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Today amongst other things I‘ll explain to you what NASA has in store for SpaceX’s Starships and
how SpaceX will manage to make the upcoming Crew 1 flight even safer for our brave Astronauts.
My name is Felix, and I am your host for today’s Episode of What about it!? And as always, there’s been
a lot going on in the Space industry lately, so let’s dive right in! Starship Updates It’s been
a few days since our last update on SpaceX’s progress in Boca Chica again and usually that’s
more than enough time for Elon Musk and his crew to get the usual insane amount of progress done.
Starship draws all the attention and rightfully so. What SpaceX is building in Boca Chica Texas right
now, is just mind boggling to say the least. What you see here, are some snippets from a longer-term
project, Erik, one of my very talented 3D artists and I are working on right now. This is what I
call Serial Number X right now. It’s the first Starship to actually fly a mission, carry a payload and start
something many will refer to as the moment, we finally acquired the means to settle in space.
Not just projects like the proposed Mars colony. Starships will enable us to increase the amount
of payload delivered to orbit per year maybe by a hundred-fold or more. And it’s not only us dreaming
big right now. This for example is a render released by NASA on October 1st, so just a few days
ago. Anything that’s released by NASA can be called official. Made by ICON, a construction technologies
company based in Austin, Texas, working for NASA and developing 3D printing technologies right
now, it shows a scene right out of a Hollywood blockbuster. A rather large Moon base with all
sorts of infrastructure. To the right we can see storage and habitation buildings. On the hills
to the far left we can see something that vaguely looks like observatories. In the middle, the scene
is dominated by three large launch and landing pads surrounded by a ring wall supposed to contain
engine blasts. There are multiple research teams right now from all around the planet working
on similar technology. On the left pad we can see the printing process in progress. Pad number 3
is still being built. This is, what a foundation base could look like. Once these three pads and
the surrounding infrastructure are done, multiple flights per day could commence with a system like
SpaceX’s Starship. If we focus our attention on the landed Starship itself, a few more interesting
facts are revealed. First of all, it still shows an old Starship design. Judging by the forward
flaps, it’s closer to Mark 1 than what we see today. There’s one other very interesting aspect about it
though. It does not show the famous lunar Starship. Seen here in one of Caspar Stanley’s awesome
animations, done for What about it!? the Lunar Starship is a special variant in development
by SpaceX and partly funded for and by NASA. It solves one big problem, Starships have regarding
the Moon. Raptor engines produce too much thrust when decelerating Starships for touchdown on the
Lunar surface. This would cause lunar regolith to be slung out in a gigantic radius around the
landing site and in extreme cases it could even lead to lunar surface material being catapulted
into an orbit around the Moon. In theory it could even reach Earth. The Lunar Starship though solves
this problem by utilizing engines further up on the hull, creating more distance between the
descent engines and the surface. Besides this, the Lunar Starship also is not capable of landing on
Earth again. It’s missing flaps and heat shield, which are not needed on the Moon due to lack of
an atmosphere. Technically our Moon has an atmosphere. It’s just so thin, that it’s called
an exosphere, composed of only 100 molecules per cubic centimeter. Its total weight is around 25000
kilograms and it’s spread out so thin, that the gas molecules rarely collide with each other. In short,
A heat shield and flaps would not make any sense on the Moon. So, Nasa has come up with the Lunar
Starship as a means of transferring cargo and later crew between their proposed lunar gateway
and the surface. On Icon’s illustration though we can see a normal Earth based Starship. And it makes
sense too. Once there are landing and take-off pads on the Moon’s surface, it would enable SpaceX to
send standard Starships to the Moon directly from Earth, rendering a stop at a Lunar Gateway obsolete.
And since this render was released by NASA, it very well might show a possible future. Again, Icon is
working on tech needed to build what you see in the illustration as you watch this Episode. A link
to the NASA announcement is in the description so you can read on after the Episode. Big thanks as
always go out to Caspar and Erik for providing me with these absolutely stunning 3D renders.
Go follow them on Twitter for more! Links are in the description! This is just one of many
possible scenarios we can look forward to, once SpaceX’s prototype phase is completed and Starships
are taking flight on a regular schedule. SpaceX is making progress towards just that.
After lifting the latest prototype Starship Serial number 8 onto one of the two stands a few days ago,
workers prepared it for testing. The flaps got fixed in place. Last preparations were done on
top of Serial number 8 and something got lifted down with a crane. It’s impossible to make out, what
exactly it was. If you have any idea, tell me in the comments! I’d love to know your thoughts! An ambient
pressure test was performed to make sure that there is no obvious leak on the tanks. The end of
the ambient pressure test was signaled by venting which can clearly be seen on LabPadre’s cam. His
Streams by far are the best source for live views of what’s going on in Boca Chica, Texas. Make sure to
check out his channel. Link is in the description! Now, everything should be set for a cryogenic test
coming up next. And after this we should see a Nose cone being stacked and forward flaps installed.
Then Raptors and the first ever static fires utilizing three engines at the same time and we’re
ready for lift-off. I am going on a short vacation until the 18th from tomorrow on, so I’ll be
skipping the next three episodes. If SpaceX decides to do the Serial Number 8 flight before I
return though, you can be very sure, that I’ll make an exception for that and watch it happen together
with you on my channel. At the construction site, the high bay is being fleshed out more and more.
Roof elements are being installed. Less and less is missing each time I do an update.
The roof structure looks very strong. We might see a ceiling crane being installed here
in the end. Serial number 9’s tank section has been completely stacked in the mid bay.
This is Starship Serial Number 8’s backup. If SN8 craters and has a spectacular
ending to its first flight, Starship Serial number 9 will be able to take over without much delay and
continue the flight campaign. Serial Number 11 is coming along as well. What you’re looking at here
is its forward header tank to be installed in the very tip of the nose cone. When done, it will store
fuel needed for landings to make sure that the engines always have fuel even while a belly flop
maneuver is being performed. All these pictures are out of Mary’s camera lens. Make sure to check
out her work for NASASpaceflight on the NSF forums. And there’s one takeaway from the Serial
Number 7.1 tests I want to mention as well. Right before taking it down from the test stand rather
rudely, SpaceX workers cut out the hatch from the hull. While tests were going on a leak could be
observed on the right side. This likely was caused by the hatch. SpaceX has cut it out after the tests
to perform a thorough analysis of what caused the leak. This is a perfect example for an iterative
design process. Step by step the prototypes are being analyzed and improved over time. Last but
not least for today’s Starship Update I want to give you a quick overview of what’s going on at
the launch site right now. And what better to use for this than Mauricio’s awesome birds eye view.
Make sure to follow him on twitter and consider becoming a flight supporter on his Patreon page.
The more fuel money he gets, the more pictures he can provide! Besides Serial Number 7.1 still being
on the test stand here and Starship Serial number 8 being prepared for its test campaign, we can
also see a few other very interesting developments. The truck parade has started again. The trucks are
needed for yet another large scale terrain grading project. It’s kind of obvious, what SpaceX workers
are doing here right now. They’re preparing the ground for building work. The more interesting
question to me is, what they’re planning to build here. What’s still missing? Some sort of water
reservoir is still missing for sound suppression purposes. Maybe a water tower? A High Bay in my
opinion would make a lot of sense too. Musk spoke about stacking of Starships on top of boosters
would likely be a limiting factor in launch cadence. So, it would make sense to have some sort
of garage close to the launch mount. You can park Starships and boosters for stacking. Also mentioned
by Musk before, an engine test stand is still missing too. Whatever SpaceX is planning here, it won’t be
long now until we know. What can also be seen is a trench leading from the fuel farm all the way past
Starhopper. Is this the still missing connection between Fuel farm and orbital launch mount?
Like the update so far? Then make sure to subscribe, hit the like button, and consider
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the channel. Links are in the description! You rock! The end of this year still has a few historic
moments in stock for all of us. A Starship flight to 15 kilometers with Serial Number 8, yet
another Starship Presentation, where Elon Musk will unveil the final design of Starship going forward
and the first ever certified Crew Dragon launch. Crew 1 Preparing for Lift-Off NASA and SpaceX
have something special planned for this years Halloween. Crew 1, the first official routine
flight of a SpaceX Crew Dragon to the ISS is closing in fast. May 30th, 2020. SpaceX Demo 2 takes
off towards the international Space Station. The first ever commercial crew vehicle to do the trip
with an actual crew on board. Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken did it. Demonstrating, that SpaceX
is capable of delivering humans to Space and to the ISS. Docking on May 31st, staying for 62
days, 9 hours and 8 minutes, undocking and making their way back down to earth, splashing down in
the Gulf of Mexico. Endeavour, as the Crew Dragon was named, went straight into the history books,
marking the beginning of orbital Human Spaceflight on privately built commercial spacecrafts.
Now, NASA and SpaceX are almost done certifying Crew Dragon and moving it into regular service.
Demo 2 was not just a shiny presentation. It was also the final test for the space vehicle itself.
Vital data was collected again and a few aspects have been found that still need improvements
before the first regular crew rotation flight and the culmination of many years of work can commence.
Comprised of an international team with NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover,
Shannon Walker, and Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency or JAXA, Crew one is
set to launch from Launch complex 39 A at Kennedy Space Center on October 31st. It marks the return
of a full crew compliment to the International Space Station, bringing the team up to 7
Astronauts again. Named resilience to symbolize the will to proceed with human exploration even
in a year like 2020, Crew 1 also is right on time to celebrate the 20th anniversary of continuous
human presence on board the ISS, which started with Expedition 1 on Novemb==er 2nd in the year 2 000.
There are 5 vital improvements done to Resilience compared to Endeavour to make it ready for Crew
1. The ability to switch ports on the ISS. Since there might be the chance, that a Boeing Starliner
arrives at the Space Station, while Resilience is docked, it will have to switch docking ports. For
this, Astronauts will enter the capsule and run a new set of Software to change docking ports from
the forward port to the zenith port. The flight will be autonomous with the crew monitoring the
process. 2. An improved Heat Shield Once Behnken and Hurley were back on Earth, an investigation
revealed, that one of the heat shields tiles suffered “a little bit more erosion than we
expected to see”, as Hans Koenigsmann, vice President of build and flight reliability at SpaceX put
it. The Astronauts though were safe at all times during the flight and the vehicle worked perfectly.
What you’re looking at here is Endeavour’s heat shield after splash down. In the corners you can
see the connector openings to the spacecraft’s trunk. While in Space, tension ties are attached
between the capsule and the trunk to keep it in place. While reentering the atmosphere, unexpected
vortexes formed, eating into the heat shield more than anticipated. Resilience’s heat shield has been
reinforced in these particular spots to give extra safety margin. 3. Barometric sensor improvements-
While Demo 2 was on it’s final descend, a barometric sensor was supposed to control, when the capsule
deploys it’s first two parachutes. This happened a little late due to the filter, supposed to clean
the air running into the sensors being clogged. The deployment happened within limits though and again
the Astronauts were in no danger at any time. The particular filter now has been opened up a bit to
prevent this from happening again. 4. Solar Panel improvements Endeavour would not have been able to
stay docked with the ISS for the full duration of Crew 1’s mission. The new capsule will have
to stay docked with the ISS for 6 months. To make this possible, the Solar panels have been improved
to withstand space weather and radiation for up to 210 days. 5. Operation clean seas So, the last
point on the improvements list has nothing to do directly with Crew Dragon. Reme=mber this
scene from the Demo 2 splash down site? Those boats are not part of SpaceX’s or NASA’s recovery fleet.
Those are spectators. What were these people thinking, getting so close to a vital operation of
recovering a freshly returned spacecraft including crew? Whoever was part of this, should be ashamed
to say the least. To prevent this from happening again, NASA and SpaceX intend to set up a 10-mile
no-boat perimeter for the Crew 1 splashdown. No more spectating with political statements. Crew
one will be the first regular flight. The first of many to come and during its stay at the ISS
we might even see Boeing attempt their first trip with the Starliner capsule towards our permanent low
earth orbit habitat. SpaceX is ushering in a new era of spaceflight not only in Boca Chica, Texas.
Crew Dragon is ready for business. In the next 14 months there will always be a Dragon docked to the
ISS and in the same timeframe there are 7 NASA missions planned with Dragon vehicles. I am
very much ready to witness all of it together with you. Doing the engineering work for such important
projects is a long-term process that involves constant learning. If you’re interested in learning
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Oscuro, Ken May, Seeyalater Navigator, Kevin L Scott, Marc S Held, Sebastian Brummer,
David Watkins and many others. You Rock! My team and I are humbled every time one of you hits our
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the join button right under this video. Thank you so much! The last words are for the team.
Today I want to thank Julia for taking over a few very vital functions in the background.
It’s one of those positions, where the results are not obvious. There’s no shiny new 3D animation
involved. There’s no new sponsor or interview, making the next show the next milestone for
the channel. She’s keeping our books straight and without that, none of what I just mentioned
would even be possible. So, thank you Julia for taking this silent position and being
very, very important for all of us on the team! You Rock!