In addition to today's announcement, NASA shared latest official render of SpaceX's Lunar Starship which slightly differs from last year's version:
Showing posts with label SpaceX. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SpaceX. Show all posts
Friday, April 16, 2021
NASA selects SpaceX Lunar Starship to return humans to the Moon
Today NASA announced it has selected SpaceX "to continue development of the first commercial human lander that will safely carry the next two American astronauts to the lunar surface" as part of the Artemis program. A year ago it was announced three contenders were selected to compete for this mission - SpaceX, Blue Origin's led "National Team" and Dynetics - and SpaceX revealed it is working for a lunar optimized Starship. Now we know SpaceX's proposal has won the race. In a milestone-based fixed-price contract SpaceX will be able to receive $2.89 billion to develop the Lunar Starship. The year when SpaceX needs to land humans back to the Moon is not specified yet.
Monday, April 5, 2021
First humans on Mars
Young Irish 3D artist Matthew Ryan has created a stunning animation of a SpaceX's Starship getting people from Earth to Mars for the first time ever. Here is the final scene with a group of Starmen disembarking from Starship on Mars:
Full animation here:
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.
Deck 8 - Observation
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
Astronaut relaxing near a SpaceX Starship spaceport
Picture of the Day 30/03/2021 - Astronaut leaning against his Mars rover derived from a retro car near a SpaceX Starship spaceport by American video game concept artist Darren Bacon in collaboration with parody account Bored Elon.
Thursday, March 11, 2021
SpaceX Starship landing on Mars by Kendall Dirks
Sunday, March 7, 2021
SpaceX 100+ Starship fleet arriving to Mars
Wednesday, March 3, 2021
Updated design of #dearMoon Starship (2021)
On March 3 dearMoon Project opened application process for 8 crew member spots on SpaceX's first crewed deep space mission - #dearMoon Starship flight around the Moon scheduled for 2023. Applications are open for everyone now, not just the artists as originally was planned. The applications page contains some official renders of Starship's updated design with the most visible differences being in main window design:
Tuesday, March 2, 2021
SpaceX has downselected 7 potential Mars landing sites for Starship
On September 2019 it was revealed SpaceX has selected several Starship candidate landing sites on Mars. The candidate sites were located in Southern Arcadia Planitia East of Erebus Montes and one in Phlegra Montes.
Since then SpaceX has conducted several workshops with the Mars science community to evaluate and narrow the list of candidate landing sites. All the sites must fit several criteria:
Recently an abstract with the conclusions has been published (the results of the study will be presented in two weeks, at the 52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference), pointing out 4 prime and 3 secondary potential Starship landing sites selected for further study and located in Phlegra Montes, Erebus Montes and Southern Arcadia Planitia:
We highlighted selected ★ prime and ★ secondary sites on the map:
Since then SpaceX has conducted several workshops with the Mars science community to evaluate and narrow the list of candidate landing sites. All the sites must fit several criteria:
- close to significant deposits of water/ice, a required resource for in situ propellant production and a consumable to support habitation;
- elevation below -2 km (with respect to the MOLA geoid) that can support the delivery of large payloads, with -3 km preferred;
- latitude must be <40° for solar power and thermal management, and closer to the equator is desirable;
- multiple separate landing locations spaced within a few km of each other, to support the multiple missions needed to grow an outpost;
- slopes should be <5° over a 10 m length scale and the chance of impacting a rock greater than 0.5 m high (1 m diameter) should be <5%;
- landing site must be radar reflective to enable measurement of the distance to the surface, and it must be load bearing to support the spacecraft at touchdown.
Recently an abstract with the conclusions has been published (the results of the study will be presented in two weeks, at the 52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference), pointing out 4 prime and 3 secondary potential Starship landing sites selected for further study and located in Phlegra Montes, Erebus Montes and Southern Arcadia Planitia:
- PM-1 has the lowest latitude and elevation of the Phlegra Montes sites, a clear association with LDAs (local ice deposits expressed as lobate debris aprons), well developed polygons (one of the indicators of ice-related morphologies), and has the highest SWIM (Subsurface Water Ice Mapping) score for geomorphic indicators of ice;
- AP-1 (Arcadia Planitia) appears to be one of the safest sites and has a moderate combined SWIM score for ice;
- AP-9 has the thickest ice from radar returns (of the Arcadia Planitia sites) and geomorphology indicating shallow ice. It has the highest combined SWIM score for ice, but appears slightly rocky and rough;
- EM-16 has a clear association with an LDA with nearby brain terrain and the strongest radar return for shallow ice and the highest combined SWIM score of the Erebus Montes sites;
- AP-8 (Arcadia Planitia) appears to be one of the safest sites and has the highest neutron and combined SWIM scores for ice;
- EM-15 (Erebus Montes) is associated with a prominent but less extensive LDA, has well developed polygons, nearby brain terrain and appears smooth;
- PM-7 is adjacent to lineated valley fill (attributed to glacial flow) and appears to be the safest of the Phlegra sites.
We highlighted selected ★ prime and ★ secondary sites on the map:
Friday, February 26, 2021
SpaceX Mars exploration rover concept by Alexander Svanidze
Russian game artist Alexander Svanidze has created his concept of SpaceX's Mars exploration rover (CyberRover) made by Tesla. More of his art here.
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:
Utilities:
Saturday, January 2, 2021
Cutaway schematic of SpaceX Starship interior by Tom Dixon
British product design student Tom Dixon, in collaboration with the local Starship photographer Austin Barnard, has created a cutaway schematic of SpaceX's cargo Starship interior structure, as it can be observed at SpaceX's Starship production and testing facility in Boca Chica, Texas.
Some more speculative Starship interiors for crewed flights by SpaceX fans:
- Starship interior concept for 20 to 40 passengers by Paul King + VR tour
- Starship interior concept for 100 passengers by Joseph Lantz
- Animation of Starship interior concept by DeepSpaceCourier
- Starship interior concept for 64 passengers by Erik Corshammar & YouTuber 'smallstars'
- Cutaway diagram of Lunar Starship by Rocket Posters
- Starship interior concept for 100 passengers by Rick Kiessig & Michel Lamontagne
- Starship interior concept by Jim Murphy
- Speculative internal structure of Starship by William Falconer-Beach
- Speculative internal layout of Starship by Michel Lamontagne
- Cutaway diagram of Starship by Julian Schindler
- Cutaway diagram of Big Falcon Ship by Nick Oberg
Monday, December 28, 2020
SpaceX Starship Super Heavy launch complex by Dale Rutherford
Picture of the Day 28/12/2020 - SpaceX's launch complex with several launch towers for Starship Super Heavies by Scottish photographer & designer Dale Rutherford. More of his art here.
Wednesday, December 9, 2020
Video footage of Starship SN8 high-altitude test flight
Today SpaceX's Starship SN8 test vehicle performed first high-altitude test flight for Starship development program. The test was successful, reaching several milestones, including successfully performing its distinctive "skydiver" belly flop maneuver, till the very end of the flight when Starship SN8 crashed and exploded on the landing pad. SpaceX has already almost completed SN8's successor - Starship SN9. Here is full footage of today's flight from SpaceX's official livestream.
Starship is the second (spacecraft) stage of the fully reusable two-stage super heavy-lift launch vehicle currently developed by leading NewSpace company SpaceX. The main purpose of building such a large rocket with more than double the power of Saturn V is to enable the colonization of Mars. But Starship will be capable to do a lot of different tasks – to place satellites or space stations in orbit, ferry passengers to space stations or the Moon and even ferry passengers or cargo between any destinations on Earth within an hour.
Starship is the second (spacecraft) stage of the fully reusable two-stage super heavy-lift launch vehicle currently developed by leading NewSpace company SpaceX. The main purpose of building such a large rocket with more than double the power of Saturn V is to enable the colonization of Mars. But Starship will be capable to do a lot of different tasks – to place satellites or space stations in orbit, ferry passengers to space stations or the Moon and even ferry passengers or cargo between any destinations on Earth within an hour.
Scott Manley's technical analysis of the flight:
Lift-off of the Starship SN8 by Tony Bela
New illustration depicting lift-off of SpaceX's Starship SN8 test vehicle from company's launch site in Boca Chica, Texas by Australian space illustrator Tony Bela. Yesterday Starship SN8 12.5km test flight was scrubbed but there is a new attempt scheduled today.
You can view Tony's infographic of the upcoming Starship SN8 flight here and his incredibly detailed posters of the flight here.
You can view Tony's infographic of the upcoming Starship SN8 flight here and his incredibly detailed posters of the flight here.
Monday, December 7, 2020
Painting of SpaceX Starship SN8 on launch stand by Colin Doublier
Picture of the Day 7/12/2020 - Painting of SpaceX's Starship SN8 on launch stand at SpaceX's launch site in Boca Chica, Texas before its 12.5km test flight by French urban artist Colin Doublier. More of his art here. Starship SN8 is the first full scale flight-ready Starship prototype equipped with a nose cone, fins and three Raptor engines. Starship SN8 is accompanied by Starship's first sub-scale prototype - Starhopper - in this painting.
Saturday, November 28, 2020
Incredibly detailed posters of SpaceX Starship SN8 15km test flight by Tony Bela
Australian space illustrator Tony Bela has created a set of four incredibly detailed sequential posters of the upcoming 15km test flight of SpaceX's Starship SN8 test vehicle. You can view Tony's infographic of the upcoming Starship SN8 flight here.
Starship SN8 on the launch stand at Boca Chica, Texas
Starship SN8 launch
Sunday, November 15, 2020
Leaked official render of SpaceX Starship Super Heavy at launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas
Today YouTuber EpicDaniel posted a video which was allegedly uploaded on the official SpaceX YouTube channel on September, 28th 2019 and removed later. The video shows Starship development progress at the time and features a render of Starship Super Heavy at launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas. Here is a screen-stitch created by Austin Barnard from the video:
Note that the (possibly official) render is more than a year old now and thus outdated.
Note that the (possibly official) render is more than a year old now and thus outdated.
Here is full video reuploaded by EpicDaniel today:
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.
Deck 0 - cargo hold
Deck 1 - egress options & EVA spacesuits
Deck 0 - cargo hold
Deck 1 - egress options & EVA spacesuits
Deck 2 & 3 - 32 crew bunks in each deck
Thursday, November 5, 2020
Sketch of SpaceX Starship SN8 15km flight by Colin Doublier
French urban artist Colin Doublier has created his sketch of SpaceX's Starship SN8 upcoming 15km test flight. More of his art here. The flight will (hopefully) happen in next week and Starship SN8 is the first full scale flight-ready Starship prototype equipped with a nose cone, fins and three Raptor engines.
Tuesday, November 3, 2020
SpaceX: No Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities
It has been revealed that in Starlink's terms of service SpaceX requires beta testers to recognize Mars as a "free planet". Under the section "Governing Law" the parties agree that:
As far as we know it is the first time any entity with real potential to send humans to Mars (defined by us as governments and private corporations with the independent human spaceflight capability, which are only four: Russia (since 1961), US (since 1962), China (since 2003) and SpaceX (since 2020)) has declared that Mars should be governed under the principles of self-government.
It remains to be seen if SpaceX will be in power do define that (US government can easily stop SpaceX operations until the company abides to the US and international law) and most likely it's just a way for Elon Musk to draw attention to the upcoming Starlink public release, but it would be cool to see Mars as an independent planet even before the timeframe we have speculated: internal self-governance in 2080s and complete independence in the 22nd century.
*Cover poster "Free Mars" by Rhys Cooper for Total Recall (1990) movie.
"For Services provided on Mars, or in transit to Mars via Starship or other colonization spacecraft, the parties recognize Mars as a free planet and that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities. Accordingly, Disputes will be settled through self-governing principles, established in good faith, at the time of Martian settlement."Interestingly the terms for the Moon are different:
"For Services provided to, on, or in orbit around the planet Earth or the Moon, these Terms and any disputes between us arising out of or related to these Terms, including disputes regarding arbitrability will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California in the United States."Starlink is a satellite internet constellation currently being deployed by SpaceX and it will provide high-speed low-latency internet anywhere on the world (and beyond). The constellation will ultimately consist of thousands of mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), working in combination with ground transceivers.
As far as we know it is the first time any entity with real potential to send humans to Mars (defined by us as governments and private corporations with the independent human spaceflight capability, which are only four: Russia (since 1961), US (since 1962), China (since 2003) and SpaceX (since 2020)) has declared that Mars should be governed under the principles of self-government.
It remains to be seen if SpaceX will be in power do define that (US government can easily stop SpaceX operations until the company abides to the US and international law) and most likely it's just a way for Elon Musk to draw attention to the upcoming Starlink public release, but it would be cool to see Mars as an independent planet even before the timeframe we have speculated: internal self-governance in 2080s and complete independence in the 22nd century.
*Cover poster "Free Mars" by Rhys Cooper for Total Recall (1990) movie.
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