Questions tagged [spacex-starship]
Questions regarding SpaceX's Starship, formerly the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) upper stage or BFS
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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?
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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"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 ...
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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
...
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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?
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Is it really possible to catch the Super heavy booster by using the launch tower ? How Challenging will it be?
Reports say that SpaceX now aims to recover the Super heavy booster by catching it with the help of the launch tower. What are the engineering challenges for this and how will it benefit ?
News ...
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Can Starship use dedicated smaller auxiliary landing fuel tanks?
Would it be better for Starship to have a separate set of small fuel tanks dedicated to landing the ship, maybe controlled separately or plumbed differently.
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Why is a seated posture for astronauts preferred over a standing posture?
Crewed spacecraft for travel to/from Earth, and much speculation for the SpaceX Starship, have seats with the astronauts upper body level in an eyeballs in orientation. This is because this is the ...
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Is there possible engine damage without launch platform on Mars return flight?
When a Starship has landed on Mars, there is not going to be any kind of prepared platform initially. (That may be a task for early crews to resolve).
Is there the possibility that Starship, sitting ...
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What is the LOX mass of a Starship and a Superheavy?
Starship's mass of propellant is 1.2 million kg, and Superheavy's is 3.4 million kg. How much of that is the liquid oxygen?
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For the Starship SN8 flight, did they lose engines in flight?
Watching the first (only?) test flight of SN8 we saw them start flying with three Raptor engines firing and then one looked like it flamed out, with lots of fire inside the engine bay. Then later a ...
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What is that white smoke coming out of the bottom of the Starship?
What is that white smoke coming out of the SN8?
It comes out at the bottom and it starts when the first engine stops, why is that?
I think I have seen it coming out from the top too:
This is also ...
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Would SN8 had landed safely with more fuel?
There was not enough pressure on the fuel tank so the engines were not working properly.
That means there was not enough fuel?
Is it possible there was enough fuel for landing but without enough ...
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What is the terminal velocity of SpaceX Starship?
What is the terminal velocity of starship on earth and mars during descent?
Has SpaceX revealed or hinted the values of projected surface area and drag coefficient of the vehicle?
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Is Starship aerodynamically stable when travelling nose first?
Is Starship aerodynamically stable when traveling nose first, or does it require constant gimbaling from the main engines to keep it pointing nose first? Is this part of the explanation for why Space ...
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Was there an anomaly during SN8's ascent which later led to the crash?
In SpaceX'S video, there is a conflagration inside the engine enclosure which seems irregular at around 1:49:49. The engine far left of the engine camera stops working and a few seconds later some ...
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SpaceX starship landing legs deployment
After watching the flight of sn8 the landing legs didn't deploy. What makes them deploy? Velocity?
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Will the SpaceX Starship's stainless steel skin ever look the same as the renders?
We've seen plenty of renders of the Starship with smooth, flawless stainless steel skin
And we are well familiar now with the look of the Starship prototypes.
Given what we know about the ...
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Starship surface heating on Mars landing
Mars atmosphere is much thiner than Earth's
And then how much will Starship heat on a Mars landing comparing to a landing on Earth?
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Design of starship fins
How much can the falling speed of starship approximately be reduced by the bellyflop fall with fins? Are we talking about numbers around 5% or 50% here?
Wouldn't it make sense to put holes where the ...
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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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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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