4 ms·

Planetary scientists are starting to get stirred up by Starship’s potential

5 points by ryzvonusef 5y ago

ryzvonusef 5y ago
>Some planetary scientists have started warming to the idea that SpaceX's new Starship rocket, with its unprecedented lift capabilities and potentially paradigm-shattering low costs, could open up the Solar System to a new era of exploration. Imagine sending a lander to Europa, which harbors a vast, warm, subsurface ocean. During recent NASA planning meetings, scientists contemplated sending a complex spacecraft, costing billions of dollars, to conduct science on Europa. At best, they were hoping to land a payload of science instruments about the size and mass of a mini-refrigerator there. >With Starship, by contrast, NASA might land a cache of scientific payloads the size of a single-story unfurnished house. >Earlier this year, many of the workshop participants began to recognize the urgency of getting NASA on board with using Starship for science missions. So they wrote a white paper (see PDF), with Heldmann as the lead author, titled "Accelerating Martian and Lunar Science through SpaceX Starship Missions." https://surveygizmoresponseuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/fileuploads/623127/5489366/111-381503be1c5764e533d2e1e923e21477_HeldmannJenniferL.pdf https://surveygizmoresponseuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/fileuplo... >Starship's key differentiator is mass. Today, when a scientist plans a mission to explore another world, there are two big constraints: cost and mass. Starship may have some effect on cost by offering more rocket for less money. >Because Starship can take off from other worlds in addition to landing on them, it could completely transform a Mars sample return mission. Instead of being able to handle 2 kilograms of rocks, Starship might be able to return 2 metric tons.
- ryzvonusef 5y ago
  That's all nice and all, but costs and politics are a problem: >Consider the Mars Sample Return mission. NASA plans to partner with an important ally in space, the European Space Agency, to launch a sample retrieval rover (developed in Europe) and an ascent vehicle, built for NASA by Northrop Grumman. This mission, launching no earlier than 2026, could perhaps fly on United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket. Then, a European-built return orbiter would launch on an European Ariane 6 rocket to bring the small cache of samples back to Earth. >Such a mission would likely have a broad array of political support because it would fund multiple US contractors and bolster ties with Europe. By contrast, a SpaceX-only mission on Starship would upset NASA's other contractors, the European Space Agency, and the politicians who back their interests. >"Just because Starship is flying, I don’t expect that all of a sudden the Science Mission Directorate’s budget is going to double," the NASA official said.

5 points by ryzvonusef 5y ago

>Some planetary scientists have started warming to the idea that SpaceX's new Starship rocket, with its unprecedented lift capabilities and potentially paradigm-shattering low costs, could open up the Solar System to a new era of exploration. Imagine sending a lander to Europa, which harbors a vast, warm, subsurface ocean. During recent NASA planning meetings, scientists contemplated sending a complex spacecraft, costing billions of dollars, to conduct science on Europa. At best, they were hoping to land a payload of science instruments about the size and mass of a mini-refrigerator there. >With Starship, by contrast, NASA might land a cache of scientific payloads the size of a single-story unfurnished house. >Earlier this year, many of the workshop participants began to recognize the urgency of getting NASA on board with using Starship for science missions. So they wrote a white paper (see PDF), with Heldmann as the lead author, titled "Accelerating Martian and Lunar Science through SpaceX Starship Missions." https://surveygizmoresponseuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/fileuploads/623127/5489366/111-381503be1c5764e533d2e1e923e21477_HeldmannJenniferL.pdf https://surveygizmoresponseuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/fileuplo... >Starship's key differentiator is mass. Today, when a scientist plans a mission to explore another world, there are two big constraints: cost and mass. Starship may have some effect on cost by offering more rocket for less money. >Because Starship can take off from other worlds in addition to landing on them, it could completely transform a Mars sample return mission. Instead of being able to handle 2 kilograms of rocks, Starship might be able to return 2 metric tons.

ryzvonusef 5y ago
That's all nice and all, but costs and politics are a problem: >Consider the Mars Sample Return mission. NASA plans to partner with an important ally in space, the European Space Agency, to launch a sample retrieval rover (developed in Europe) and an ascent vehicle, built for NASA by Northrop Grumman. This mission, launching no earlier than 2026, could perhaps fly on United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket. Then, a European-built return orbiter would launch on an European Ariane 6 rocket to bring the small cache of samples back to Earth. >Such a mission would likely have a broad array of political support because it would fund multiple US contractors and bolster ties with Europe. By contrast, a SpaceX-only mission on Starship would upset NASA's other contractors, the European Space Agency, and the politicians who back their interests. >"Just because Starship is flying, I don’t expect that all of a sudden the Science Mission Directorate’s budget is going to double," the NASA official said.