Starship SN5 Mass Simulator in Place

Check out Starship Deck A, the next in a series of interior views

Welcome space friends!

SpaceX and Starship

According to road closure reports, the static fire testing for Starship SN5 has been postponed again, to July 13 to 15. You can see the latest dates and notices here: https://www.cameroncounty.us/spacex/

SpaceX has placed a "mass simulator" on the top of SN5, which seems to provide additional support for the possibility of a 150m hop after the static fire. Static firing doesn't need the extra mass, but the vehicle in flight does. Too little mass (and the resulting high thrust-to-weight ratio) would make even a single Raptor engine very difficult to control.

Photo courtesy bocachicalgal @ NSF.

There has been speculation that the first commercial use of Starlink might begin when they have about 1000 satellites. Each Falcon 9 launch carries about 60 satellites. The next launch will be happening within a few days, followed by one launch roughly every two weeks. That means they could have 1000 satellites in orbit by roughly mid-October. Add a few more weeks for commissioning and test, and it's possible they could be ready to begin service by early to mid-November, which fits with what their website says: "targeting service in the Northern U.S. and Canada in 2020." It will be interesting to see how their marketing plans come together.

The current Starlink satellites are orbiting with a 53 degree inclination, at 550 km altitude. As you can see in the diagram below, due to the way the orbital rings overlap, the average distance between satellites decreases as you approach a latitude equal to the orbital inclination. This means that the best ground coverage in the early days will be around 53 degrees North and South latitude. In North America, that's roughly the latitude of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Getting Ready

Starship's specifications include delivering 100 metric tons of cargo to the surface of Mars, with room for 100 passengers. That's an average of 1000 kg per person. Based on that, we can make some rough estimates:

100 kg for you
400 kg for your air, water and food
500 kg of cargo (say 50 kg in carry-ons and 450 kg that will be inaccessible while you're in-transit)

What should you take with you?

You will be away for at least a few years, so you would certainly want to bring spares for items that may not be replaceable after you get to Mars. This includes things like glasses or contact lenses, medication, specialized health aids, and so on.

Many activities that seem normal and every-day on Earth won't be possible on Mars, which may well influence what you take. For example, there are no trees, no wildlife, it's a near-vacuum outside, very cold, it won't be possible to survive for long away from the base camp, and so on.

Even seemingly simple things like binoculars won't be usable the way you would hope (you can't bring them to your eyes while in a spacesuit). In addition, radiation levels will be higher, and some electronics may not last a long time there as a result.

You should also take power requirements into account. Especially in the early days, power is likely to be a limited resource. You wouldn't want to bring a large electric floor heater, for example. This will hopefully change as the colony evolves.

Getting There

For a sense of scale, Starship has an external diameter of 9m, which is about 40% larger than a Boeing 747's 6.5m.

After leaving Earth orbit, you will be in zero-G for the remainder of the trip, except for perhaps one or two very brief course correction maneuvers along the way.

Shortly after departure, Starship should deploy its solar arrays and communications antennas. These will be mission-critical milestones.

Adjusting to zero-G life should be fun, especially at first. In zero-G, there is no up and down; things don't fall. You may end up sleeping vertically or even on the ceiling, as on the International Space Station (ISS). Food and drinks will be contained in packages to avoid messy zero-G spills; no plates, cups or utensils. You will squeeze the packages and consume the food through a straw. Some limited "solid food" may be possible. It will definitely be desirable, of course. The question is whether they can come up with a reliable way to make it work without causing a huge mess.

Here's a sketch of what the first floor of Starship could look like. This is Deck A. The exterior door of the ship is here, along with an airlock, room to store spacesuits, a bunch of exercise equipment, and a bathroom.

Note that most of the equipment is mounted on the walls to help make room for everything. Orientation won't matter, since you'll be in zero-G. This is where you'll be spending at least 2 hours a day, 6 days a week. Exercise is crucial for maintaining bone density while you're in zero-G. The specific exercises needed were proven on ISS, and are still being used there today: simulated weight lifting, treadmill (using something like bungee cords to hold you down and increase muscular effort), and stationary bicycles.

After Starship lands on Mars, you will need to be in a spacesuit and pass through the airlock before leaving the ship, especially in the early days. Eventually, there will hopefully be pressurized passageways that could attach to the ship. However, that will require construction, landing pads, and the like, so it could take a while.

The ship's oxygen and fuel tanks are directly below Deck A. Some equipment or storage may be located in the space between the floor and the tanks.

In the center of Deck A are two small storage closets and some hand and foot rails that you can use to go up to Deck B, which I’ll cover in the next issue.