Musk: "Given enough time SpaceX will get to Mars," but it's not just about getting there, it's about when and how."We've got to build upon a Mars base and then we've got to build a city and get to the point where it's self-sustaining."
Musk on creating a Mars settlement: I want to emphasize this is a very hard and dangerous, difficult thing, not for the faint of heart. So, good chance you'll die. And it's going to be tough, grueling. But it'll be pretty glorious if it works out.
Musk on Starship development: Building the production system so we can build ultimately hundreds or thousands of Starships that's the hard part. But we're making good progress on the production system
Musk: we’re making good progress on Starship. Key is developing a production system for large-scale manufacturing. Starting construction this week on first booster prototype. #HumanstoMars
Musk: SpaceX is trying to simplify the configuration of Starship's Super Heavy booster, so the engine configuration might end up being 28 instead of 31 engines."Still a lot of engines"
Musk: Starship over time will be able to launch over 100 tons of cargo.
Musk: The first orbital Starship flights "might not work" since the company is in "uncharted territory."
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says the first orbital flight tests of the company's Starship prototype rocket will be "probably next year."
Musk on Starship, wants to "do hundreds of missions, I think, with satellites before we put people on board."
Asked how far along Starship cabin development is, Musk says not much, mainly because SpaceX needs to do "hundreds of missions with satellites before we put humans on board." Super-heavy booster prototype production, on the other hand, begins this week.
@elonmusk: "It's within the realm of possibility" that Raptor's thrust-optimized variant can achieve a thrust-to-weight ratio of 200:1. AFAIK, that would be even better than Merlin 1D, which holds the current world record of ~180:1.
And Musk reiterates that Raptor's ultimate vacuum ISP target is still 380s, close to the physical limit for the O/F ratio Raptor operates at.
Musk: we need a lot of people fired up to go to Mars. It’s going to be risky, but also a cool, fun adventure. #HumanstoMars
Musk: When intersection of affordability and desire gets to a million ppl, that's the critical mass needed. Need lot of ppl fired up to go to Mars. That's it for @elonmusk at #HumansToMars
Elon's told the virtual #HumansToMars conference that "Prototype (Super Heavy) Booster 1" will begin construction this week. Looking at 28 engines now and perhaps stretched tanks (to 2000t) for full scale.Still wants to get dry mass under 100t over time.
Raptor: Subcooled propellants, 3.5-3.6:1 O:F ratio, almost 1100 bar upstream when chamber was at 330 bar.Will launch hundreds of satellite missions before putting humans on board Starship.ECLSS no problem for Moon. Needs a different system for Mars.
Note: Jumping between Super Heavy and Starship. 28 engines for Super Heavy. 2000t and 100t dry mass note are for Starship.
Elon states that “production of the booster prototype 1 will take place this week”He also stated that 28 engines will be used instead, but they will up the thrust from a range of 250-300.
So I just got off a phone call with @elonmusk. Looks like I'll be the first DJ on #Mars. 😎🎚️🎙️Listen to the full call on our @ExploreMars Twitch.https://www.twitch.tv/videos/727403822
TWR of an engine is a pretty difficult measurement to pin down, and ultimately isn't that good of a metric. Do you include TVC hardware? Do you include the fuel that has to be inside the engine while operational? Ultimately a rocket has a TWR, but you can't define W for engines.
The outer ring of booster engines (20 of 28) have no TVC actuators. Steering control comes from center 8 TVC & differential throttle of outer engines. By any measure, the high thrust variant of Raptor will probably have the high T/W of any engine ever.
Over time, outer 20 will have ~300 tons of thrust & inner 8 ~210, so roughly 7500 tons total at sea level or 1.5 T/W for booster+ship
@elonmusk Elon how are you avoiding resonance frequencies on you build?
Just go through resonant modes fast. It’s when you hang out there that problems arise.
1 min of Elon audio - I think from near start of his remarkshttps://twitter.com/booster_buddies/status/1300553397133860864Quote Elon states that “production of the booster prototype 1 will take place this week”He also stated that 28 engines will be used instead, but they will up the thrust from a range of 250-300.
Elon Musk says SpaceX’s Starship rocket will launch ‘hundreds of missions’ before flying peoplePUBLISHED TUE, SEP 1 202010:56 AM EDTMichael Sheetz@THESHEETZTWEETZKEY POINTSSpaceX is developing its next-generation Starship rocket to launch cargo or as many as 100 people at a time to the Moon or Mars.But CEO Elon Musk said the rocket has many milestones to go before it launches passengers.“We’ve got to first make the thing work; automatically deliver satellites and do hundreds of missions with satellites before we put people on board,” Musk said at a virtual conference on Monday.
Here is the full interviewhttps://www.twitch.tv/videos/727403822
Let's say you did ~2 flights per month of 12 Starlink + 2 BEO flights (7 tankers +1 cargo) in a year. A total of about 28 flights in a year. To get to 100 flights would only take 4 years.So if this scenario starts mid 2022 then by mid 2026 Starship would be launching and landing humans. Also I think when Musk mentions the 100's of non-human flights he is considering the launch and landing with humans aboard. The Starship-HLS may or may not be a separate issue in it's carrying of Humans.A NOTE here is that F9 would still be launching all those sats that have been "customized"/booked on a F9 through this period of at least through 2024. Also those things such as CRS and Dragon Crew would continue until taken over by Human flights on Starship 2026+. So as sats transition onto Starship the number of flights per year go up quickly passing 30 before 2026.
I'm thinking perhaps Elon either misspoke or will change his mind later on the "hundreds" of flights thing. It didn't take hundreds of Falcon 9 launches for it to be deemed safe to carry humans. I don't know why Starship would need that many.
