Everything about Space X’s Starship and Big Falcon Rocket (BFR)

Human endeavour in space exploration has been increased greatly in past few decades and in this continuous increasing endeavour, many key players playing too hard to win the game. In this increasing competition in this space race, countries and continents like USA, Europe, India, Japan, Russia, China and many more are trying their best to reach Mars first since last three decades.

But, fortunately the dawn of 21^st century has seen the introduction of many more key players in this race. Companies like Space X and Blue Origin are putting tough competition in this already tough race. Space X seems to be somewhat ahead in this game than Blue origin for now. But, nothing can be said about future at this point of time.

More about blue origin will be posted later in this website and you will more about it space exploration section ……

After a huge success of both the launch vehicles of Space X that are FALCON 9 and FALCON HEAVY, now Space X is planning for its next big endeavour.

Space X is now planning for an ultimate vehicle which can replace all of Space X launch service provider capabilities: Earth-orbit, lunar-orbit, interplanetary missions and also as an intercontinental passenger transport on Earth. Space X named this spacecraft as BFR.

Size Comparison of various launch vehicles with BFR (source:Wiki) 

BFR is basically a rocket with two prime parts or in technical terms, it’s a two-stage-to-orbit rocket. One is the main booster stage, the Super Heavy. The other one is the starship part in which we can transport people and cargo.As of September 2019, the combined Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket system is officially, collectively referred to as "Starship".

The Starship will be made up of carbon-composite material. Raptor engines will be used in Starship for propulsion. Raptor is a staged combustion engine which uses cryogenic methane and liquid oxygen (LOX) as propellant in a fully-flowing system.

Brief description of “Super Heavy”:

Super heavy is the first stage of the rocket. It will be 30 ft in diameter and 223 ft long. The structure will be made up of stainless steel. It will use subcooled liquid methane and liquid oxygen as propellants. 24 to 37 Raptor engines will provide power to this stage and expected to provide about 70-74 MN liftoff trust.

Super Heavy booster separated from Starship during second stage

During landing, it will use its landing legs to land on the launch mount. Space X is planning to make a type of booster in which we can add or remove number of engines as per the payload requirement.

Brief description of Second Stage: “Starship”:

Starship with solar panels

It is a reusable spacecraft which will act as a second stage of the rocket. It is the main part of the rocket which will carry cargo, people or satellites.

It will be designed in such a way that it can use retro propulsive landing (vertical landing) near the launch mount. It will use 6 Raptor engines to propel itself. Also as per Space X rendezvous and docking operations will be automated.

For insulation, hexagonal stainless steel tiles will blanket the windward side of the Starship. As per the announcement of Space X CEO, Elon Musk, the Starship will use ceramic heat shield tile meant for use on Starship’s windward side.

Starship Specications (as planned):

Length: 118 m (387 ft 2 in)

Diameter: 9 m (29 ft 6 in)

Payload to low Earth orbit: > 150,000 kg (330,000 lb)

Crew: ≤ 100

Empty mass: 120,000 kg (260,000 lb)

Starship’s Engine: 6 × Raptor rocket engine

Thrust of Starship’s Engine: c. 12 MN (2,700,000 lbf)

Super Heavy’s Engine: 37 × Raptor rocket engine (sea-level optimized)

Thrust of Super Heavy Engine: 72 MN (16,000,000 lbf)

Starhopper (Starship prototype)

Till now a prototype of Starship named as “Starhopper” has been tested to examine various parameters and it was successful. It is one of the many prototype build before the manufacture of the real ship.

In my future articles, I will post all the latest updates of Starship……

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                                                      Founder and Writer of The Dynamic Frequency