Once again SpaceX is doing what no one has even thought of.
At this point, we’re just perpetually in awe because the ideas, the creation, the development,
the manufacturing…
all of it is constantly blowing our expectations out of the water.
This time, the innovation relates to catching and safely landing rockets onto a launchpad.
You’ll find out why that is important as we take you through every step from its conception
to its christening to the launch and test drive!
Hang tight!
Hello and welcome back to Tech Space.
In today’s video, we’ll talk about Elon Musk SpaceX’s Mechazilla and its launch.
Stay tuned to this video till the end to know everything about it.
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If you’ve followed Elon’s career, you’d know he is fond of sharing technological achievements
on his Twitter page and this is worthy of boasting to his 69 million followers.
Since then, the tweet, which is actually a video shot by a flying drone has garnered
115,000 likes and 13,000 retweets.
Seems like everyone’s excited, to say the least.
From wanting to see them in action to being curious about the tiny details, everyone is
looking forward to how they shape the world of space travel.
Elon’s penchant for borrowing names from popular media is still alive and going strong!
Almost all of the products offered by Tesla and their sister corporations borrow names
that are a reference to pop culture.
Tesla’s EV models all together spell “S3XY”.
We’ll leave the inference to you.
And this time is no different.
Taking inspiration from the popular Japanese franchise, famed for its humongous size and
the power to match, it’s no coincidence that the project is named “mechazilla”
Two very strong and powerfully designed “chopstick” arms will “catch” the returning rockets
or airships and safely land them on a launchpad.
This feature is useful for quick launches in succession without having to prepare for
months in advance.
Just place the rocket and they are launched out.
For their return, the arms catch the rockets as they hover a few feet above the ground
and then are safely put down without any human involvement whatsoever.
Tech like this would also allow for remote launches and catching.
Hence, the shock on everyone’s face.
It is imperative to note that the rockets and the starships mechazilla would have to
catch aren’t lightweight or probes that are sent out in orbit for observation.
No, ma’am!
They are set to catch a returning starship booster rocket.
A prototype in design, the starship rocket is placed on a booster making it the world’s
tallest rocket!
Even taller than NASA’s Saturn V rocket!
But with size, comes great weight.
And catching, or even launching, one is no easy task.
In fact, it is the kind of task that burns the budget while making no real advancement.
Thanks to mechazilla, that’s about to change.
The biggest challenge we face when it comes to making space travel viable and available
on a wider scale is the cost of arranging and preparing for such trips.
Allocating space for a launchpad and then launching rockets after a lengthy preparation
beforehand.
Now imagine, if it were as easy as placing a rocket on the launchpad and then next and
then next and so on!
You can see why we’d need something like the mechazilla.
Elon’s lifelong dream of colonizing Mars is one step closer by all means.
SpaceX is working hard towards that goal.
And while this is the first announcement we’ve had in the year 2022 after weeks of silence,
we can expect more to follow.
Most of SpaceX’s resources and faculty are actually devoted to this undertaking.
Stage zero, as the undertaking is dubbed.
A name was given to all the mechanisms relating to the starship launch.
These mechanisms include the infrastructure, which means, space for fuel storage, a launch
tower, a launchpad, and the now the mechazilla tower and arms.
Stage zero is located in Texas where all the magic happens.
The video of the tower comes a year after the announcement was made that SpaceX would
be working on such a tower to catch and launch rockets.
A year of hard work and dedication has paid off as SpaceX begins the trial stage.
Just last week, engineers over at SpaceX had cause to rejoice as they tested out the mechanical
arms.
The test was limited to testing the lift, ability to open and close and swing.
The test was a success which brings the aviation giant to stage 2 of the test run.
Testing on actual rockets returning back.
Even though no official announcement about when mechazilla would start working has been
offered, speculations are abound that it can happen as soon as February.
But SpaceX is playing it safe by targeting a fully operational mechanism by 2023.
There are some concerns about time and being short on it.
SpaceX is also simultaneously working on a contract for NASA to build a starship rocket
to be landed on the moon.
The project is called project Artemis and we can expect to see it in action by 2025.
NASA’s willingness to allocate SpaceX just further speaks well for the company.
All technical and cultural advancements happen because of a hurdle.
Couldn’t carry heavy loads so we invented the wheel.
Couldn’t catch fish, so we invented a spear.
Limitations are the basis of technological advancement.
And while the limitations we face in space travel are a tad bit larger in scope, they
are nothing special.
Indeed, SpaceX is unfazed by the challenge and they are braving on ahead.
As of now, we don’t have any technology to catch a returning ship.
All the returning vehicles make a landing in the ocean and then salvage teams move in
to secure the rocket.
All the material that can be recycled is separated from the ones that are of no use anymore and
then the process begins again.
With so much wastage and so much effort expended, it’s no surprise we don’t have an efficient
system for launching and returning ships.
The mechazilla is definitely an upgrade over the drone fleet currently in use by SpaceX
to catch and enable landing.
If all goes according to design and mechazilla is indeed able to catch and place the rockets
on the launchpad, it would make SpaceX the first to reuse rockets for launch as quickly
as a button press.
Meaning a city on mars will no longer just be a vision, the mechazilla would be able
to help lift and catch about three rockets per day transporting valuable cargo to the
colonies.
While mechazilla has performed admirably on the smaller series of physical tests, we are
yet to see them in action for the very purpose they are designed for.
And there’s a good reason behind that.
Since the project is still in early development, it is understandable why SpaceX wouldn’t
want to stack a rocket on the launchpad and launch it in orbit and see whether or not
the mechazilla can do its job.
The system isn’t going to catch superheavy booster rockets just yet.
Aside from permissions from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), there’s always the
risk of a launch going bad.
And when launches go bad, they have a tendency of obliterating everything in their path.
You probably understand why SpaceX wouldn’t want to risk its billion-dollar investment
of stage zero.
So, for a while, it seems like booster rockets and starships are going to keep landing in
the ocean.
But that doesn’t mean that the giant structure is just standing, waiting, and enjoying the
weather.
It’s being put under constant pressure tests.
One such test which can be called a “simulation” happened on January 10.
Before beginning the simulation, a large bar of steel, as heavy as booster rockets are,
was installed between the arms.
Once the arms carried the steel bar up to the top, they performed similar tests about
opening, closing, shifting, and moving up and down.
In short, all the actions arms would need to perform while carrying a booster rocket.
The towers and the arms completed the weight simulation without a hitch.
In the future, we can expect more weight to be added to those simulations to further test
the capacity of the arms.
They’d need to test weight between the range of 100-200 tonnes which was what a booster
and rocket weigh when stacked together.
The mechazilla arms are set to cut down the wait on reusability of rockets by days!
With Elon Musk hoping that reflight will be possible in under an hour!
And SpaceX is set to attempt a full test drive sometime this year.
Given that it’s just January and the arms are already acing the weight simulations,
we can be sure to expect a launch test in the coming months.
So what do you think guys?
Please do share your thoughts in the comment section.
And while everyone seems excited, we share their enthusiasm.
This is the kind of groundbreaking tech that will put our people on Mars!
And make us an interplanetary species.
A dream that’s now not only Elon’s but the whole world.
NASA’s willingness to work with privately owned SpaceX proves that humans are willing
to work as one when it comes to colonizing Mars.
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