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at the beginning of 2021 spacex pulled
off
a unique mission that broke records
onboard were human ashes which were
traveling to lower earth orbit
this service was arranged by the company
celestis
and they even offered to send ashes to
the moon for just 12
500 which is cheap in terms of space
flight
but this wasn't the most impressive part
of the mission
in total this mission launched 143
satellites into orbit
breaking the previous record of 104 set
by india
this is part of a new service that
spacex now offers called
rideshare which allows smaller
satellites to hitch a ride
with other satellites drastically
reducing the cost
if you had a 500 kilogram satellite in
the 80s
and wanted to launch it into earth's
orbit you didn't have a lot of options
back then there were no cheap reusable
rockets
so as the owner of the satellite you had
to pay
the entire cost of building the rocket
plus
all of the launch costs up until fairly
recently
satellites have typically been large
bulky objects
only capable of doing one thing you have
to remember that the technology we have
in our pockets
used to take up entire rooms back in the
60s and 70s
but that's only part of the puzzle not
only was the technology extremely
oversized
building a satellite that had enough
protection to survive the harsh
conditions of outer space
made them even bigger we can now make
satellites
much smaller and for a fraction of the
cost
so with satellites getting smaller and
rocket launches getting cheaper
it has allowed a new industry to grow at
an incredible rate
the small satellite industry small sats
are typically considered anything under
500
kilograms but it's those that are under
50 kilograms that have become the most
popular
these are known as nano satellites one
of the most successful being
the cubesat these are small research
satellites made up of 10 centimeter
modules
these are highly customizable and allow
companies to perform research in space
that would otherwise be far too
expensive
they are often carried up to the
international space station
and deployed from there using a deployer
or literally being thrown by astronauts
during a spacewalk
that's much faster than a baseball pitch
over the last decade the number of these
cubesats being launched has increased
dramatically
and their popularity is set to grow even
further
with incredibly low prices satellites
have moved away from traditional
government rockets
in favor of the cheap and reliable
spacex
but in recent years the amount of orders
for big communication satellites
has actually dropped and spacex have had
fewer customers to launch into space
meanwhile the new kid in town rocket lab
has had an ever-growing launch schedule
with a much smaller and cheaper rocket
they can provide dedicated launches
for a fraction of spacex's cost although
the cost for each falcon 9 is relatively
cheap
it will still set you back at least 50
million dollars
for a single launch this option is
completely over the top if you're only
launching a small
satellite rocket lab on the other hand
charges
just seven million dollars per launch
this has allowed rocket lab to flourish
with the rise of the small sat market
and so in order to keep up with its
competitors spacex
started their rideshare program
the idea is to offer 200 kilogram slots
on the falcon 9 in order to share the
launch cost
each 200 kilogram slot can be purchased
for just 1 million
much cheaper than rocket labs electron
rocket
but it gets even better if you are
launching a much smaller satellite
and don't want to pay the full price you
don't have to
when a satellite company buys a slot on
the falcon 9
they can choose to share their slot with
even smaller satellites
essentially creating rideshare within
the rideshare
one of these companies is spaceflight
inc which offers cubesat slots on the
falcon 9
for as little as 150 000
although rideshare missions have been
done before they have never been done
on this scale and for such a low price
not only is spacex making space more
affordable
they are making it more accessible than
ever with an uber-like booking system
first you select the desired orbit of
your satellite
the mass and then choose from one of the
scheduled flights
then you have to specify how your
satellite will fit onto the rocket
since many different satellites will be
on board the rocket
spacex has designed a standard payload
adapter that simplifies
how each satellite connects to the
rocket after that
you can choose extra add-ons like
separation systems
electrical supplies and additional fuel
for your satellite
once you have selected everything you
need it should cost you at least
one million dollars spacex requires a
thousand dollar deposit immediately with
the rest of the payment being paid
in two large installments so although
it's
still incredibly expensive it's by far
the most cost effective way
of getting satellites into orbit thanks
to the falcon 9's incredible reusability
spacex can comfortably undercut their
competitors
and still make a large profit but their
rideshare program goes
even deeper than that despite the
decline
in typical large satellite customers
spacex's overall launch cadence has
increased drastically most of their
launches are now dedicated to launching
their very own starlink satellites
when fully operational this massive
constellation will consist of tens of
thousands of satellites orbiting the
earth
this constellation will provide
high-speed internet to almost every part
of the globe
including the most rural areas perhaps
one of spacex's most
overlooked achievements is their ability
to mass produce these satellites
at such a low cost each satellite is
estimated to cost around 250 000
extremely low compared to typical
satellites which can easily cost
millions of dollars
with 60 satellites on each launch it
brings the total cost for each starlink
launch to around
45 million dollars with the plan to
launch
thousands of these satellites the cost
to get their constellation
fully operational will be enormous
but that's where the rideshare program
comes in
during their first official rideshare
launch spacex squeezed
10 starlink satellites into the payload
bay
it may be less starling satellites than
they would usually launch
but it essentially gave them a free ride
into space
since the other customers were paying
for the launch costs
going ahead spacex will more than likely
include starlink satellites on all of
their rideshare missions
but how does spacex rideshare affect
rocket lab
despite eating directly into rocket labs
market it hasn't really taken much away
from them
one issue with ride sharing is that all
satellites are essentially going to the
same orbit
so in order for a rideshare mission to
happen all of the satellites need to
wait until the rocket is at full
capacity
in a world where each satellite has its
own strict schedule
this is a problem if a customer has to
wait too long
they will probably find a different
rocket to launch on
rocket lab offers a dedicated launch to
single customers for a slightly higher
cost
but with rocket lab now working towards
reusing their rocket
their prices could start to compete with
spacex even more
it's competition like this that will
continue to drive the cost of space
flight
down in the future though spacex will
have
starship a fully reusable rocket with a
payload capability that overshadows
anything that is around today
to put it into perspective instead of
launching 60 starlink satellites on one
launch
starship could launch 240
and with the launch costs estimated to
be just around 2 million dollars
the opportunity for future ride share
missions seems
endless with a full ride share mission
aboard starship
we could see the cost per 200 kilogram
slot
lower from 1 million to 5 000
but in the end all of this goes towards
spacex's main goal
of taking humans to mars every bit of
money and technical advancement that
spacex picks up along the way
will help them in their ambitious quest
the journey for spacex has been long and
hard
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of starting spacex took
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thank you very much for watching and
i'll see you in the next video
[Music]
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