Combat pilots have a phrase — beyond visual range — to describe throwing weapons at opponents they cannot see. I think about it every time I see one of Elon Musk’s technologically advanced rocket tests, even the ones that explode, like he did this past week at the SpaceX test site in Texas. Musk’s vision not only exceeds my visual range, but is 30 million kilometers from the solar system, where Mars resides.
His stated reason for the Starship booster that exploded when it landed on Friday is to colonize Mars. Finally. The main elements of this daring step were supposed to be sailing as early as 2024. I would say a high probability. But even Musk admits that his timelines are sometimes fantasies, and despite impressive successes, SpaceX, along with all other space professionals, has often rejected the calendar. And, for me, the overall goal of terraforming and colonizing Mars as a kind of earth escape bag is foolish. But then my reality-based myopia is bothering me.
But you just have to sweep the plan for the Mars colony for a moment, as there is so much noise and what do you have? You have a private company — okay, public with investors — that develops a multimillion-dollar launch system that may or may not find a profitable market. Ignore it too and focus on where the Starship system is supposed to be evolving. It is nothing less than a reiteration of the Saturn V system that put men on the moon in 1969 and which sometimes required up to 4 percent of the entire U.S. government budget.
The Saturn V system could launch 310,000 pounds into low Earth orbit and could put 90,000 pounds into lunar orbit. Finally, the SpaceX spacecraft, which will have two stages in orbit, will raise 330,000 pounds to LEO, according to claims. NASA’s space launch system under development will reach 290,000 pounds. The Yenisei developed by Russia will have the same payload and the Chinese long on March 9 will coincide with that of Saturn V. The first is scheduled for 2030; the Chinese have no calendar announced.
SpaceX is well ahead of them and ahead of NASA’s SLS, which won’t fly until next year, if so. In addition, the spacecraft is the only one that can be reused, a design point that has become a SpaceX trademark and is now essentially routine. Wednesday’s test was a high-altitude test of the second stage of the Starship, the bones of the real vehicle that would land on Mars or carry payloads to Earth’s orbit. It has aerodynamic control surfaces that SpaceX calls flaps and will have some kind of thermal system for atmospheric entry. Here is a good video that summarizes the chronology of development.
Despite ending up with a crater full of fire, Wednesday’s test was a pretty impressive success. The Raptor engines developed by SpaceX fired and re-ignited as they were supposed to, the Starship made its impressive flip maneuver to land and would have hit it except for the low pressure in a tank. header that caused a reduced thrust and an out-of-bounds descent rate resulting in what Musk called “RUD”: a quick, unscheduled disassembly.
However, Musk tweeted: “Successful ascent, change to head tanks and precise control of the flap to the landing point … The pressure of the fuel head tank was low during the landing burn. , which caused the contact speed to be high and RUD, but we got all the data we needed. ”In context, Musk had previously said that a smoking hole was the likely result of this or other tests of the And for an additional context, aerospace people rarely say these things because they have teams of lawyers who disinfect public statements so as not to offend investors with a shocking dose of reality that can momentarily move stock prices and get dirty. the making that everything is planned .. And never, ever allow a ray of gallows humor.
No matter reclaiming the propellers with perfect landings or rethinking the Saturn V, SpaceX’s impressive achievement is enough to get a free, open view of how the sausage is made to inform the public of what to expect. This is how cutting-edge aeronautics has always worked as Otto Lilienthal revealed in his dying words: Sacrifices must be made. SpaceX shows it in real time in HD and is almost as inspiring as Apollo was.
And anyway, I see Musk and the SpaceX culture something immediately recognizable to me from the moment I got my first chemical set: It always has been and will always be fun to fly s% $ t. If in the name of progress, much better.