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Engineering / Re: Interesting stuff about SpaceX Starship (hate the name)
« Last post by Nemesis on Today at 01:13:02 pm »Here is even cooler, an update to the SpaceX Starship page apparently just in the last week or so.
For a long time the media has been touting the lower limit of 100 tons to orbit in reusable mode. The original plan was 100-150+tons with people often attacking that upper limit. From other things it looks like the reusable 100 tons is to a somewhat higher orbit than the 150 ton LEO but definitely not geosynchronous.
Just to show how these capacities compare to past rocketry: Skylab 76.5 tons. The ISS 420 tons. Skylab in one launch, ISS took many. Imagine the volume of a 250 tons inflatable ISS module compared to ISS now.
I would suspect that to really make use of that 250 ton limit they would need a longer Starship to contain the cargo but that had already been talked about. I wouldn't be surprised if the early refueling missions were with expendables as they will still be working on the landing. I don't know of any reason they couldn't make the expandable cargo section larger in diameter as well as length. Other rockets have the upper stage at least partly wider, even Falcon 9 itself.
The 250 tons expendable mode might well be used to launch a nuclear powered rocket in large modules. Module 1 the engines, multiple modules for propellant. Life support modules, cargo modules, landers. Expend the launchers to build a reusable interplanetary manned craft.
Quote
SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket – collectively referred to as Starship – represent a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond. Starship will be the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, with the ability to carry up to 150 metric tonnes to Earth orbit reusable, and up to 250 metric tonnes expendable.
For a long time the media has been touting the lower limit of 100 tons to orbit in reusable mode. The original plan was 100-150+tons with people often attacking that upper limit. From other things it looks like the reusable 100 tons is to a somewhat higher orbit than the 150 ton LEO but definitely not geosynchronous.
Just to show how these capacities compare to past rocketry: Skylab 76.5 tons. The ISS 420 tons. Skylab in one launch, ISS took many. Imagine the volume of a 250 tons inflatable ISS module compared to ISS now.
I would suspect that to really make use of that 250 ton limit they would need a longer Starship to contain the cargo but that had already been talked about. I wouldn't be surprised if the early refueling missions were with expendables as they will still be working on the landing. I don't know of any reason they couldn't make the expandable cargo section larger in diameter as well as length. Other rockets have the upper stage at least partly wider, even Falcon 9 itself.
The 250 tons expendable mode might well be used to launch a nuclear powered rocket in large modules. Module 1 the engines, multiple modules for propellant. Life support modules, cargo modules, landers. Expend the launchers to build a reusable interplanetary manned craft.
