3 ms·

Nine months is the duration of a Hohmann transfer to mars, not necessarily the shortest possible for starship - since starship has ~6900 m/s delta v ( https://t

• ncmncm 4y ago
  There is no possibility of a lone can blasting out there, whatever the delta-V it could muster. You need, at least, two cans to swing at ends of a boom so your crew does not arrive unable to walk. You might want something attached at the axis, besides. That thing might do all the boosting, with the cans' Raptors used just to land with. ISRU fantasies notwithstanding, they need to carry enough fuel to blast off again, come time to go home. The cans get benefit of aerobraking on the way down. The mainframe will need to shed its excess velocity some other way. There's nothing else near enough by to swing around. It will need to have brought along enough fuel to boost home, besides. Maybe it used ion thrusters all the way out, and can use them to creep back to Mars in time to pick up the cans and head home. An alternative is that there is no mainframe, just the boom, and you re-fold and stow it before arrival. Somebody else would have boosted your cans out there, maybe a pair of Superheavys, so your cans won't have to arrive empty. I wonder if a Superheavy with no can stacked on could make it to orbit in one stage. Probably you would unship their engines on orbit, and install a couple of vacuum Raptors in their place before sending them careering out of the solar system.