SpaceX has discovered a new technique to catch the super heavy, but one thing about this
current plan is that it's really tricky – a catching strategy we all could never imagine
would ever exist in the world of technology.
The Starship, which will look like a giant shark fish in space, is being lifted from
the ground by the super heavy, which uses 33 powerful raptor 2 engines to propel the
huge beast of a rocket to pierce through the Earth's thick gravitational force and enter
orbit.
SpaceX believes that it will be possible to launch the Starship into orbit using the raptor
engine so that it may detach itself and begin its journey back to Earth.
A scenario like this has never happened in history, but thanks to his grace, we will
all be alive to watch how Elon proposed concept would work in reality.
Hence, when the chopsticks try to catch the super heavy in mid-air, sophisticated technology
will be employed, and that's what we are about to find out in this video.
Today we will unleash the secret master plan SpaceX intends to initiate during the launch
attempt of the super heavy Starship.
Kindly stick around to see how SpaceX's new launch plan works.
The goal of Elon Musk's design for the Starship is to make space travel as affordable as possible,
with the ultimate aim being that people like you, who are viewing this video, may one day
be able to take a trip to mars or perhaps move to another planet with their families
and begin a new life there.
Elon Musk has set his sights on Mars, where he intends to establish an isolated colony
and potentially a new country if he is success with the starship technology.
The task of delivering the colonists and tons of supplies they require from Earth to planet
Mars will be carried out by the Starship, a rocket capable of lifting more than 100
tons of payload to orbit.
The Starship consists of two stages: the upper stage, which is referred to as the ship or
the Starship, and the lower stage, which is called the super heavy.
The super heavy is, in many aspects, more straightforward than the Starship, but it
is just as complicated as the complex 33 raptor engines that will be firing up at the same
time beneath it.
The super Heavy booster 7, which has 33 Raptor 2 engines and was built for SpaceX's massive
launch vehicle, exploded during testing at the company's launch site in Boca Chica, Texas.
The rocket caught fire when the company was testing its Raptor engines, according to NASA
Spaceflight, which posted a video of the incident.
Before the company ultimately managed its first successful launch and landing sequence
in May 2021, several Starship rockets prototypes had exploded for various reasons.
Some rockets caught fire after Starship had landed after test flights, while others blew
up during ground testing.
There hasn't been any available information regarding the explosion, nor was it disclosed
if anyone sustained an injury during the incident.
But certainly, there was a massive volume of flames in the surroundings of the big booster
7 rocket after the explosion.
The situation at the test site didn't appear to grow worse an hour later, even though flames
and smoke could still be seen rising from the launch pad.
The explosion may result from too much excess methane venting beneath the booster, which
may have ignited the fireball before the fire test.
Nothing actually exploded beneath the rocket, nor was it reported that any of the raptor
two engines mounted under booster 7 got burnt, but the pressure wave caused minor damages.
The likely cause of the problem was SpaceX's attempt to fire up all the Raptors 2 engines
at once.
So, the company has decided to take a new leave, like firing up the engines in batches.
Now coming back to the launch tower and launch stand.
The 480-foot-tall Mechazilla, which has giant moving chopstick arms, provides a landing
target roughly the same size as the drone ships that SpaceX has been employing to land
Falcon 9 boosters.
All aspects of orbital Starship launches will heavily rely on the launch tower and its three
movable arms.
The upper stage is connected to power, fuel supply, and other launch pad amenities as
the first arm swings out to support Super Heavy for Starship installation.
A more unusual pair of arms known as "chopsticks" has a more complicated job; for instance,
using its arms to lift, stack, and move the Starships and Super Heavy boosters in virtually
any weather and wind conditions, SpaceX wants to use the arms as an exceedingly complex
and robotic rocket recovery system.
For a booster or Starship "catch," the rocket will approach the tower, pass through the
gap between the spread arms, hover as the arms close around it, and then land on hardpoints
- that look roughly the same surface area as a coffee table.
With respect to a simulation of the process that Elon Musk demonstrated, calling it a
"catch" is a misleading term because the arms will mostly move in one dimension, either
opening or closing, and they won't be able to truly "catch" the rocket in any meaningful
way.
As they have been created and shown, they resemble a portable fixed landing platform
capable of making changes at the very last second.
At some time in the future, the chopsticks could make it unnecessary for SpaceX to continue
using a crane to fix the Starship on the launch pad, and also reduce the dry mass necessary
for the landing legs, but interplanetary ships will always require landing legs.
In case any greater flaws occur during an attempt to land, either the Starship or the
Super Heavy might mistakenly collide with the launch tower, which could destroy the
skyscraper-sized structure, assuming that the design doesn't go according to plan, on
the first test attempt.
What we mean by this is if the engineering concept doesn't perfectly work as it appears
during simulation.
Although, what is shown in simulation software usually deceives engineers.
But imagine that SpaceX simulated almost all the starships before testing them, but even
at that, the rockets end up blowing up.
So, simulation shouldn't be considered as a yardstick for SpaceX to make a successful
launch on the first attempt.
But we shouldn't expect this to happen since, according to Elon Musk, sensors are installed
on the catching arms, which will ultimately communicate with the sensors attached to the
grid fins of the super heavy.
So, with these sensors, the super heavy will have eyes to see the location it is going
and the area it will be landing as it submerges down from orbit.
Suppose SpaceX hasn't miraculously gotten the design of everything involved nearly perfect
on its first try.
In that case, the company will have to be highly cautious and expend many ships and
boosters to avoid rendering a single Starship launch tower useless due to the immense risk
posed by any attempt to catch it.
SpaceX is probably aware of this; to some extent, the Super Heavy would undoubtedly
need to be in excellent condition and perform flawlessly during its launch's ascending and
landing phases to be approved for another flight.
Perhaps, Spacex has to be keen on the tests several times to ensure the Starship serves
its purpose for reusability.
In the end, Starship's first orbital launch may be an even bigger show than we can imagine.
There are no other commercial companies or space agencies with a planned structure to
take humans beyond the moon, making the starship humanity's sole opportunity to reach mars.
SpaceX intends to complete basic missions to Mars before the end of this decade.
Most SpaceX rockets have traditionally used deployable legs to help them land back on
the ground, but the company plans to do away with the practice to save weight so that future
starships may not even require landing legs.
After it must have put the Starship into orbit and returned, SpaceX plans to use the chopsticks
to snag the heavy rocket in mid-air.
Again, no question that catching the rocket would enable efficient and speedy reusability,
but Elon Musk indicated that the starship booster, the biggest flying object ever created,
will be captured out of the sky by a launch tower; and that is a major concept.
Elon Musk went on to clarify that the ideal situation is capturing a starship in a horizontal
glide without landing propulsion.
However, that will be a difficult task to carry out.
If in any way that happens, it will look like a giant skyscraper is catching her sister
in mid-air, just as what you may have seen in the transformer movies.
However, Musk did not specify if the Starship would need legs to touch down on the moon
and mars.
As for now, we are trying to overcome the challenges here on Earth.
So, SpaceX will have to concentrate on that for the moment.
Given that SpaceX just burnt the last booster 7, do you believe there is a chance that the
company will be successful with the next launch attempt?
You can also take a look into SpaceX Great Improvements From Starship S20 to S24 That
No One Talks About that Are INSANE, just click on the video.