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Excellent summary, thanks for that. One thing to add is that Starship should enable 400 satellites per launch: https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-president-teas

• DenisM 6y ago
  I am wondering about military applications here - a single missile with 400 warheads?
  • modeless 6y ago
    Every space rocket is automatically an intercontinental ballistic missile. But why launch one rocket with 400 warheads from a publicly known launchpad when you can launch 400 ICBMs with several warheads each from 400 undisclosed locations?
    • walrus01 6y ago
      Not every rocket - liquid fuel ones only to a very limited, logistically awkward and costly degree. As the US and Soviets learned, keeping fleets of liquid fueled ICBMs ready to go is dangerous and expensive. Storable fully solid fuel ICBMs such as current-generation US/Russian stuff are quite different.
    • mike_d 6y ago
      > each from 400 undisclosed locations A point of clarification, submarines are the only nuclear platform with "undisclosed locations." It is trivial for a nation-state to observe the construction and fitment of a fixed ICBM placement, or track the movements of a truck/rail mounted launcher.
      • varjag 6y ago
        It is certainly not trivial, and definitely out of reach of most nation states out there. I'm sure U.S. at least tries to keep track of Russian mobile launchers, but to which degree it is successful we wouldn't know for sure. And pretty certain Russia would have problems live tracking launch vehicles (if the USA had any).
      • imtringued 6y ago
        What prevents the usage of decoy trucks?
  • wmf 6y ago
    Is that better than existing MIRVs? And I sure hope there's less military escalation in the future, not more.
  • alexitorg 6y ago
    For military purposes, my idea for Starship would be the following. Starship aims to put a 150tonne payload to orbit for a few million dollars. I would look at non-nuclear kinetic perpetrators. Put a 100 tonne tungsten rod into space (cost ~$10m), or more likely some cheaper metal. Maybe 10m long with 25cm radius. Stick a cold gas reaction control system, maybe some gridfins and a guidance package. Put it in orbit, Put some ablative on the leading edge. Once in orbit the cold gas system slows the weapon to put it on target. The gridfins and cold gas thrusters control the guidance. The gridfins wouldn't work for long before the burnt off, but recessed cold gas thrusters could continue to work. Ionisation and intense heat would stop any optical sensors or outside guidance, so aiming it would be problematic. A kinetic warhead with a mass of 100tonnes going at sub orbital speeds (say 7000m/s) would have 2.45x10^12 joules, which is around 0.58kt of tnt. If I remember correctly once it is going past a critical speed the penetrator and target act like fluids and the rod would penetrate a depth based on the relative density of the two materials time the length. Tungsten is about 6 to 12 times as dense as rock, so it might go through 60 to 120m meters of rock. Non-nuclear, pretty hard to detect or stop. Competitive in price with cruise missiles. Accuracy could be a problem.
    • gpm 6y ago
      Storing weapons in space is really scary. It's practically impossible to reliably detect when they are "fired", which makes the people with nuclear bombs waiting to fire back antsy, which increases the risk of a nuclear war accidentally starting. I hope no one carries out this idea of yours. Using starship to launch rods that immediately come down on people instead of loitering in space sounds like a much safer use.
      • ColanR 6y ago
        Those rods are designed for precision targets on the order of a few meters in diameter. I would much rather both sides of the conflict had those in play, than a nuclear alternative.
        • gpm 6y ago
          Unfortunately it's not a question of one or the other, but of nuclear or both.
  • cryptonector 6y ago
    In a hot war with a country that has ASAT tech, being able to launch 400 low earth orbit sats -- low enough that they need to keep boosting, but also low enough that space debris is non-existent -- could make all the difference.
  • deleted 6y ago
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