from SS that's twice as wide reduce the welding by half?
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Could one actually make a grain silo rocket?
Watching the recent SpaceX Starship tests got me to thinking:
Could you actually make a rocket using grain as the propellant?
Image from https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-starship-sn5-second-hop-plans/...
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How tall is SpaceX's launch mount in Boca Chica, TX
SpaceX has a render of Starship launching from a tall launch mount. How tall is the launch mount not including the tower or launch hardware?
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Could the Space X “Starship” be modified for point to point travel on Earth?
After seeing recent successes with the SN5 prototype, powered with very inexpensive LNG, designed to carry 100+ people, is this ... an airliner?
A suborbital Starship could make trans Atlantic and ...
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Why doesn't the BFR/Starship have a launch escape system?
This question let me wonder whether SpaceX' Starship has a launch escape system. It really seems to have none. The obvious question is why not, it sounds pretty negligent to me not to have some kind ...
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Why isn't SpaceX constructing the Super Heavy launch mount on top of the water?
With SpaceX creating their launch facility in Boca Chica Texas, right next to the water, why would they bother building a huge launch pad to withstand the blast, as opposed to building it on top of ...
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What's the new hexagonal structure for in Boca Chica TX, SpaceX
At Boca Chica Texas at the SpaceX launch facility there is a new structure being built. RGV Aerial Photography shows a concrete base with six pillars being built in a hexagonal shape. What is this ...
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Size of the new Starship Launch tower at Boca Chica?
What is the size of the new Starship Launch tower at Boca Chica?
RGV Aerial estimates the size of the new Starship Launch tower at 55-60 feet. I don't think that's accurate.
Is there a better estimate ...
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mass of the decks in the crewed SpaceX Starship [closed]
I want to work out the approximate mass of a Starship (crewed version) deck. We can assume an internal diameter of 8 meters with a 1.5 meter diameter central support tube. The loading is uncertain but ...
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Were there any experiments that produced rocket fuel grade methane on mars?
One of the main reasons that SpaceX's Starship engine raptor uses methane is because it can theoretically be produced there from atmospheric CO2 and subsurface H2O.
Where there any experiments that ...
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1answer
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What was leaking in Starship SN5 before takeoff?
Just before Starship SN5's 5 August 2020 flight, there appears to be a leak:
Was this planned or accidental?
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How much pressure would the raptor engines experience when Starship does an atmosphere entry burn at Mars?
The Starship second stage has 3 sea level engines and 3 vacuum engines.
When doing the atmosphere entry burn to mars, how many Bars will the raptor engines experience?
I'm thinking that because of the ...
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Electrical power requirements for Starship or Falcon 9
Anybody know where one could dig up electrical requirements for Starship? In other words, if Starship were sitting on the launch pad drawing power prior to launch, what would the load be?
I imagine ...
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Why is Elon Musk building the Starship first? [duplicate]
I mean what is he going to do with the ship alone? Is it even capable of orbital flight on its own?
Now the booster can be put to use immediately, and will probably be easier to make by far (I think)? ...
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How many Raptor engines will Starship use for TMI and Mars landing?
The Starship second stage has 3 sea level engines and 3 vacuum engines.
I don't imagine that all 6 will be used for trans Mars injection, as it isn't very efficient.
And for the Mars landing which ...
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Methane or LOX tank at Boca Chica
As we can see on this picture from Mary "@bocachicagal" on NASASpaceFlight, there are two types of tank near the test stand.
Some are black and others are white or bright and shiny metal, ...
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Can SpaceX Starship Be laid on it’s side?
SpaceX is building Starships at a good tempo and may finally build them faster then they scrap them. The Falcon 9s have always been stored horizontally and erected at the launch pad. I’ve never seen a ...
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Sea launch for starship super heavy will need some kind of flame diverter. Any idea how it will work?
Animations of starship taking off from a barge or platform appear as if there is no flame diverter at all. Any idea how that will be handled, especially since they plan so much traffic? Also how has ...
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SpaceX Body Flaps - Why so Much Power Required
I don't doubt the credibility of this particular source, but why would control surfaces, even at hypersonic speed (in rarefied air, mind you), and even with substantial windward surface, require 1.5 ...
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Relative elevations of the bases for Falcon and Starship pad at LC-39A
The NASA environmental report of August 2019 (https://netspublic.grc.nasa.gov/main/20190801_Final_DRAFT_EA_SpaceX_Starship.pdf) provides a 2D view of of the planned changes to 39A for Starship. A ...
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Why will Superheavy/Starship have a landing pad so close to the launch pad?
According to this image (taken from this answer)
The landing zone is situated right next to the Starship pad.
In contrast, the Falcon 9 landing pads are much much further at 28°29′09″N 80°32′40″W on ...
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What would be the minimum distance from the launch/landing platform to be not be bothered by Starship sonic booms?
One version of Starship has also been proposed to be used for Earth to Earth transportation medium. It won't be anytime soon but when they become normal, how far would the human settlement have to be ...
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Starship Flame trench
During static fires of the Starship engines the exhaust goes everywhere creating a dust cloud, hitting everything with sand.
Why does Spacex in Boca Chica not have a flame trench at the Starship test ...
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Starship lift power to moon
Starship is one of the candidates in the Artemis program. I have heard it would require additional refueling before it gets to the Moon.
It is a bit surprising since Beresheet got to the Moon with ...
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Starship fuel temperature at trajectory corrections on it´s way to Mars
There is no problem to use LOX and CH4 at ambient temperature at the many trajectory corrections on it´s way to Mars? I guess that they will not hold cryogenic temperatures so long. I know that the ...
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1answer
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How SpaceX plans to deal with possible methane buildup around Starship?
Starship is going to be fueled with methane/oxygen cryogenic liquids. Prior to launch vehicle will spend some time fully loaded on the launchpad. Although methane is lighter than air at normal ...
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How strong is the Starship bottom bulkhead?
I am wondering how much of a role does the pressurization of the propelant tanks play in making them withstand the engine thrust.
What I am getting at is how much would the pressure offset or balance ...
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Why does the Starship methane header tank have so many holes in it?
This picture from Elon shows us the methane header tank positioned inside the main tank.
I understand that one of the reasons for header tanks is to keep them pressurized when the main tanks do not ...
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1answer
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Why do larger and newer rockets not use electric pumps?
Rocketlab's Electron uses an electric pump combustion cycle with no preburner so all fuel is fed into the combustion chamber rather than wasted in a preburner/staged combustion-powered turbopump that ...
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Details on Starship's Reaction Control System thrusters
Recent renderings of the proposed lunar starship has stirred speculation about what those 12 small landing engines are, half way up the space ship. In guessing they may be the same engines being ...
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Why did SpaceX choose vertical integration for Starship?
Rockets are basically horizontally or vertically assembled and integrated. SpaceX selected horizontal integration for its current Falcon rockets, essentially for reasons of lower cost. This ...
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2answers
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What makes SpaceX's Starship so cheap?
Elon Musk estimates that a Starship launch could drop to as low as $2 million.
A Falcon 9 launch costs $50 million (when reused).
What makes such a huge price difference?
Will it use a different ...
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1answer
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Are new Falcon cores still being built at Hawthorne?
Musk has been saying for a while that at some point, they they will devote all their energy to the Starship. Falcon development has stopped at block 5, with no major iterations. It was never clear to ...
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1answer
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Are there any at least somewhat authoritative estimates of how long it will be before people will land on Mars and setting up camp?
While the naive but perfectly valid question Are they building on mars or do they have a camp there? was closed and overly downvoted, I think my answer there was reasonable; the perception by the lay ...
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What is the two little black side tanks seen at starship?
What is the content of the two little black side tanks at the SpaceX Starship SN3? And what it's used for?
The picture is of Mk1 then SN1 (tanks on left side) then SN3 (tanks on middle front).
Here ...
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1answer
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Why did SpaceX swap the LOX and CH4 tanks between Mk1 and SN1?
According to most sources, the Starship Mk.1 had its LOX main tank (not talking about the header tanks here) on top and its main methane tank below. But it seems the SN1 revision, and all subsequent ...
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Why create a production line for the SpaceX Starship?
We read that Elon Musk is focusing not only on designing a functional new space vehicle, but almost foremost on creating a production line of Starship. In addition to the existing and expanding Texas ...
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1answer
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Will SpaceX Starship have launch abort system? [duplicate]
Since future SpaceX Starship is planned as long duration passenger spacecraft for multiplanetary transport will it have launch abort system? Also how is crew evacuation planned during interplanetary ...
