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SpaceX created a futuristic painting at its rocket testing facility in Texas on Thursday, when a robot dog wandered through the wreckage of its latest prototype spacecraft.
SpaceX on Wednesday launched the prototype rocket, called Starship serial # 10, or SN10. Like the last two prototypes before it, SN10 soared nearly 33,000 feet above the company’s facilities in the town of Boca Chica. Then he cut his engines and fell to Earth in a stomach-flop position, controlling his fall with four wing flaps.
Unlike its predecessors, which both crashed into the ground and immediately exploded, SN10 was able to reignite its engines to straighten up and land gently on the ground. But it exploded dramatically 10 minutes later.
SpaceX’s prototype SN10 Starship rocket exploded on the airstrip minutes after touchdown on Wednesday.
SPadre.com
With the air clear and roads reopened, photographers and SpaceX fans gathered at the company’s facilities Thursday morning to watch the cleanup from a distance. It was then that they spotted a fascinating four-legged robot roaming the wreckage.
Spadre.com shared videos of the agile bot on Twitter.
: SPadre (@SpacePadreIsle) March 4, 2021
The realistic machine is a Boston Dynamics “Spot” robot dog, which SpaceX apparently renamed Zeus, according to photos that show the name printed on a red niche where the robot lives.
Zeus has previously been spotted inspecting SpaceX landing sites. It’s unclear what exactly the mechanical dog was doing at the SN10 blast site, but Zeus is likely equipped with cameras and sensors to collect data, as approaching destroyed rockets can be dangerous to humans.
SpaceX did not respond to Insider’s request for more details.
: SPadre (@SpacePadreIsle) March 4, 2021
The rocket that Zeus was inspecting is designed as the upper stage of a two-part system; an approximately 23-story booster called Super Heavy would one day lift the Starship spacecraft into orbit. But eliminating these explosions from the vehicle landing process is crucial, as SpaceX designs Starship and Super Heavy to be fully and quickly reusable. A spaceship that explodes after landing is, of course, difficult to revive.
If the system works, however, Starship-Super Heavy could reduce the cost of reaching space by 1,000 times, as it would eliminate the need to build new rockets and spaceships for each space flight. Musk ultimately wants to build a fleet of reusable spacecraft to power hypersonic voyages around the world on Earth, fly astronauts to the moon, and someday transport people to Mars.
Musk said he was “very confident” that SpaceX will launch an unequipped spacecraft to Mars in 2024, followed by a crewed mission in 2026.
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