Showing posts with label Infographics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Infographics. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

SpaceX Starship orbital flight test 3 - infographic by Tony Bela

Australian space illustrator Tony Bela has created an infographic of the upcoming 3rd integrated flight test of SpaceX's Starship rocket (booster B10, ship S28) on Thursday, March 14 (the 110-minute test window opens at 7:00 a.m. CT) from Starbase, Boca Chica, Texas.

SpaceX Starship orbital flight test 3 - infographic by Tony Bela

SpaceX: "The third flight test aims to build on what we’ve learned from previous flights while attempting a number of ambitious objectives, including the successful ascent burn of both stages, opening and closing Starship’s payload door, a propellant transfer demonstration during the upper stage’s coast phase, the first ever re-light of a Raptor engine while in space, and a controlled reentry of Starship. It will also fly a new trajectory, with Starship targeted to splashdown in the Indian Ocean."

SpaceX livestream of the launch:


Wednesday, November 15, 2023

SpaceX Starship orbital flight test 2 - infographic by Tony Bela (updated)

Australian space illustrator Tony Bela has created an infographic of the upcoming 2nd integrated flight test of SpaceX's Starship rocket (booster B09, ship S25) on Saturday, November 18 Friday, November 17 (a 20 minute launch window opens at 7:00 a.m. CT pending final regulatory approval) from Starbase, Boca Chica, Texas.

SpaceX Starship orbital flight test 2 - infographic by Tony Bela

SpaceX: "Starship’s first flight test [on April 20] provided numerous lessons learned that directly contributed to several upgrades to both the vehicle and ground infrastructure to improve the probability of success on future flights. The second flight test will debut a hot-stage separation system and a new electronic Thrust Vector Control (TVC) system for Super Heavy Raptor engines, in addition to reinforcements to the pad foundation and a water-cooled steel flame deflector, among many other enhancements."
Breakdown of Tony's infographic into phases:
SpaceX Starship orbital flight test 2 - phase 1 - infographic by Tony Bela

Thursday, June 22, 2023

Valles Marineris compared to USA

Valles Marineris (or Mariner Valleys) canyon system on Mars is one of the largest canyons of the Solar System. It is located along the equator of Mars and stretches for nearly a quarter of the planet's circumference. Valles Marineris is more than 4000 km (2500 mi) long, 200 km (120 mi) wide and up to 7 km (23,000 ft) deep.

Here is an infographic created by NASA comparing Valles Marineris to the territory of Contiguous United States (48 US states without Alaska and Hawaii) for scale:

Valles Marineris (Mars) compared to the territory of USA

Thursday, April 13, 2023

SpaceX Starship orbital flight test 1 - infographic by Tony Bela

Australian space illustrator Tony Bela has created an infographic of the upcoming first integrated flight test of SpaceX's Starship rocket next week from Starbase, Boca Chica, Texas. We have been waiting for this test flight for a year and a half by now!

Infographic of SpaceX Starship orbital flight test 1 by Tony Bela
Updated version. You can download the infographic in full resolution here.
Infographic of SpaceX Starship orbital flight test 1 by Tony Bela

Sunday, February 5, 2023

Retrofuturistic Mars exploration base by Pascal Lee

In 2021 planetary scientist, the director of Haughton-Mars Project, Pascal Lee created a painting with the same, slightly updated scene of the first human exploration mission on Mars as in Chesley Bonestell's famous painting "Exploring Mars" featured in the 1956 book "The Exploration of Mars" by Willy Ley and Wernher Von Braun.

Highlighting Bonestell's legacy, Pascal Lee wrote: "In painting this new "Exploring Mars", I wanted to pay tribute to the grand master of space art and his creation of an iconic classic, but also update elements of the landscape and hardware in light of new knowledge gained about Mars in the intervening 65 years and evolutions in our thinking about future Mars exploration systems and human surface operations."

Retrofuturistic Mars exploration base by Pascal Lee
Comparison of Bonestell's (1956) and Lee's (2021) "Exploring Mars":
Exploring Mars - Chesley Bonestell (1956) vs Pascal Lee (2021)

Friday, December 9, 2022

Phobos as a space elevator for Mars

Building a Martian space elevator would be complicated by the Martian moon Phobos, which is in a low orbit at ~6,028 km above the Martian surface and intersects the Equator regularly, thus getting in the way of a traditional geostationary space elevator. But there is an idea instead to build a space elevator from Phobos itself.

Phobos is tidally locked to Mars (as the Moon is to Earth), where the same side of the moon stays facing the planet. A space elevator could extend down from Phobos to Mars 6,000 km, about 28 kilometers from the surface, and just out of the atmosphere of Mars. A similar space elevator cable could extend out 6,000 km the opposite direction that would counterbalance Phobos. In total the space elevator would extend out over 12,000 km which would be below Areostationary orbit of Mars (17,032 km).

A rocket launch would still be needed to get the rocket and cargo to the beginning of the space elevator 28 km above the surface. The surface of Mars is rotating at 0.25 km/s at the equator and the bottom of the space elevator would be rotating around Mars at 0.77 km/s, so only 0.52 km/s of Delta-v would be needed to get to the space elevator. Phobos orbits at 2.15 km/s and the outer most part of the space elevator would rotate around Mars at 3.52 km/s.

Infographic: Phobos as a space elevator for Mars

In our speculative Mars Colonization Timeline we have estimated such a Phobos-based space elevator could be built as soon as in 2080s–2090s. In adition to the space elevator there could be built a shuttle port at the summit of Pavonis Mons – the Martian volcano practically on the equator – for shuttles heading to and coming from Phobos space elevator. The summit of Pavonis Mons is standing 14 km above Mars' mean surface level (way above the denser part of the atmosphere), halving the needed trip to the shuttle platform at space elavator's lower tip 28 km above the surface.

Sunday, September 4, 2022

Artemis rockets (SLS & Starship) that will get us to the Moon - infographic by Tony Bela

Australian space illustrator Tony Bela has created an infographic of Artemis rockets – NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), boosting Orion crew capsule to lunar orbit, and SpaceX's Human Landing System (known as Lunar Starship) – that will get the humanity back to the surface of the Moon.

Infographic of Artemis rockets - NASA's SLS & SpaceX's Starship - by Tony Bela
You can download the infographic in its original resolution here.

Friday, February 11, 2022

SpaceX Starship update 2022

On February 10th SpaceX CEO and lead designer Elon Musk provided the latest update of SpaceX's Starship architecture. Here are slides and animations from his presentation.
Animation of Starship launch and arrival to Mars Base Alpha [updated on April 2023]:
Full presentation:


Slides from the presentation

Starship specifications:
SpaceX Starship update 2022 - Starship specifications
Super Heavy booster specifications:
SpaceX Starship update 2022 - Super Heavy booster specifications

Sunday, December 19, 2021

Map of shallow subsurface water in Valles Marineris on Mars

On December 15 scientists from Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, Russia revealed a discovery of an area with an unusually large amount of hydrogen in the Valles Marineris canyon system on Mars. Assuming the hydrogen is bound into water molecules, as much as 40% of the near-surface material in Candor Chaos region appears to be water. The discovery was made by neutron detector FREND on ESA&Roscosmos's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter orbiting Mars since October 2016. FREND is mapping the distribution of hydrogen in the uppermost meter of the planet’s surface. Hydrogen indicates the presence of water, being one of the constituents of the water molecule; it can also indicate water absorbed into the surface, or minerals that were formed in the presence of water.

While water is known to exist on Mars, most is found in the planet’s cold polar regions as ice. Typically water ice is not found exposed at the surface near the equator, as temperatures there are not cold enough for exposed water ice to be stable. Minerals seen in this part of Mars typically contain only a few percent water, much less than is evidenced by these new observations. We found a central part of Valles Marineris to be packed full of water – far more water than we expected. This is very much like Earth’s permafrost regions, where water ice permanently persists under dry soil because of the constant low temperatures,” told one of the scientists involved in the study.

These are very inspiring discoveries for the future human colonization of Valles Marineris region we have imagined in our speculative Mars Colonization Timeline!

Water in Valles Marineris region on Mars traced by ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter
⇧ In the area C up to 40% of the near-surface material appears to be composed of water (by weight).
The most water-rich area in Valles Marineris region is located in Candor Chaos:
Subsurface water-ice in Valles Marineris region on Mars
Subsurface water-ice in Candor Chaos (Valles Marineris) on Mars

HERE is global-scale map of shallow subsurface water distribution on Mars published in 2019.

Monday, September 13, 2021

Infographic of SpaceX Starship timeline by Ryan MacDonald

Exoplanet astronomer at Cornell University's Carl Sagan Institute Ryan MacDonald (known on social media as Martian Colonist) has created an infographic of SpaceX's aspirational timeline for Starship's first missions to the Moon and Mars.


We estimate realistically the timeline will slip for a few years with #dearMoon mission happening in 2025, Lunar Starship demo landing in 2026, humans returning to the Moon in 2027, first cargo mission landing on Mars in 2027 and first crew mission landing on Mars in 2031.

Thursday, April 29, 2021

SpaceX Starship interior concept for 20 to 40 passengers by Paul King

British interior architect / designer Paul King has created his detailed concept of SpaceX's Starship interior layout for 20 (one shift) to 40 (two shifts sharing the same crew pods) passengers. Concept divides the pressurized living space into six 2.5m high levels (here shown from top to bottom).

SpaceX Starship interior concept by Paul King
Level 6 - Flight deck
SpaceX Starship interior concept by Paul King - Level 6 - Flight deck
Level 5 - Crew mess hall
SpaceX Starship interior concept by Paul King - Level 5 - Crew mess hall

Thursday, April 1, 2021

SpaceX Starship interior concept for 100 passengers by Joseph Lantz

Joseph Lantz has created his concept for the interior layout of SpaceX's 100-passenger Starship (the passenger capacity goal stated by Elon Musk). Therefore this concept isn't meant for the first crew Starships on Mars used as temporary habitats for the first few years (those first Starships will have much smaler crew). The concept divides the pressurized living space into 8 decks (here shown from top to bottom) and follows a common design choice of a central stairway through all the decks.

All Decks of SpaceX 100-passenger Starship interior concept by Joseph Lantz
Deck 8 - Observation
Deck 8 (Observation) of SpaceX 100-passenger Starship interior concept by Joseph Lantz

Wednesday, February 17, 2021

NASA Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing in infographics

Tomorrow, on February 18, NASA will land its Mars 2020 Perseverance rover on Mars in Jezero Crater (Western Isidis Planitia). Its mission is to collect samples for later retrieval and it is accompanied by a small reconnaissance drone-helicopter Ingenuity - the first such craft on Mars. We will be able to watch NASA's broadcast of the landing here (starting on 19:15 UTC).

Here is an excellent infographic of Perseverance's landing sequence by Australian space illustrator Tony Bela:
NASA Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing sequence infographic by Tony Bela
Open link in new tab to view the infographic in its original resolution.

Sunday, January 24, 2021

Animation of SpaceX Starship interior concept by DeepSpaceCourier

Two brothers from DeepSpaceCourier have created an animation of their concept for SpaceX's Starship interior. The animation takes through each level of the Starship showing it from 1st person perspective.

Common room:
SpaceX's Starship interior concept by DeepSpaceCourier - Common room
Utilities:
SpaceX's Starship interior concept by DeepSpaceCourier - Utilities

Saturday, November 14, 2020

SpaceX Starship interior concept for 64 passengers

Swedish space designer Erik Corshammar (Erc X) and YouTuber smallstars have created their concept of SpaceX's Starship interior layout for 64 passengers.

SpaceX's Starship interior concept by Erik Corshammar (ErcX) & smallstars - docked to ISS

SpaceX's Starship interior concept by Erik Corshammar (ErcX) & smallstars

Deck 0 - cargo hold

Deck 1 - egress options & EVA spacesuits
Deck 2 & 3 - 32 crew bunks in each deck
SpaceX's Starship interior concept by Erik Corshammar (ErcX) & smallstars - crew bunks (deck 2 & 3)

Sunday, November 1, 2020

SpaceX Starship SN8 15km test flight infographic by Tony Bela

Australian space illustrator Tony Bela has created an infographic of the upcoming 15km test flight of SpaceX's Starship SN8 test vehicle, considering the information publicly available and the observations by fan community at SpaceX's test facility in Boca Chica, Texas.

SpaceX's Starship SN8 15km test flight infographic by Tony Bela
You can download the infographic in its original resolution here.
Here is his poster of Starship SN8 during lift-off and when performing its "skydiver" belly flop maneuver:
Poster of SpaceX's Starship SN8 15km test flight by Tony Bela
You can download the poster in its original resolution here.

Monday, September 21, 2020

SpaceX Mars Base Alpha concept by Sotiris

Here is a concept of SpaceX's early Mars Base Alpha by Twitter user Sotiris. The concept features a pair of crew Starships with Falcon 9 style landing legs, several pressurized Mars Cybertrucks, The Boring Company's tunnel boring machine and 3-level habitation modules derived from used Starship propellant tanks and connected in pairs (a questionable idea, we think).

SpaceX Mars Base Alpha concept by Sotiris

SpaceX Mars Base Alpha concept by Sotiris
Cutaway of the habitation module:
Mars habitation module concept by Sotiris - cutaway

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

SpaceX orbital shuttle concept by Rodrigo Magro

SpaceX is developing its Starship Super Heavy two-stage super heavy-lift launch vehicle for interplanetary flights. But, if you would need a flight only between the surface of Mars, Moon or other similar planetary body and its orbit, you could do it by less powerful spacecraft - an orbital shuttle.

Here is a concept of such spacecraft, called SpaceX Starflight, by Spanish transportation designer Rodrigo Magro. The orbital shuttle would have a lifting-body shape with thermal shield on the windward side, two forward winglets as Starship, four lower fins with landing legs and solar panels, large panoramic window and hypergolic auxiliary engines for landing on the Moon and other smaller planetary bodies.

SpaceX orbital shuttle on Mars by Rodrigo Magro

SpaceX orbital shuttle concept by Rodrigo Magro

Thursday, July 30, 2020

NASA Mars 2020 Perseverance rover launch

Today, July 30, at 7:50 AM (EDT) NASA will launch its next generation Mars 2020 Perseverance rover to Mars. The rover will land on Mars on February 18, 2021 in Jezero Crater (Western Isidis Planitia) to collect samples for later retrieval; the rover will be accompanied by a small reconnaissance drone-helicopter Ingenuity.
Here you can watch NASA's livestream of the launch:

The Perseverance is a twin rover of the Curiosity rover (working on Mars since 2012) with some upgrades:
NASA Mars 2020 Perseverance vs Curiosity - infographic
Overview of the Perseverance scientific instruments:
NASA Mars 2020 Perseverance rover - infographic