How the giant SpaceX Starship rocket can open the sun – and beyond


In addition, the Starship has greater potential than other high-powered rocket launches, such as NASA’s much-delayed Space Launch System and Blue Origin’s. New Glenn rocket. The upper half of the rocket is designed to be refueled in Earth orbit and other Starships, so that its uplifting power can be attributed to scientific instruments rather than oil. Depression, for example, may be required eight different sections, with each successive “Starship tank” brings fuel to the “star of the moon” that goes to the moon with the tools of science and labor.

Scientists are now beginning to dream about what the Starship would allow them to do. Earlier this year, a paper published by Jennifer Heldmann of the NASA Ames Research Center explored another scientific opportunity which can be opened with Starship trips to the moon and Mars. One major advantage is that the Starship can carry large arms from Earth — no need to be humble enough to fit a small car, as is required for the Apollo trip to the moon. For example, “you can bring a drill,” says Heldmann. “You can drill down a mile, just like we do on Earth.” This could open the way for the moon and Mars to have access to the moon and Mars, where ice and other useful objects are thought to exist. In the past, such an idea was “slightly crazy,” says Heldmann. But with Starship, “you can, and I still have a place to park,” he adds. “What do you want to bring back?”

Because Starship is able to return to Earth, it can also bring many models. The amount that can be recovered, from a variety of sources, will give scientists Earth an incredible access to celestial bodies. This can help us to understand many mysteries, such as the lunar eclipse or the “question of life and astronomy” on Mars, says Heldmann.

The stars could also make extraordinary voyages to other destinations, either through Earth or using the moon and Mars as a fuel base, a prosperous future that Musk envisions.

Let’s go to Neptune

One idea, from a global scientific team called Conex (Conceptual Exploration Research), is a vessel called Arcanum, which could use Starship’s cargo power to search for Neptune and its giant moon, Triton. Neptune was visited only once, the NASA flight of the Voyager 2 in 1989, and there is still much we do not know about this. “No one thinks about what Starship can do,” said James McKevitt, a researcher at the University of Vienna and president of Conex. “That’s what Arcanum was made to show.”

At a weight of about 21 metric tons, the ship would have been four times heavier than the deepest exploration to date: NASA and ESA’s Cassini-Huygens mission, which explored Saturn from 2004 to 2017. but Starship will make it possible. Arcanum could have several components, including an orbiter to study Neptune, a pilot to train Triton, and a platform to hold Triton up and “test earthquakes” to understand geology and its structure, says McKevitt. The project would also include a telescope, allowing for the study of extraterrestrial planets and assisting in the search for planets orbiting other stars.

Some ideas are quite fanciful. Philip Lubin, a scientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, calculated that a large rocket, such as the Starship, could be used to prevent the asteroid from hitting the Earth. Such an operation could carry enough explosives to crack open a large 10-mile[10 km]rock that destroyed dinosaurs. Its fragments would burn without any problem in space before it had a chance to reach our planet.

Astronomers could also be a better way to make giant telescopes that can see the universe. In the meantime, spacecraft NASA and the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope should be set up folded, a costly, complicated, and complicated process that can be mistaken. NASA says that there is a giant LUVOIR spacecraft designed to mimic planets like Earth orbiting other stars. can start at Starship, when Musk said that SpaceX is already working on “an impressive project, with a huge telescope, taking down telescopes, and making a telescope from space.” Not much has been revealed.

Say hello to the neighbors

Elsewhere, some scientists have dreamed of using the Starship to prepare for a stellar tour. René Heller from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System research in Germany and colleagues say it Starship can offer an inexpensive way to test the technologies of a spacecraft that can fly several light years across to neighboring stars. The star is able to launch a sailing spacecraft into Mars, which can use a land-based laser device to propel small sails with great speed, enabling the demonstration to take place across Earth’s orbit. “If SpaceX were kind enough to lift one of our spaceships and just release it in the middle of its voyage to Mars, we would be able to follow its acceleration and orbit around the solar system for several days and close to Jupiter’s path,” Heller said.

Other ideas include using Starship to send research around the Jupiter Io Volcano moon, a difficult task with no major upgrades. Alfred McEwen, an astronomer at the University of Arizona, states: “It is very difficult to navigate the orbit of the Jupiter. “But the mass helps these things. You can have a lot of oil and radiation protection.”

Musk also said that SpaceX could launch 12 experimental Starship experiments in 2022, with lunar eclipses and Mars in the horizon – as well as the many scientific ones that could cause it. “As soon as the stars begin to fly, development will be very fast,” said Margarita Marinova, former Mars’ chief engineer of Mars at SpaceX. There will be a lot of people who will be able to broadcast things. This could be anything from stopping missions using Starship to board existing flights. “Once you have a power of 100 tons, adding scientific equipment is easy,” says Marinova. “If someone wants to buy a paid site, they can have a paid site. It will be a big change in the way we do science.”

Of course, there are good reasons for being cautious. While Starship has pilot planes without Super Heavy booster, we have not seen the complete launch of rocket. It is a very large and complex machine that can face problems in its size. SpaceX and Musk, too, have become well known (respectfully) with the time and objectives (a mission they want to undertake on Mars, the Red Dragon, should be established already. until 2018). And Starship’s approach to the moon and Mars, relying on a number of renewable energy sources on Earth orbit, remains difficult and unpredictable.

However, there are plenty of reasons to rejoice as Starship can win. From the inside to the outer planets, and perhaps beyond, could open up a new era of astronomy. “I’m sure some very smart people are starting to think of sending science projects to Starship,” says Abhishek Tripathi, aerospace scientist at the University of California, Berkeley.

Or as Musk said: “That’s all you can think of.”





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