Starship

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Starship and Super Heavy launch Stack

Starship is the name of the 2019 version of the second stage of the SpaceX super heavy lift vehicle.

It was presented by Elon Musk during the announcement of Yusaku Maezawa' Dear Moon project, as an evolution of the BFR/BFS concept.

Booster

Originally planned to be constructed of carbon fiber composite, it was changed to a Stainless Steel design in January 2019 .[1]

9m diameter, 100 tonnes to LEO, 100 tonnes to Mars

120 day transportation time

The fundamental enabling technology of the Starship is supersonic retro propulsive landing on Mars. The use of supersonic retropropulsion in a critical phase of the Mars entry path allows the vehicle to land heavier payloads that previously thought possible. Although the exact details are not public, the current SpaceX Falcon 9 booster rocket has done flight tests that would confirm the flight path. [2]

A second enabling technology is the capacity of refueling in orbit.

A third enabling technology is the use of methane as fuel, than can be provided by In-situ ressources production systems. Raptor engine

A fourth technology is robust heat shield for Mars and Earth entry. This allows for fast re-use lad lower costs, but also for faster transit times, reducing the radiation damage to travellers.

The NASA Ames research center trajectory browser can be used to explore transit to Mars.

Trajectory browser

  1. Popular Mechanics article [1]
  2. AEROTHERMAL ANALYSIS OF REUSABLE LAUNCHER SYSTEMS DURING RETRO-PROPULSION REENTRY AND LANDING [2]