Elon Musk: The Earth needs a Plan B, life insurance – Then24.com
Boca Chica, Texas.- It took a while, but finally Elon Musk kept his promise and on February 10 gave a status of the new rocket of one of the companies he leads, in this case, SpaceX.
In November 2019, and from almost the same place, Musk presented the first model of the new system called Starship, a colossal fully reusable rocket almost 120m high, not only capable of transporting up to 100 tons to Earth’s orbit, but also also to bring astronauts, equipment and supplies to the surface of Mars, its main objective.
“Why Starship? Why do we do all this? Musk wonders at the beginning of his presentation, “Because we have to transform humanity into an interplanetary species, the Earth needs a plan B, life insurance. Our planet is fragile and although I am an optimistic person, many things can happen and go wrong, from natural disasters, a meteorite, wars, and eventually, in millions of years, the Sun will grow and end the planet and life on the earth”.
If successful, Starship will become the first 100% reusable space cargo transport system, in the same way that an airplane flies several times a day, without the need for constant maintenance. “This is the Holy Grail, or the Holy Grail, of rocketry,” says Musk, “which is going to allow us to reduce the costs of going to space in such a way that we can colonize and establish ourselves on other planets.”
Starship is the largest rocket ever built, and in Boca Chica, Texas, where its construction and launch base, called Starbase, stands tall next to the launch tower.
SpaceX has already carried out several test flights with the Starship, and during the last one, with its prototype number 15, it managed to take it up to 10,000m high and land it safe and sound. But we haven’t yet seen the whole system fly, the rocket and the spacecraft together. Musk hopes to make the Starship’s first orbital flight later this year. But what is needed?
There are two factors that stand between Starship and its first launch into space:
-Approval by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to be able to do so. And this includes an environmental impact study to find out how Starship could affect the Boca Chica area, its natural areas, flora and fauna.
The FAA continues to analyze the case and has just announced a new delay in its decision, which will not arrive until at least the end of March. The work is not easy, since after calling several public hearings to listen to the residents of the area, he also received more than 19,000 comments on his site and has already reported that he wants to analyze them before reaching a conclusion.
-The development of the new version of the Raptor engine: To boost Starship, SpaceX designed the Raptor, perhaps the most powerful and advanced engine in space history, and despite having already achieved hundreds of successful tests with its first version, Musk wants use version, 2, or Raptor 2, for your first orbital flight. Raptor 2 is smaller, more efficient and more powerful than its predecessor, and the idea is that in its final configuration, Starship’s first stage will be powered by 33 Raptor 2 engines.
A very well organized event in Boca Chica, with a presentation that did not go beyond what was already known about Starship, but that had a very good question and answer session in which Elon Musk took his time and provided many more details to SpaceX media and employees.
Without a precise launch date, media professionals, enthusiasts, space enthusiasts and SpaceX fans follow the activities at Starbase step by step with the idea of being able to see, as soon as possible, a launch of this immense rocket, which if it is successful, It can open the doors to dream of other worlds.
