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Starship Rocket
Starship Rocket is one of tallest and the most powerful rocket ever developed in the world's rocket history. SpaceX carried out the development process of the rocket. The man behind the development of this powerful rocket is ELON MUSK and his team members. one important feature of the rocket is that it is fully reusable.
Development of this heavy object was not an easy task for spaceX team members. But their day and night hard work has made it possible. This is what SpaceX is meant for and this is what makes SpaceX, a unique rocket manufacturing, designing and launching company.
Development process of rocket:
The rocket was not developed in a year but took years to be in full development stage. After the successful launch of falcon 1 on 15th of November 2005 . SpaceX CEO Elon musk put forward the concept of building Starship Rocket that could launch 100 t to low Earth orbit. First of all, the building process started with prototypes. The first prototype named "Starhopper" performed various static fires and low-altitude flights. At least Seven of the Starship's prototypes mostly upper stage were flight tested between the month of August in the year 2020 and May in the year 2021. one among the last seven full-size Starship Rocket named "SN15" was successfull in reaching an altitude of 10 kilometers which is nearly equal to 6.2 miles.
Three main types of prototype tests were carried out named proof pressure tests, mission rehearsals and Static fire test. In proof pressure testing, tanks are pressurized with a gas or liquid to test their durability, sometimes intentionally, until they explode. Mission rehearsal test to check out the infrastructure and vehicle. Static fire test to check the functioning of rocket engines. All these processes were compulsory before a test flight,
Design of a starship rocket:
It is not easy to build a heavy object like starship. But as we already know that spaceX has no comparison. Starship is about 5,000 by mass when fully fuelled ,9 m wide and 120 m high. The rocket is fully reusable and is believed to reduce the flight costs and other maintenance costs between different flights.
As far as rocket's composition is concerned. It consists of a Super Heavy first stage or a booster and also a second stage or spacecraft, powered by Raptor and the Raptor Vacuum engines. Both these rocket portions are made from stainless steel which gives Starship its strength for atmospheric entry and different outlook.
Eric Berger one of team members has revealed that the manufacturing process of rocket starts with steel metal which normally in the form of rolls are first unrolled then cut and then form a cylinder shaped figure with the help of welding.
These cylinders are used to form the outer layer of Starship Rocket. A cone is also attached and welded at the top of a cylinder. Also robot made domes inside of the rocket help in separation of oxygen tanks and methane.
Potential uses of Starship rocket:
launch cost:
Elon musk has himself revealed that the launch cost of rocket is believed to reduce. But Pierre Lionnet, who is the Eurospace's director of research in his statement said that the rocket's launch cost will increase instead of decrease due to it's development cost. According to Elon musk, It will cost nearly $1 million which is nearly equal to $10 per Kg. This is because of the Reusability and increasing space influence to more and more payloads and related entities.
Space Exploration:
The capability of starship is vast. Main focus is space exploration. The rocket can help large space telescopes something like Large Ultraviolet Optical Infrared Surveyor which helps in detecting of planet Earth like exoplanets.NASA's Ex Chief Scientist name waleed Abdalati has stated that the low launching cost will help in replacement of Satellites in affordable prices. This low launch cost will also help in planning future missions. Different experts present different views about the launch cost of Starship Rocket.It can also help in launching sample return missions such as mission to Jupiter, Saturn etc. Due to low launch cost, probes can manufactured from light materials like glass instead of material like beryllium.
What is Starship HLS ?
Both the design and development of this lunar variant of Starship spacecraft is done by SpaceX.Starship HLS abbreviated as Starship Human Landing System, is a critical element associated with the NASA's Artemis program. A program whose purpose is to land crew on Moon's surface.
Main purpose of the mission is to launch a Starship HLS into an Earth orbit with the help of a Super Heavy Booster. It will be fueled by multiple Starship tanker spacecraft in Earths orbit before entering into NRHO which sounds lunar near-rectilinear halo orbit. There, it will start it's further operations like two astronauts will transfer from Orion to Starship HLS, which will then come down to the Moon's surface. After stay of approx 7 days. After this, It will return the crew members to Orion in near-rectilinear halo orbit.
NASA awarded SpaceX in the third phase a contract in the month of April 2021 which is related to the development,production and demonstration of HLS.No sooner than December 2025, a crewed flight will take place as part of the Artemis 3 mission after an earlier unmanned test flight successfully arrives on the Moon and returns to NRHO. Later, NASA purchased an improved model of Starship HLS for the Artemis 4 mission.
NOTE: This article is prepared on the basis of information posted on different science and space related Magazines etc.
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