Questions tagged [spacex-starship]
Questions regarding SpaceX's Starship, formerly the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) upper stage or BFS
183
questions
2
votes
2answers
197 views
Is Starship planned to fly directly to the ISS without first stage? Is it even possible?
I'm having difficulty understanding how/if Starship and/or Super Heavy could be used to deliver crew to LEO.
Is it expected to deliver astronauts to the ISS Crew-Dragon-style, but without the 2nd ...
2
votes
1answer
69 views
Are the engines present on the SpaceX Starship Sea level engines or Vacuum engines?
The SpaceX Starship will have engines that light up in space and propel the ship to Mars. Companies and organizations use vacuum engines in space.
However, Starship has to land on Mars, travel back ...
2
votes
0answers
105 views
How much does the SpaceX Starship flex during the Flop maneuver?
Poring over the woes (and sucesses) of Starship prototypes SN 5-11, I had read they were trying a thinner stainless steel skin in later iterations.
The flop maneuver places the centers of drag at the ...
3
votes
0answers
151 views
SN11 was launched in fog. Why not wait for better conditions?
The fog certainly frustrated the external observers, but it doesn't seem ideal from SpaceX perspective either.
All the external observers were very distant from the launch/landing site and would be ...
27
votes
3answers
11k views
Why have SpaceX skipped the SpaceX Starship SN12, SN13, and SN14?
Something has happened to the SpaceX Starship SN11.
(For full details and answers regarding SN11, check out the question What happened to the SpaceX Starship SN11?)
Elon Musk recently posted this ...
11
votes
4answers
5k views
What happened to the SpaceX Starship SN11? Why did it crash?
What happened to the SpaceX Starship SN11?
As per the live streams held on YouTube, I want to know what really happened to SpaceX Starship SN11
The live streams show a lot of smoke and others show ...
2
votes
1answer
77 views
Could another fuel be used in the SpaceX Starship header tank?
A memory of hexane and water in a separatory funnel brought to mind the issue of helium and LNG in the header tank while the Starship flips and does its powered landing.
There was discussion of the ...
6
votes
1answer
204 views
Doesn't dirt get into critical Starship parts?
I guess that once Starship prototypes are complete they should be pretty weather- and dirt-proof. They should be perfectly sealed and stainless steel is well-suited to life outside (though sometimes I ...
4
votes
1answer
162 views
How does the economics of orbital refueling vs bigger rocket work?
SpaceX plans to refuel Starship in orbit for Moon and Mars missions. According to some other questions here, it seems like they would need 6 tanker Starships to send 1 Starship to Mars.
At a glance, a ...
3
votes
1answer
59 views
Maintaining constant fuel pressure to rocket engine during flight and flip maneuvers
During lift-off and landing, the methane liquid fuel inside the Starship is being consumed. How constant fuel pressure to the Raptor engines is maintained when the fuel is being depleted and during ...
27
votes
5answers
9k views
Why has a rocket system like Starship never been proposed before? It does not seem to use any new science, materials or fuels
I wonder why nobody ever proposed a space launch system like Starship. Methane as a fuel and all the theory behind are well known, so why?
Is it solely because of IT progress that made returning the ...
2
votes
0answers
63 views
How does Starship/Superheavy system compare with the hypothetical successor of Soviet Energia/Buran system, “Uragan”?
The both were meant to be fully reusable and have comparable scale.
0
votes
0answers
32 views
Are Starship header tanks used during ascent? And why?
Elon Musk tweeted that Starship SN8 failed to land due to insufficient header tank pressure:
Fuel header tank pressure was low during landing burn, causing touchdown velocity to be high & RUD [......
4
votes
1answer
126 views
Static Fire Tests: How is the rocket prevented from flying?
In rockets like Starship, if 35 Raptors are firing at same time, then in a full-duration static fire test there would be enormous loads being exerted from 35 raptors, on the clamps holding the rocket. ...
69
votes
4answers
18k views
Why do SpaceX Starships look so “homemade”?
Maybe this is not possible to answer, but I was hoping there was some reliable information available on this.
It seems to me that the SpaceX Starship rockets have sort of a homemade quality to them, ...
7
votes
2answers
2k views
What is a static fire test?
I watched SN10 launching but not the static fire test.
I am closely following SN11 launching, and read about a static fire test today.
I don't know what it is.
Can someone please explain "static ...
24
votes
4answers
4k views
Can someone explain the SN10 landing failure in layperson's terms?
The things I can't understand from what Elon tweeted are:
"engine was low on thrust due (probably) to partial helium ingestion"
There are only tanks for liquid oxygen and CH4 - where did ...
2
votes
2answers
210 views
Mars in 30 Days
My first question so show mercy!
Earth to Mars 150,000,000 miles.
Earth escape velocity ~20,000 MPH (at maximum fuel consumption).
The journey takes 8 Months at that speed.
The Question:
If launching ...
3
votes
1answer
143 views
What will be the final Starship prototype?
So far, Spacex has made and destroyed/launched Starhopper,MK1-MK4, and SN1-SN10. They also have SN11 on the launchpad and BN1,BN2, and SN15-SN20 under construction. What will be the final Starship ...
2
votes
0answers
93 views
Will the Starship skirt envelope heat during landing?
Starship lands on the pad using the landing burn of 1-2 raptor engines. The landing legs offer little vertical clearance from the ground, whereas during lift off, the suborbital launch pad provides ...
6
votes
1answer
159 views
How many different hexagonal tiles' modules are required to pave one Starship?
Assuming SpaceX would like to avoid absolute unmodularity of STS' thermal protection system, which was composed of (symmetry aside) mostly different and unique tiles. What tiling typologic strategies ...
1
vote
3answers
245 views
Why SpaceX want to land the rocket on the ground?
click for full size
Won't it be easier and save a lot of money to just catch it or land it in a basket?
So rocket coming down can open arm longer than the diameter of the high basket where it goes ...
7
votes
2answers
230 views
Why are the rocket plumes on SN10 different colors?
At about 7:53 (T+2:30) in this official video of the SpaceX Starship SN10 test flight, the engines are shown in the lower right, with clearly different colors in the plumes. The one on the right is ...
1
vote
0answers
78 views
What happens at T-0 for the SpaceX Starship?
Every launch system defines a different event for T-0. The SpaceX Starship prototypes seem to ignite the engines at T-1.0 and accent seems to begin between T+1.0 and T+1.5. An overthrust abort for SN-...
12
votes
1answer
1k views
Why was the SpaceX Starship SN10 slanted when it landed?
Why was the SpaceX Starship SN10 slanted when it landed?
Was the landing pad uneven?
Or did the Starship land a little way away from it?
Or was this caused due to hull damage?
4
votes
1answer
165 views
Does the SpaceX Starship plan to have landing legs?
Does the SpaceX Starship plan to have landing legs?
And if so, how many and where will they be located on the body of the rocket?
0
votes
1answer
146 views
Starship: Maximum damage if hijacked and weaponised?
Any sufficiently advanced space technology is indistinguishable from a weapon of mass destruction, if misused.
In the event that SpaceX lost control of a Starship to EvilHackers, what's the most ...
6
votes
2answers
241 views
What is the cause of the horizontal drift in the ascend path of the Starship and other rockets?
As can be seen in the available videos on-line and in the following picture, as the rocket ascends, a horizontal drift in its path can be seen. I have forgotten the calculation of the Coriolis effect ...
0
votes
1answer
145 views
Trying to calculate Starship's ability to escape earth gravitational potential
The Wikipedia had the spectrum of SpaceX Raptor's specific impulse to be 330s at sea level and 380 in vacuum. Using an updated effective exhaust velocity at sea level to = 3280 m/s and in the vacuum ...
41
votes
5answers
14k views
Why did the SpaceX Starship SN10 explode?
Much to everyone's relief.
The SpaceX Starship SN10 successfully completed its flight and landed.....
But, sometime later, It exploded!
Why?
And did it have anything to do with the fire near the ...
6
votes
0answers
161 views
Shuttle had heat radiators, but Starship has none - why?
Heat radiators were a big deal for the Space Shuttle - once the bay doors were closed it was important to deorbit quite quickly.
The SpaceX Starship doesn't appear to have specific radiator ...
3
votes
1answer
155 views
Why are Starship's tanks curved the way they are?
Since Starship has to feed its engines in two kind of situations :
-during ascent, acceleration is colinear to Starship's longitudinal axis.
-at the end of the belly dive, acceleration is normal to ...
3
votes
1answer
385 views
Understanding the rocket equation - calculating Starship delta v
I am trying to calculate delta v of Starship - both as separate stages (Starship [SS], Super Heavy [SH]) and as a fully stacked rocket including 100t payload.
I know that I have to calculate 2 ...
30
votes
7answers
7k views
Why not land SpaceX's Starship like a plane?
I get the reasoning behind designing Starship to land upright. It doesn't require landing gear and the turnaround is expected to be much faster. But I'm beginning to question that logic.
I think the ...
2
votes
1answer
92 views
What local pressure changes would a starship launch on Mars cause?
When Starship launches from Mars it will burn thousands of tonnes of fuel in seconds. This will cause a local increase in pressure, humidity (it might exist!) and temperature.
Do we have any idea how ...
5
votes
0answers
176 views
What is this ring-shaped part falling from Starship SN9 after launch?
The picture shown is a screenshot during the recent launch of SpaceX's SN9 from a live stream, and I noticed that a black ring fell off the exhaust/engine. It only shows up for around a frame or two ...
5
votes
1answer
179 views
SpaceX Starship: Could they use the Vacuum engines during landing in case of other engine failure?
With the recent test (and RUD due to single engine relight failure) of SN-9, Musk has stated that what they should've done was light all three raptor engines simultaneously then turn one off so as to ...
15
votes
4answers
3k views
Why does starship flip vertical at the last moment instead of earlier
In the test flight of SN9, it appeared that 1 of 2 engines did not relight upon landing. Why is the transition to vertical not done at a higher altitude where a backup engine could be lit if needed ...
1
vote
0answers
92 views
Superheavy assisted trip to Mars
i just had a thought and wonder about feasability, cost and possible implications.
What I assume is the plan:
A Superheavy pushes Starship into Orbit. Cargo Starships follow and refuel. Fueled up ...
20
votes
4answers
7k views
Why isn't SpaceX's Starship “trial and error” development strategy an open source project?
Some large community of space enthusiasts is working hard on simulating or extrapolating data on the SpaceX Starship. But this data isn't publicly available.
So why don't they release it as an open ...
4
votes
1answer
207 views
Starship deceleration during belly flop?
Was just wondering what level of deceleration did they get during that belly flop manouver?
Updated:
Hiya, you're all correct, and I was a tad vague in my question! What I'm after is the vertical ...
1
vote
0answers
62 views
Why SN8 needed 12.5 km?
Is there a particular reason for chosing 12.5 km for the SN8 hop?
Why 5 km for example is not good enough?
1
vote
0answers
60 views
Any large scale rocket static fires, like SpaceX's 3 in one day?
SpaceX on Jan 13, 2021 did three static fires in one day.
Elon Musk tweeted:
All three static fires completed & no RUDs!
And that was in response to this tweet of his own:
Today at SpaceX is ...
2
votes
0answers
50 views
What's the ratio of horizontal to vertical velocity and travel distance for starship?
As far as I understand the spacex starship trajectory is not exactly vertical, it looks more like the picture below.
If the height of the flight is 12.5km, then what is the horizontal distance it ...
2
votes
2answers
162 views
What are SpaceX plans for Starship with respect to Moon landing and then takeoff?
Starship uses Raptor engines which in turn uses liquid methane as fuel. The idea for using methane as fuel being - methane can be produced on Mars from CO2 and H2O. And using the onsite produced ...
2
votes
1answer
236 views
Does a fully fuelled Starship in LEO have 0kg payload to Jupiter?
So I was looking into the payload mass a fully fuelled Centaur V could send to Jupiter and used the formula in presented in this answer to create a C3 graph. For a bit of fun I also looked into the ...
0
votes
0answers
97 views
How will SpaceX land its rockets on the unleveled surface of Mars?
SpaceX plans to send the Starship to Mars and to land it there, tail first in a vertical position.
Unlike the Perseverance rover, which seems to be able to land on uneven terrain without the need for ...
0
votes
2answers
142 views
“NASA's Europa Clipper has been liberated from the Space Launch System” How would the “physics” of a Starship-based mission differ from SLS?
The Hill's NASA's Europa Clipper has been liberated from the Space Launch System is quite an illuminating read about the politics of space launch. However, I noticed that it also says:
Both the ...
11
votes
1answer
951 views
Why is the LOX header tank on Spacex Starship at the front of the vehicle?
At the moment, the design of Spacex's Starship is roughly, from bottom to top:
Engines
Liquid Oxygen (LOX) tank
Liquid Methane (CH4) header tank
Liquid Methane tank
Payload
Liquid Oxygen header tank
...
3
votes
2answers
135 views
Cryogenic storage in Starship header tanks
Since Starship uses cold liquid oxygen and methane fuel in its header tanks, how will these cryogenic tanks been kept full and cold on long missions in space?
