That's insane! Future Starship rockets could have a payload capacity of up to 300 tons,
double that of current rockets. Yeah, Elon Musk just revealed that his aerospace company, SpaceX,
has been planning to develop another Starship variant, namely the expendable Starship. So what
makes it different from the regular reusable one? Why did Elon Musk develop this type of rocket?
Discuss everything about this in today's episode of TechMap.
But before we begin, our team extends a warm welcome. Don't forget to subscribe to the channel
and enable notifications to stay up to date with the latest news from SpaceX and the world of
space. With that in mind, let's jump straight into today's episode. SpaceX's Starship is famous not
only for its super powerful thrust, but also for being a versatile system. In its first public
appearance, Elon Musk introduced its original three variants, crew cargo, uncrewed cargo,
and tanker. All of them were used to serve Mars' colonization. Over time, as the company grew,
more and more functions of Starship were discovered in addition to initial interplanetary
spaceflight, including suborbital spaceflight and orbital spaceflight. Orbital spaceflight was
recently developed, but quickly caught the public's eye. It started with the presence of Ship 20 was
rolled out to the launch mount on August 5, 2021, and was the first to be stacked on a booster
called Booster 4. Then there were Ships 21, 22, and 23. But it was not until Ship 24 that SpaceX
decided to lift it above Booster 7 to perform the first integrated test flight. The couple's debut
on April 20 ended with a bang, helping SpaceX learn many lessons to upgrade Ship 25 ahead of
the upcoming test. While the preparation was occurring in early September, we witnessed the
movement of Ship 26 equipped with six engines from the rocket garden to the launch site.
This version stands out because it looks naked, meaning there are no flaps, no cargo doors, or
heat tiles. As you know, a reusable Starship normally owns a heat shield layer, fins, or some
other items serving re-entry. The lack of those on Ship 26 signals that it will likely not return
to Earth after launching. I mean, it could be an expendable version, very different from the popular
reusable version of Starship. To be honest, that speculation of mine makes sense since it's
confirmed by Elon Musk's tweets on X. Indeed, on 1 February 2023, Elon Musk said that this version may
never be available but could be an option. Expendable upper stage may or may not fly,
but it is an option. Yeah, this option now has been coming true as fast forward to 25 May 2023,
Elon added. Starship payload is 250 to 300 tons to orbit in expendable mode. Improved thrust and
specific impulse from Raptor will enable approximately 6,000 ton lift-off mass.
Wow! It's so crazy, isn't it? As usual, a Starship with a 150 ton payload to orbit and 5,000 ton
lift-off mass is comparable to the Soviet Union's N1 rocket with a 95 ton payload to orbit and
2,735 tons lift-off mass. But once in expendable mode, according to Elon, its payload could be up
to 300 tons, helping Starship to carry double the previous mass. In comparison, it is three
fully loaded shuttles and about 12 shuttle payloads. As of January 2023, SpaceX has launched
a mass of 1,272 tons into orbit, or roughly five Starships' launch time. In September,
Elon announced SpaceX had delivered approximately 80% of all Earth payload mass to orbit.
That record was set by Falcon 9 with its payload capacity equivalent to one out of 17 of Starship's
300 tons. So what if Starship does that? With the support of the expendable version, Elon calculates
that Starship will be able to put more than 99% of Earth's total payload into orbit in the coming
years. There are two main reasons why the expendable Starship can reach capacity so much.
First, SpaceX has removed some parts on it like heat shields or flaps to reduce the total mass
of the spacecraft so it can carry more cargo. Second, with a future height of 144 meters,
1.5 times the height of the Statue of Liberty, the cargo area will be 1,400 cubic meters,
higher than the current Starship's 1,100. Following this, future spacecraft thrust will
then be increased by 50% with three additional Raptor vacuums, bringing the total number of
engines from six to nine. That's not enough. The company just tested the third generation
of Raptor in May reaching 269 tons, 18% more thrust than Raptor 2 in the hope of increasing
Starship's total thrust to the maximum. With those upgrades related to payload and propulsion
capabilities, Starship is expected to meet SpaceX's goal of bringing 99% of Earth's cargo to
orbit in the future. On the other hand, some people question whether this expendable Starship
version is more expensive than its reusable version. As you know, one of the biggest
advantages of Starship is its low cost, partly due to its reusable function. While there aren't
many details about its price, I'd say the difference is negligible, because you should
notice that the expendable spacecraft is simpler since it does not need parts such as thermal
protection or flaps. In addition, its ground cost is also lower than that of reusable vehicles
because of no demand for extra testing and post-flight processing. You just need to throw
them away without being concerned about the cost involved in post-flight inspection, retesting
recertification if necessary, and no refurbishment costs. Realizing its remarkable advantages,
SpaceX aims to use this type of Starship for several missions. Using it as a Starship depot,
for example, acts as an in-space refueling station, allowing multiple spacecraft to dock,
refuel, and continue with their respective missions. This Starship depot would be replenished
by Starship tankers. The depot is not intended to return to Earth. Besides, SpaceX can propose
the expendable version for some specialized missions, for example, NASA's Artemis 3.
The project is planned to use the Starship HLS lander, the tanker, and the depot variants. Among
them, both HLS and the depot will not be required to return to Earth. Under Artemis 3, the depot
will launch to LEO first, followed by four launches of the tanker variant to fill the depot.
Subsequently, the human landing system or HLS variant will refuel from the depot before
continuing on to lunar orbit to transfer astronauts from there to the surface of the
Moon and back. To date, SpaceX's preparations for Artemis 3 have reached a certain stage.
Ship 26 appears to be a futuristic depot that just passed a key cryoproof test on October 10.
Last month, SpaceX tested one of its lunar lander engines in simulated conditions in the
cold temperatures of space, while a nosecone similar to that of HLS appeared in early August.
Anyway, while Starship's expendable rockets offer such benefits,
why do reusable rockets remain core to SpaceX? Well, the point is Starship's high cadence.
SpaceX's CEO aims to fly Starship three times a day to adapt to his ambitious plan, so apparently
he needs to reuse the old vehicles. Unless Elon wants to build more and bigger factories just to
keep up with the high demand for Starship. On the other hand, the expendable Starship
spacecraft might be used less, perhaps a few times per year. Making it reusable is not effective
because most of the time, the vehicle is idle and lies around storage. So economically, it's
a waste of your money. In summary, based on the above analysis, we can completely understand the
expendable Starship variant and its benefits to SpaceX's business plans. In the future, when the
Starship rocket becomes fully operational, I predict that there will be many more variants
that will surprise you, helping to commercialize the aerospace industry, thereby bringing it closer
to real life. And that just about wraps it up for today's episode. Make sure you subscribe to the
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