Elon Musk Tweets Prototype Of The Assembled Starship
Elon Musk, the man who promises Mars! It is certainly enthralling to know that we are already thinking about colonizing a different planet than ours, and Musk has been at the forefront of making it possible. For weeks now, Musk has been teasing with the Starship renderings and conceptual photos that is going to be used to carry passengers to the moon and then mars.
Now, he has unveiled, on Twitter, the actual prototype that is going to be used in the flight. He wrote “Starship test flight rocket just finished assembly at the @SpaceX Texas launch site. This is an actual picture, not a rendering,”
Starship test flight rocket just finished assembly at the @SpaceX Texas launch site. This is an actual picture, not a rendering. pic.twitter.com/k1HkueoXaz
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 11, 2019
The Starship design certainly reminds you of the retro shape that we have seen in old sci-fi movies and cartoons. In essence, it is certainly a shape that we can relate to, and look wonderful at it.
Most of that visual impact comes from the stainless steel body that it sports. Some of the fans showed their concerns on why SpaceX chose stainless steel instead of more lightweight materials like carbon fiber or aluminum or the more expensive titanium.
However, Elon responded back, saying the choice was deliberate considering the fact that this rocket is going to make a lot of re-entries, and thus, has to withstand a lot of heat buildup. If you were to study the overall shape and structure of the starship, you will notice that it is not as big as what we usually see with rockets.
You are right on that assumption because this being a prototype, it has to undergo some serious testing before a real size version is built. So, the prototype will be used to make many suborbital flights, helping the engineers to refine the re-entry rocket system.
Also, the final build is proposed to have much larger and powerful thruster than it has now, the Super Heavy rocket thrusters. The super heavy launch vehicle will be capable of lifting 50 tonnes.
The final version of Starship will also be getting a rounder nose.
SpaceX first Starship hopper under Texas Boca Chica Beach’s cloudy sky.@elonmusk #Starship #SpaceX pic.twitter.com/hVg5Ken7Vp
— Evelyn Janeidy Arevalo (@JaneidyEve) January 10, 2019
The Starship rocket was first called BFR or Big Falcon Rocket. The final build is stated for orbital launch in 2020.
In the future, Elon wants to build a base on Mars, which in the future can help humans to colonize Mars. The man gave himself a 70% chance of doing so!
However, he is also aware of the risks involved. “Your probability of dying on Mars is much higher than on Earth. It’s gonna be hard. There’s a good chance of death, going in a little can through deep space.” Elon said in an interview with Axios.
The expense for a person to Mars is set at a couple of hundred thousand dollars. And in years to come, we can hope to see the final version of SpaceX’s Starship.
Are you ready for Mars?