[ad_1]
- SpaceX recently built a powerful and brilliant spacecraft called Starhopper near the village of Boca Chica, Texas.
- The vehicle is a crude prototype intended for a much larger vehicle designed to reach Mars called Starship.
- Elon Musk, founder of the rocket company, announced that his engineers will try to launch Starhopper about 20 meters from the ground and remain hovering Tuesday.
- SpaceX also builds larger Starship prototypes in Texas and Florida. The company hopes to put these vehicles into orbit as early as next year.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
SpaceX is about to perform its most ambitious launch test to date of a brilliant March rocket prototype in South Texas.
Over the past eight months, workers have been to the developing coastal development site to build and prepare the robust three-legged prototype for testing. Constructed of stainless steel, it has the shape of a badminton shuttlecock and is equipped with one of the next-generation SpaceX Raptor rocket engines.
Elon Musk, founder of the rocket company, christened the "Starhopper", a rocket ship of about six floors, because it was not built to fly in space, but to "jump" to altitudes not exceeding about 5 km.
Starhopper is a prototype of a much more powerful launch system with a height of about 400 feet called Starship: a vehicle that Musk and his company plan to bring dozens of people to the moon or Mars, deploying hundreds of satellites at once or people around the Earth in minutes.
SpaceX launched Starhopper for the first time in April. This test made it possible to secure the rocket ship with gigantic straps in the form of a bicycle chain, and the vehicle lifted the ship only a few inches off the ground. Later tests raise it further, but not much.
Next week's test will launch it completely without attachment.
"Raptor engine mounted on Starhopper.This test hover Tuesday", Musk tweeted Friday.
Engineers hope the vehicle will reach about 20 meters (about 65 feet), about a full height of Starhopper. Musk too said Starhopper will move to the side, then attempt to return to its launch pad.
A SpaceX representative told Business Insider in an email that the jump and flyby test was part of a series of tests designed to push the limits of the vehicle as quickly as possible in order to learn everything, as quickly as possible. possible. "
When a Twitter user asked Musk if there would be a live video of the launch attempt, Musk said " Sure. "
Road closure notices issued by Cameron County, Texas, suggest that SpaceX will try to launch Starhopper between 2 pm and 8 pm CT (15h-21h ET) Tuesday, July 16th.
A launch at this time is anything but guaranteed, however.
"As with all development programs, the schedule can be quite dynamic and subject to change," the spokesman said.
What to expect with SpaceX's first hover test for Starhopper
Before attempting a full hover, SpaceX must submit the Starhopper and its new engine to a series of tests.
The company will likely move liquid oxygen into the new Raptor engine over the weekend to check its plumbing and equipment. If this initial test succeeds, the company may attempt Monday a static fire test.
The static fire test would add methane to the circulating oxygen, ignite the two fuels and burn the Raptor engine for a few seconds to show that it was working normally. (Methane is the bulk of natural gas on Earth and it is a fuel that Musk hopes to manufacture on Mars with a planned space colony.)
The static fire test could look like SpaceX's brief launch of Starhopper on April 6, which briefly lifted it off the ground:
If delays lead to these tests and other critical pre-launch tests, SpaceX will almost certainly delay its Starhopper hover. And if the engineers discover a problem during the tests, SpaceX can erase their current plans, make the necessary corrections and try again later.
Musk hoped to successfully launch Starhopper's attempt several weeks ago, but he explained that a previous Raptor engine had a mechanical failure and vibration problems. The last Raptor engine, called "serial number 6" or SN6, apparently solved these problems.
"The hopper is almost ready for hovering," tweeted Musk on July 7, showing a picture of a new Raptor engine test in the group's rocket test plant in central Texas .
The village inside SpaceX Spaceport on Mars
The SpaceX Starhopper launch site is located near Boca Chica Beach in South Texas. State and county politicians from Cameron, as well as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), gave the company the go-ahead to develop the region in 2014.
However, the village of Boca Chica – a hamlet where some 20 people live – is now in the middle of SpaceX's expanding industrial site and its future spaceport.
Read more: SpaceX's Elon Musk is developing giant rockets on Mars in a sleepy southern Texas town. Here is what to visit.
The easternmost limit of the village is located about 2.5 km from the launch pad at the edge of SpaceX Beach. Initial plans included the launch of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets (about one per month), but Musk said in early 2018 that SpaceX had abandoned these plans.
Starhopper began appearing late 2018 and Musk confirmed its existence with a series of photos. The prototype initially had a nose, but strong winds from Texas cut it and damaged it. That's why the vehicle looks stubby and unfinished today.
Local authorities are blocking the only road leading to the launch site, called Route 4, during tests to maintain a 1.5-mile safety perimeter.
Starhopper is only the beginning of Starship's development program.
The company is currently building a V-shaped wind block in its fleet, according to sources close to the case, in which it is also building a prototype "Mark 1" spacecraft (Mk1). Musk says the vehicle is designed to reach the orbit and – as part of what he describes as a friendly competition – workers are also building an almost identical prototype spacecraft near Cape Canaveral, Fla. , where the company operates two other launching ramps.
"Mk1 Starship with hope 20 km [12.4 miles] in a few months, "said Musk.
SpaceX's current government license, granted by the Federal Communications Commission in February 2019, allows it to launch experimental vehicles only at an altitude of 5 km for flights of up to six minutes.
Musk tweeted in March, SpaceX "works on regulatory approval" for orbital prototypes of spaceships in Texas and Florida.
The company plans to launch prototypes into orbit around the Earth before the end of 2020. Then, in 2023, Musk hopes to use a large-scale spaceship to launch a Japanese billionaire and his hand-picked team of artists in a trip around the moon. .
SpaceX President and Director of Operations, Gwynne Shotwell would have said that the company hopes to send its first unprepared payloads on Mars by 2024. After that, maybe in 2026, SpaceX could try to put boots on the red planet.
"It could very well be that the first person to leave for another planet can leave this place," Musk said at the inauguration of the Boca Chica launch site in September 2014.
[ad_2]
Source link