Category: space travel – Page 108
Elon Says Future Starships Will be 20% Longer
The SpaceX Super Heavy Starship is already the largest and most powerful rocket ever built. Elon tweeted that future versions will be 10% to 20% longer. If the 20% longer development happens then the stacked rocket will be 144 meters long. Adding 24 meters would be over 60% of the length of the Space Shuttle orbiter which was 37 meters long.
Likely to be 10% to 20% longer in later versions.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 9, 2023
Seattle startup performs ‘100% reusable’ spacecraft test hop
The Seattle-based company aims to build a “100% reusable” spacecraft capable of an ambitious 24-hour mission turnaround time.
Seattle-based startup Stoke Space successfully landed its reusable second-stage rocket this week following a brief hop test reminiscent of SpaceX’s early Starship tests.
The recent test, called Hopper 2, allowed Stoke Space to successfully test several novel engineering concepts, some of which were considered by Elon Musk’s SpaceX but ultimately discarded.
Planetary Civil War
The future of war is cyberpunk and starship troopers.
Wars in the future may involve vast interplanetary conflicts or civil wars sprawling over an entire world or more, but what will those wars look like?
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YouTuber builds DIY ionic thruster that actually works
Now, a YouTuber called Jay Bowles who goes by the name Plasma Channel built one and posted the process on his channel on Saturday. He started his video off by saying he was partially inspired to build the thruster by MIT’s model developed in 2018.
This version of the technology actually made a vehicle fly. “Their design was brilliant,” said Bowles in his video. “And it included aspects of a decades-old device called an ionic lifter.”
Elon Musk’s ‘enraging qualities’ are key to his success, says biographer
“He has these enraging qualities, these drives and these demons, but if you pull those out, you don’t have the impulsive character that sets things off,” said Isaacson, who shadowed Musk for two years while researching his book, which published on Tuesday.
“Musk would say you are actually being selfish if you’re sitting there hoping the people in front of you like you,” said Isaacson. “As opposed to cutting off that sense of emotional connection and saying, ‘What’s best for the larger mission?’”
Elon Musk’s reckless streak can’t be separated out from his track record of innovation at companies like Tesla and SpaceX, says biographer Walter Isaacson.
SpaceX’s Starship May Get FAA Clearance to Launch Again Next Month — Elon Musk Sees ‘Higher Chance of Success’
SpaceX’s Starship can seemingly get Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) clearance for its second flight test as early as next month.
What Happened: “We’re working well with them and have been in good discussions. Teams are working together and I think we’re optimistic sometime next month,” Acting FAA Administrator Polly Trottenberg said on Wednesday, as reported by Reuters.
Earlier this week, CEO Elon Musk confirmed that SpaceX has implemented all the fixes demanded by the FAA for Starship ahead of its second flight test.
SpaceX’s second Starship test flight could be just days away
Elon Musk wrote “congrats to SpaceX” on completing the corrective actions required by the FAA to fly Starship again.
SpaceX is all set to launch its fully-stacked Starship rocket once again. The private space firm launched Starship for the first time on April 20 for a test flight that ended with the massive launch system spinning out of control and exploding after the ground team triggered a manual termination.
Since then, the US Federal Aviation Authority has conducted a mishap investigation into the first test flight that outlined 63 changes SpaceX must make to Starship and its launch infrastructure before it can fly again.
SpaceX / X
The private space firm launched Starship for the first time on April 20 for a test flight that ended with the massive launch system spinning out of control and exploding after the ground team triggered a manual termination.