from the how-long-has-it-taken-the-SLS-so-far? dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
[Editor's note: SN3 is SpaceX parlance for "Serial Number 3"; Elon Musk is not just working on building rockets, he's building an assembly line and plans to build one Starship a week. This helps explain the use of serial numbers. --martyb]
For almost a year now, SpaceX has been building a series of Starship prototypes that will test how the system fares when launched to orbit.
[...] Musk recently shared images of the components for the SN3 prototype undergoing assembly.
Shortly after these images were shared, the assembled components were seen on their way to the company's test facility at Boca Chica, Texas, on the morning of March 29th. They were then seen being transferred to the launch pad by roll-lift and crane as of late afternoon. Footage of both these events was captured by the LabPadre and shared via Twitter.
SN3 pic.twitter.com/bM1wzzd4Zg
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)
Like its predecessors, the next step for the SN3 will be cryogenic loading trials in which the spacecraft's methane and oxygen tanks will be filled with a cryogenic liquid (most likely liquid nitrogen).
[...] In a previous statement, Musk announced that the SN3 would be used for static fire tests and short flights, whereas longer test flights will wait for the SN4. [...] There is [...] documentation that indicates that SpaceX will be conducting tests as early as next week.
The documents, which were shared on NASASpaceFlight, reference a permit issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the "Starhopper" vehicle, which is valid until June 2020. They further suggest that a static fire of the SN3's engines could take place between April 1st and 3rd, followed by a 150-meter (500 ft) hop test between April 6th and 8th. This was the maximum height achieved by the Starship Hopper.
[...] Once the Starship is finished and integrated with the Super Heavy booster, Musk hopes to begin conducting payload runs to the moon by 2022, followed by crewed missions to the surface by 2024. In between, Musk also intends to conduct the first lunar tourism mission (#dearmoon), which will involve sending a crew of artists around the moon in 2023.
-- submitted from IRC
Previously:
(2020-04-01) SpaceX Releases a Payload User's Guide for its Starship Rocket
(2020-03-10) Another Starship Prototype Explodes, but SpaceX Isn't Stopping
(2020-02-19) SpaceX Announces Partnership to Send Four Tourists Into Deep Orbit
(2020-01-18) Elon Musk Discloses Details for SpaceX Mars Mega-Colony
Related Stories
CNet:
The first aren't even built yet, but [Elon Musk] already has big plans for his company's spacecraft, which includes turning humans into an interplanetary species with a presence on Mars. He crunched some of the numbers he has in mind on Twitter on Thursday.
Musk doesn't just want to launch a few intrepid souls to Mars, he wants to send a whole new nation. He tossed out a goal of building 100 Starships per year to send about 100,000 people from Earth to Mars every time the planets' orbits line up favorably.
A Twitter user ran the figures and checked if Musk planned to land a million humans on Mars by 2050. "Yes," . The SpaceX CEO has suggested this sort of . This new round of tweets give us some more insight into how it could be done, though "ambitious" doesn't do that timeline justice. Miraculous might be a more fitting description.
...
fans, rejoice. there will be plenty of jobs on Mars. When asked how people would be selected for the Red Planet move, , "Needs to be such that anyone can go if they want, with loans available for those who don't have money." So perhaps you could pay off your SpaceX loans with a sweet terraforming gig.
Terraforming the planet should be easy if Quaid can get past Cohagen and start the reactor.
SpaceX announces partnership to send four tourists into deep orbit:
SpaceX announced a new partnership Tuesday to send four tourists deeper into orbit than any private citizen before them, in a mission that could take place by 2022 and easily cost more than $100 million.
The company signed the deal with Space Adventures, which is based in Washington and served as an intermediary to send eight space tourists to the International Space Station (ISS) via Russian Soyuz rockets.
The first of these was Dennis Tito, who paid $20 million for an eight hour stay on the ISS back in 2001. The last to go was Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte, in 2009.
The new tourists would be carried on SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule, which was developed to transport NASA astronauts and is due to make its first crewed flight in the coming months.
"Our goal is to try to get to about two to three times the height of the space station," Space Adventure's president Tom Shelley told AFP.
The ISS orbits at 400 kilometers (250 miles) above Earth's surface, but the exact altitude of the Space Adventures mission would be determined by SpaceX, added Shelley.
At its earliest, it could take place by late 2021, though "probably more likely is sometime in 2022," he said.
The capsule was designed to take astronauts from the surface to the ISS. Just nine square meters in volume[sic], there are no private areas to sleep wash or use the bathroom.
Mission duration will depend on what the customers want, said Shelley.
Space Adventures has posted its official announcement on its website.
On February 28, SpaceX's SN01 Starship prototype imploded and exploded during a pressurization test (Mk1 failed in November). A day later, Eric Berger from Ars Technica visited SpaceX's facilities in Boca Chica, Texas. Some highlights from the story include:
- SN01 was not destined to fly, only to serve as a platform for static fire testing. (Elon Musk had previously tweeted that the wrong settings were used on the welding equipment used to build SN01.)
- SN01's failure has been attributed to bad welding on the thrust puck, which is welded onto the bottom tank dome of Starship and connects the Raptor engines to the rest of the rocket.
- The quality team raised concerns about the thrust puck to an engineer who did not act upon them. They have been instructed to contact Musk directly with design concerns.
- SpaceX went on a hiring spree in February that doubled its workforce in Boca Chica to over 500. The goal is to build a production line for Starships.
- SpaceX aims to build a Starship every week by the end of 2020, with a goal of building one every 72 hours eventually.
- SpaceX engineers have built an in-house x-ray machine to look for imperfections in welds.
- Construction costs for a single Starship could eventually drop to as low as $5 million.
- The Boca Chica site will operate 24/7, with workers alternating between three and four 12-hour shifts per week.
- A 20 km flight is planned for this spring, and an orbital mission could happen before the end of 2020.
In other news:
- SpaceX to Raise Hundreds of Millions of Dollars Through a Funding Round That Will Value It at $36 Billion
- SpaceX Could Earn $30 Billion Annually From Starlink, 10x Of Sending ISS Supplies – Elon Musk
- SpaceX's latest Starship test was uneventful and that's great news for its flight debut
- Astronauts capture SpaceX cargo capsule with robot arm for final time
SpaceX releases a Payload User's Guide for its Starship rocket:
SpaceX has released the first edition of a Payload User's Guide for its Starship launch system, which consists of a Super Heavy first stage and the Starship upper stage. The six-page guide provides some basic information for potential customers to judge whether a launch vehicle meets their needs for getting payloads into space.
The new guide is notable because it details the lift capabilities of Starship in reusable mode, during which both the first and second stages reserve enough fuel to return to Earth. In this configuration, the rocket can deliver more than 100 metric tons to low-Earth orbit and 21 tons to geostationary transfer orbit.
The killer application, however, is the potential to refuel Starship in low-Earth orbit with other Starships, enabling transportation deeper into the Solar System for 100 tons or more. "The maximum mass-to-orbit assumes parking orbit propellant transfer, allowing for a substantial increase in payload mass," the document states. SpaceX has yet to demonstrate this technology—which has never been done on a large scale in orbit—but the company's engineers have been working on it for several years and partnered with NASA last summer.
The user's guide also provides information about the size of the payload fairing in the cargo configuration of the vehicle, with a width of 8 meters and an extended volume capable of encompassing payloads as long as 22 meters. This would be, by far, the largest usable payload volume for any rocket that exists today or is in development. For human flights of up to 100 people, according to the document, "The crew configuration of Starship includes private cabins, large common areas, centralized storage, solar storm shelters, and a viewing gallery."
[20200420_144755 UTC: Update: According to this comment to the thread at NASASpaceflight, the RollLift (which would transport SN4 to the pad) has not finished being assembled. Looks like it will still be a while before testing commences. --martyb]
[20200420_162536 UTC: Corrected timelines and costs; see linked comment. --martyb]
NASASpaceflight has continuous updates of activities at the Boca Chica SpaceX site with many pics and videos, too. The last time I checked, SN4 (SpaceX's 4th Starship prototype: Serial Number 4) is nearing completion of construction and is soon to be transported to the testing platform. Historically, next would be pressurization tests, e.g. with liquid nitrogen, to see if the rocket can handle the temperatures and pressures. Prior testing failures have been... impressive. Should all go well with these tests, next up would be testing of SN4 with liquid methane and liquid oxygen. If successful, static fire tests with the rocket tethered and, ultimately, with a powered hop for a very limited duration and distance.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has set a goal of building a new Starship rocket each week. SN4 has been under construction for less than a month. By comparison, the SLS (Space Launch System) has been under development for many years, has cost billions of dollars per year, and has never (not even once) been launched. (Please see this comment for clarification.)
Here are the dates and times of upcoming road and beach closures (and alternates) as announced by Cameron County, Texas coinciding with planned testing by SpaceX:
- April 20, 2020: 0800-0900 (Primary Date)
- April 23, 2020: 0900-1000 (Primary Date)
- April 26, 2020: 0900-1159 (Primary Date)
- April 27, 2020: 0900-1159 (Alternate Date)
- April 28, 2020: 0900-1159 (Alternate Date)
(All times are Central Daylight Time; add 5 hours to get the corresponding date/time in UTC .)
Previously:
(2020-04-18) SpaceX Offers NASA a Custom Moon Freighter
(2020-04-03) SpaceX Loses its Third Starship Prototype During a Cryogenic Test
(2020-04-03) SpaceX Almost Ready to Start Testing SN3 -- The Third Starship Prototype
(2020-04-01) SpaceX Releases a Payload User's Guide for its Starship Rocket
(2020-03-10) Another Starship Prototype Explodes, but SpaceX Isn't Stopping
SpaceX completes static fire of Starship prototype, will hop next:
After scrubbing several attempts for weather concerns, technical issues, and even a range violation due to a nearby boat, SpaceX succeeded in static-fire testing the latest prototype of its Starship vehicle on Thursday.
At 3:02pm local time in South Texas, the single Raptor engine attached to the Starship prototype dubbed Serial Number 5, or SN5, roared to life for a few seconds. In video shared by NASASpaceflight.com, the test appeared to be nominal, evidently providing SpaceX engineers with the confidence they need in the latest iteration of Starship.
Starship SN5 just completed full duration static fire. 150m hop soon.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 30, 2020
Shortly after the test, the founder and chief engineer of SpaceX, Elon Musk, confirmed that the static fire meant the company now plans to move forward with a short test flight of the vehicle. Based upon a notification from the US Federal Aviation Administration, this 150-meter flight test could take place as soon as Sunday, with a launch window opening at 8am local time (13:00 UTC).
Previously:
(2020-04-28) Starship Chilled. Starship Pressurized. and for the First Time, It Didn't Explode
(2020-04-03) SpaceX Almost Ready to Start Testing SN3 -- The Third Starship Prototype
(2019-11-21) Starship Prototype Mk1 Fails During Propellant Tank Loading Test: Onwards to Mk3
(2019-08-28) SpaceX's Starhopper Completes 150 Meter Test Hop
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday April 03 2020, @11:04AM (4 children)
https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-starship-destroyed-cryo-test-next-ship/ [teslarati.com]
This one should be interesting because they've already had successful cryo loading tests.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Friday April 03 2020, @12:33PM
Elon had a tweet up briefly saying it might've been a test configuration fault, but they'd have to wait for the data analysis to know for sure.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday April 03 2020, @02:38PM
Indeed, and because the failure was of an entirely different nature to the previous ones. Rather than a tank rupturing under pressure, it seems that the lower tank crumpled - either due to excess loading, or perhaps an internal pressure drop. I don't think such crumpling would have been possible if the lower tank was filled with liquid, and there was certainly no frost build-up to suggest it was filled with liquid nitrogen, so whatever gasses were in it would have been steadily cooling and losing pressure. Perhaps they wit a critical point and began condensing rapidly to cause a sudden pressure drop? Being cooled from above would seem to facilitate such a scenario - you'd get a lot of vertical mixing from cold gasses sinking to equalize tank temperature, right up until the gasses started raining out instead, causing a rapid pressure drop that could have caused the initial crumpling.
I don't really know enough about the failure modes of cylindrical structures to hazard a guess as to whether loading alone could cause such a sudden crumpling and slow fall.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday April 03 2020, @03:54PM (1 child)
I seemed to remember in the early days, pre Falcon 9, SpaceX had a lot of failures. But then they got it right.
Then I remember a lot of booster landing failures. And they seemed endless. Failure after failure. And industry experts saying it was impossible. Then they got it right. First on land. Then at sea. Then two boosters at a time. Amidst a string of successes with few failures.
So, as long as SpaceX has the bankroll to endure a string of losses, I'm inclined to believe they will pull it off. In the previous strings of failures, Elon described every failure as a learning experience.
The people who rely on government handouts and refuse to work should be kicked out of congress.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday April 03 2020, @04:05PM
FTA:
They are quickly becoming experts at making these cheap metal structures. Cost target of $5 million (might not include booster). And once they get it right, they could potentially reuse the same one hundreds of times for testing and LEO payload launches.
Falcon 9 fairing recovery is actually a recent success, although it seems to be far from consistent.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Funny) by looorg on Friday April 03 2020, @12:02PM (1 child)
Did they build the Starship with Rock'n'Roll?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday April 03 2020, @12:12PM
More like Shock and Awe. Or just Shock.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 03 2020, @02:14PM
> Once the Starship is finished and integrated with the Super Heavy booster, Musk hopes to begin conducting payload runs to the moon by 2022, followed by crewed missions to the surface by 2024. In between, Musk also intends to conduct the first lunar tourism mission (#dearmoon), which will involve sending a crew of artists around the moon in 2023.
And I love what you are doing.
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Friday April 03 2020, @07:41PM
Sad silo folded up like a soda can. :(
They'll figure it out; this is just a setback.