Propellant production in Boca Chica will be important to optimize the supply chain.
Rapidly reusable rockets – like air travel or car travel, you don’t get a new car every time you take a trip.
Re-usability will allow flying the booster 20 times per day, and the ship 3-4 times per day. Reason ships can only be used a few times a day: since ship goes to orbit, the track of a satellite is sinusoidal (unless it is equatorial or san-synchronous). you have to wait for the ground path to sync up with the launch site. It takes like 6 hours to sync up.
Satellite Delivery: Currently, the company uses Falcon to deliver satellites for Starlink. Starship will be able to deliver satellites further and at a lower marginal cost per launch, as Startship has a much greater payload..
SpaceX created the Raptor engine, which has a very high specific impulse. Because Earth’s gravity is quite high, we are just on the cusp of reusable rockets being physically possible. Raptor engine (it will have 6 engines) uses mostly oxygen per unit of fuel (3.5 tons of oxygen for every 1 ton of fuel).
Making it to orbit was tough… landing the rocket was tougher, and SpaceX was the first to do so.
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Reducing Launch Mass
Steel: the rocket it made of steel. It has the perfect combination of strength and heat resistance. Because of this, the rocket will be able to have a smaller heat shield, and only need a heat shield on 1 side of the ship. This will reduce launch mass.
Orbital re-fueling: Starship attaches to another rocket containing fuel while in orbit, making it pace.
Starship Demographics
Raptor Engine. Source: @brandondeyoung_ twitter
SpaceX has published a quite succinct user guide with detailed information.
Engine: Raptor
Fuel: Methane and Liquid Oxygen (CH4 and LOX)
Length: 72 meters
Diameter: 9 meters
Material: Stainless Steel
Payload: 100 tons
Nomenclature: SN9 stands for “Serial Number 9”
Starship flights:
Starship performed its first test flight on July 26, 2019 and has so far performed 6 orbital test flights.
Ion propulsion is one of the top technologies that will enable deep space exploration.
The X3 ion thruster is currently the most advanced of its kind and capable of producing greater power and thrust. The X3 will further advance human space travel technology and our ability to embark on missions into the far depths of outer space.
The X3 Nested Channel Hall thruster is being developed in collaboration between NASA, the University of Michigan PEPL, Aerojet Rocketdyne, and the Air Force Research Laboratory.
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X3 Ion Thruster Updates as of 2021
Additional developers include NASA GRC, NASA JPL and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.
Ion propulsion uses electrostatic fields to ionize and accelerate a propellant.
There are two key technological factors that make the X3 Ion thruster better, faster, and more efficient:
1. Hall Effect Thruster Technology
First of all, there are multiple types of ion thruster designs.
The best is the Hall effect ion thruster. The X3 Ion Thruster is designed based on the Hall effect.
Hall thrusters have been identified as the best approach to building better ion drives because of their longer lasting characteristic, as opposed to other plasma based ion thrusters.
Hall-effect ion thruster – What is it?
The Hall Effect describes how an electromagnetic field occurs perpendicular to the flow of current.
By using electricity to create a current in a circular shape, depending on whether current flows clockwise or counter-clockwise, the vector of the magnetic field will point either up or down.
The electromagnetic field gives ionized, or charged, particles kinetic energy, resulting in a force and causing the particles to accelerate in the given direction.
Based on Newton’s third law, the force of particles leaving the engine ultimately causes the spacecraft to move forward.
Why Hall effect ion thrusters last longer than plasma ion thrusters:
Hall thrusters feature an innovative magnetic field configuration which prevents interaction and disturbances between ionized propellant and the engine components.
In the case of plasma based ion thrusters, the ionized particles tend to quickly erode engine components after a year.
The magnetic configurations in Hall thrusters produce a shielding mechanism so this does not happen.
2. Nested Ion Propulsion Channels
In addition to using the Hall effect, the second innovative differentiator in the X3 design is nested channels. The X3 has multiple rings, or discharge channels.
source: Michigan PEPL
The nesting approach places multiple propulsion channels in a concentric-circle arrangement around a center-mounted cathode. Electric current flows around three circular pathways of different sizes, each producing the electromagnetic field perpendicular to the flow of current. By featuring additional channels, the magnetic field is stronger and thus produces more force to move a spacecraft.
From the 2017 tests at the NASA Glenn Research Center, the X3 demonstrated the ability to produce 5.4 newtons of thrust, which is almost 40% more than the previous best ion thruster, which was capable of producing 3.3 newtons.
Nested Hall Thrusters (NHTs) have a larger throttling range than traditional single-channel thrusters. By only engaging a single channel, a minimum amount of force can be produced. Alternatively, by engaging all three, more powerful configurations are possible.
As of 2018, the project is at a Technology Readiness Level 5, (TRL 5) meaning “component and/or breadboard validation in relevant environment”. This is a significant step on NASA’s 9 TRL levels, with number 9 being that the system is flight proven through successful mission operations.
From the Latest Journal Articles:
source: Michigan PEPL
One of the main things that the July 2020 ion thruster paper found was that the X3 is likely able to operate more efficiently than expected.
In technical terms, the paper discovered that cathode flow as a fraction of anode flow can be as low as 4% in the X3 without having significant impact.
According to the paper, “due to the reduced flow rates, the total efficiency is slightly increased (although all values are within the measurement uncertainty)”.
Also, “These results suggest that low-TCFF operation is feasible for high-power Hall thrusters and can offer increased system efficiency as well as improved cathode lifetime, and can do so with little impact on thruster operation.”
Since the X3 Nested Hall Effect Thruster is more efficient, this means that it can be more conservative with fuel propellant, essentially getting more “miles per gallon”, to put it in terms used with automobiles. Saving propellant means that missions can go longer, further, and faster.
The article did not underplay the importance of unanswered questions that have yet to be resolved.
Why is the X3 ion thruster a big deal?
The short answer: the X3 is more powerful while at the same time, more efficient.
Nested-channel Hall thrusters have been identified as a means to increase Hall thruster power levels above 100 kW.
Given the X3’s capacity to produce a greater amount of force, the engine itself is also larger.
According to NASA’s technology roadmap, “This higher-power category [of ion drives] will be pertinent to human space exploration missions beyond LEO, and for rapid-transit science missions to the outer solar system and deep space destinations.”
According to the research paper by Scott James Hall, if an ion propulsion system could produce over 300 kW of power, it would enable possible space missions to near-Earth asteroids as well as Mars.
So far, however, it has been challenging to reach this level of power. But the X3 has pushed the limits on what’s possible – although not yet in the 300 kW range, the technology is slowly progressing to higher levels, which may one day be attainable.
X3 Ion Propulsion Reducing Launch Mass
When you look at a traditional chemical rocket, the majority of the mass that is used to send it into orbit is fuel.
The large amounts of chemical fuel required for space missions is less efficient than the amount that would be needed by utilizing electric propulsion.
“high-power electric propulsion was key to allowing affordable travel to asteroids and near-Earth destinations by reducing launch mass”
NASA / Michigan PEPL
In the quotation above, “reducing launch mass” is referring to the absence of more heavy rocket fuel propellant as part of the payload. Ion thrusters carry a comparatively tiny amount of inert gas as propellant that allows the launch mass payload to be reduced.
“Large-scale cargo transportation to support human missions to the Moon and Mars will require next-generation, high-power Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) systems capable of operating between 200 and 400 kW.” – American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., 2018.
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source: Journal of Propulsion and Power, 2020
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Sources:
Scott Hall of the Plasmadynamics and Electric Propulsion Laboratory at U-M
Artificial intelligence image synthesis is now able to produce realistic images from simple, hand-drawn shapes.
Nvidia’s Artificial Intelligence tool to create Artwork
The AI based artwork tool is built by Nvidia. The tool is called GauGAN, and is available for anyone to use online for free on Nvidia’s AI playground.
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Although there are several implications of this technology, but the free Beta version of the application is fun and allows non-artsy people (like me) to unleash our creative side.
AI-generated painting by Ryan via Nvidia GauGAN.
How does GauGAN work?
GauGAN works using a machine learning system that’s known as a Generative Adversarial Network, which uses a statistical approach that allows two agents, known as the generator and the discriminator, to engage in an optimization based competition.
This process is a type of unsupervised learning for AI.
This technique ultimately creates more accurate, high-resolution renderings of photos from hand drawn shapes.
As a user, you apply filters and select various labels from which the system will apply a style transfer algorithm to modify the color composition of basic single-colored areas and turn them into more photorealistic scenes.
How will AI Art Creation tools be used?
For digital graphic related disciplines, GauGAN is already being used by artists to build rapid prototypes of scenes and conceptual designs.
The time saving potential that tools like GauGAN will enable are huge.
For the world of video game development, the same is true. As video game creators like Fortnite embark on advancing their in-game creative mode, similar tools could be added to help players make quick mock-ups of maps and environments.
Emerging tech is here.
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Electrically powered ion thrusters are one of the most common propulsion systems for the vacuum of space.
Ion Propulsion Key Takeaways:
source: NASA
Ion thrusters allow spacecraft to travel further, faster, and cheaper than other systems.
11.5 times as efficient as chemical propellant.
Though efficient, the system provides very little thrust, a fraction of 1 newton. The tiny force, over time, eventually results in big changes in velocity.
Cannot be used to launch a rocket from Earth.
Are excellent for maintaining satellite orbit, sending smaller probes on long distance voyages to asteroids or outer planets.
Can operate continuously for years. Ion thrusters can be used over very long periods of time. For example, Dawn, the spacecraft that was the first to reach a dwarf planet Ceres, used ion thrusters to reach a speed of 10 km/s.
Could be used in the near future to power additional missions to Saturn’s moon, Titan, or other places proximate to our solar system, for example.
Could one day be used to send people on a thousand year voyage to other stars.
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Even though the amount of force that an Ion Thruster Engine provides is barely the weight of a piece of paper, these systems allow spacecraft to reach enormous speeds. Although going from 0-60 takes about 4 days, the compounding acceleration of running these engines for years allows them to cover distances of billions of miles through space.
Ultimately, ion engines are the perfect system for long-distance, deep space travel.
What is an Ion Thruster?
source: NASA
We now know that an ion thruster is a method of powering a spacecraft during flight through outer space.
As ions are ejected from the back of the engine, each ion generates a tiny force which slowly begins accelerating the spacecraft.
In the absence of air, there is no friction or wind resistance to slow down a spacecraft’s trajectory. Thus, the tiny, consistent force generated is successful at increasing the speed of a vehicle in space when maintained for long periods of time – often years.
Ion thruster engines are the most useful known method of movement in space, particularly over long durations.
Why are ion thrusters used?
Ion propulsion is specifically valuable for long distance space travel because less propellant is needed to increase speed.
With traditional rockets, chemical-based fuel like methane or hydrogen is used. In these systems, fuel tends to be such a large fraction of a spaceship’s total mass.
Ion thrusters, on the other hand, are effective in generating the most thrust for a given mass of fuel. A lower fuel mass is analogous to a car getting more miles per gallon.
Traditional chemical rockets release energy stored in molecular bonds of propellant (Methane, CH4 for example) and are limited by their low specific impulse, no matter what type of fuel or design is used.
For missions that require a large acceleration (like deep space travel over millions of miles), chemical propulsion is no good because the low specific impulse requires fuel to take up a larger percentage of the payload.
According to the Tsiolkovsky Rocket Equation, as acceleration increases, the amount of fuel needed increases exponentially.
Specific impulse describes how effectively propellant is converted into thrust.
Key differences between ion and chemical propulsion:
source: NASA
Compared to chemical engines, ion powered spaceships are able to reach speeds that are more than 11 times as fast.
Greater efficiency; high specific impulse, which means its able to generate larger force for a given mass of propellant.
Less powerful
Ionizes atoms rather than reacting molecules in an exothermic combustion reaction.
Acceleration can be sustained for months or years at a time, in contrast to the very short burns of chemical rockets.
Less propellant is required, which means we can send smaller, cheaper vehicles on missions.
What are the drawbacks of ion thrusters?
There are a few tradeoffs to using an ion thruster engine. Although sustainable for months or even years, ion thrusters produce only a small amount of force, so it takes a long time to reach high speeds.
Additionally, ion thrusters can only be used in the vacuum of space. They don’t work in the presence of air particles, and the tiny force cannot overcome air resistance.
An ion thruster won’t work for launching a rocket from a planet’s surface, but it can be used for steering, orientation and acceleration once you’re in space.
How do Ion Thrusters work?
source: socratic.org
Instead of igniting propellant, ion propulsion works by taking inert, unreactive gas atoms (such as xenon or krypton), and inducing a positive charge by removing an electron.
An inert gas is used as the propellant because it is unreactive and non-corrosive. Xenon and Krypton are quite unreactive because they contain a full 8 electrons in the valence shell. Elements with a full outer shell are called noble gases.
Xenon is a slightly better propellant than Krypton because it has a larger atomic mass, producing more force.
The process of removing electrons requires electricity. Often, solar panels are a good option to power the ionization. However, for deep space missions where less solar power is available, the energy is too small and acceleration is slowed. Because of this, alternative energy sources are required. Nuclear is one possible option. NASA and Livermore labs working on a nuclear system for electricity production.
Once electrons are ionized (electrically charged), the ion can be accelerated. This is done by applying a voltage to create an electrical field, causing them repel one another (similar to the way magnets behave when you hold them next to each other). The large amount of ions repelling each other produce momentum and force to accelerate the spacecraft.
The voltage causes the ions to leave the engine at up to 90,000 miles per hour. Each individual ion provides a small amount of thrust for the spacecraft.
source: NASA JPL
With a large number of these ions being expelled, a constant force is generated that can move the spacecraft forward, to the left in the image above.
Given the amount of force is small, for reference it takes four days to accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour. Though small, when sustained over many years, continual acceleration can cause the spacecraft to reach up to 200,000 miles per hour, fast enough for deep space travel.
Who works with ion thrusters today?
SpaceX Starlink satellites use ion thrusters. Each SpaceX Starlink satellite is able to propel and orient itself to ensure it doesn’t run into other satellites or orbital debris. Starlink uses krypton for the inert gas because it is cheaper (though less efficient) and better suited for their large amount of satellites.
NASA Glenn Research center has done tests on a Hall Effect thruster, known as HERMeS, which is three times as powerful as other systems.
source: NASA
The University of Michigan is developing the X3 Ion thruster, which is also a type of Hall Effect thruster capable of generating 5.4 Newtons of thrust, and has set numerous records.
NASA Dawn Mission has used ion thrusters to travel 4.3 billion miles towards Ceres, a planet in the asteroid belt.
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Human understanding of the universe in its unimaginable infiniteness only has room to grow.
Exploring unknown reaches of outer space will only accelerate in the coming years.
Space technology will improve exponentially. Space industry global revenue is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2040. [1]
The relatively untapped arena of outer space provides investment opportunities for not only large financiers, but small investors as well.
How to invest in space exploration
In an effort to keep track of the space tech market, Espresso Insight produced a compiled list of over 200 organizations building space exploration technologies. Get the Space 200 list below.
4 ways you can invest in space technology companies:
1. Angel Invest
Become an angel investor and fund private companies and pre-IPO startups.
Platforms like Forge provide retail investors a gateway to pre-IPO companies.
source: NASA
Many space tech companies on the 2020 Espresso Space 200 are private companies and raising or have raised venture capital in the past.
2. Exchange Traded Funds
Another option is investing in an Exchange Traded Fund focused on space exploration.
A few popular ETFs that focus on space tech include:
ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK)
SPDR S&P Kensho Final Frontiers ETF (ROKT)
Procure Space ETF (UFO)
All of these ETFs may be purchased from TD Ameritrade, for example.
3. Indirect Investing
Invest in publicly traded companies that have stake in space.
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, for example, has invested in SpaceX.
By buying shares of Google, you are indirectly gaining exposure to SpaceX.
4. Publicly Traded Businesses
There are a good number of publicly traded companies that provide products and services directly related to aerospace, rockets, and futuristic space exploration.
Investing in these publicly traded companies is a good way to gain exposure to a larger more established organization that’s also doing exciting things building space exploration systems and technology.
There are quite a few of these on the 2020 Espresso Space 200, but a few are listed below.
NASA’s big discovery on October 26, 2020 found more water on the Moon than previously known. This is exciting because it means lunar water resources will be easier to access and use.
Key takeaways: Uses for water in Space:
Propellant production
Radiation shielding
Space manufacturing
Space agriculture
Temperature control
Breathing
Any water source means a higher likelihood that humans will be able to sustain a longer visit, thus the goal of establishing a sustainable human presence in outer space by the end of the decade.
Water is as valuable in space as oil is on Earth. – @espressoinsight
The amount of water present on the Moon is equivalent to about 12 ounces per cubic meter of soil, and much of the water is found in the many small craters populating the lunar surface.
This was discovered by the NASA SOPHIA telescope, and other measurement instruments on board a Boeing 747. The curious part is, we don’t know for sure what created the water or how it got to the Moon, but its possible that interstellar radiation could be converting hydroxide ions, OH-, into H2O.
There are TWO articles in Nature that detail the specifics, which I’ve linked to below.
The abstract for both articles is pretty short and worth a quick glance. If you end up reading them, let me know what you thought of NASA’s discovery.
These discoveries are follow ups to the earlier discovery when scientists first realized water’s presence on the Moon at all. Before the October 2020 discovery, we only knew of water being on the north and south poles of the Moon, which are extremely cold and would be difficult and dangerous for astronauts to reach.
Although these studies have confirmed the presence of water on the moon this year, it isn’t a surprise. NASA evidence for this in 2009 as well, although these studies do have the benefit of solidifying the evidence.
According to the 2009 evidence, the original findings were made by NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper aboard the Indian Space Research Organization’s Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, and then confirmed NASA’s Cassini spacecraft and NASA’s Epoxi spacecraft.
What is so great about water anyways?
Why is finding water in outer space such a big deal? I mean, comparing it to oil on Earth is a little bit of an exaggeration, right? – Not quite. Water actually is like oil in because it can be used as propellant – a fuel source for rockets or other vehicles.
The Moon will effectively be a galactic gas station – @espressoinsight
In space, aside from drinking, H2O could be split into pure elemental components hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2) and used separately.
This is done through the process of electrolysis, which involves running electricity from solar panels through the water and an electrolyte with an anode and cathode attached, forming a circuit.
Water reacts at the anode to form oxygen and positively charged hydrogen ions (protons). At the cathode, hydrogen ions combine with electrons from the external circuit to form hydrogen.
Electrolysis of water. copyright Nevit Dilmen, CC BY-SA 3.0
This is important for propellant production. From pure hydrogen and oxygen, we can create rocket fuel. Since electrolysis is a relatively simple chemical process, anywhere in the universe that hosts water will serve as a galactic gas station, allowing astronauts to re-supply for additional missions.
As Saturn’s moon Titan is also a potential galactic gas station due to its vast abundance of methane and other organic material hydrocarbons, Earth’s Moon is as well for hydrogen / oxygen type rocket fuel.
source: NASA public domain, S82-28746
With water, fuel cells may also be used to store energy and generate electricity in the absence of sunlight, when we can’t get good solar power.
And then of course, whatever oxygen is not used for fuel can be used for breathing and saving tank space.
Water can also be used for radiation shielding to protect astronauts. We could literally put a water shield around a spacecraft.
As space manufacturing becomes more common, water will be required in a lot of these processes.
Yet another use is space agriculture. Water could often be recycled from whatever plants transpire on their leaves. And one day, when we terraform dry planets, huge amounts of water will be needed.
Temperature control on spacecrafts is also a use for water. The vacuum in space acts like a perfect insulator preventing heat transfer. Water could be used to cool spaceships to prevent overheating.
So, now we know why having access to water in space is a first step toward establishing a space economy, taking civilizations to the next level, and becoming a multi-world species.
“If we can use the resources at the Moon, then we can carry less water and more equipment to help enable new scientific discoveries.” – Jacob Bleacher, Chief Exploration scientist for NASA
Let’s not forget, however, this will be a great and noble challenge for humanity. Procuring water in space isn’t as easy as just digging a well like on Earth. Since its frozen, we have to mine and extract it from asteroids, planets, and moons.
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Under 1 hour travel time to and from anywhere on Earth.
Ticket price may be significantly higher than airlines, at least initially.
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The experience for consumers will start with a boat ride from the departing city, to the rocket launch site roughly 20 miles offshore. Passengers will exit the ferry and begin boarding Starship. The reason it is in the ocean a few miles from any cities is strategic – for safety and to help minimize noise pollution.
In an interview, Gwynne Shotwell has described Earth to Earth in depth and states with confidence that this is something that will definitely exist.
After launch, Starship will exit Earth’s atmosphere and enter orbit, where the vacuum of space will allow frictionless travel at 16,777 miles per hour. Most journeys will take less than 30 minutes, and will be able to go anywhere on Earth in under an hour. For example, passengers will be able to travel from New York City to Shanghai, China in under 39 minutes. The same distance on an airplane would take 15 to 20 hours.
SpaceX has a list of estimated time-tables on their website:
Earth to Earth travel time comparisons. Source: spacex.com
The voyage will feel incredibly smooth, without any of the turbulence often experienced during airplane flights.
In addition to human transport, the US Transportation Command has teamed up with SpaceX to apply the technology in the area of distribution and logistics, where “point-to-point rapid movement of vital resources” would enhance a global supply chain. [1]
SpaceX’s Advantage
SpaceX profitability is important because the company needs to fund future space exploration endeavors; they aim to establish a base on the moon, colonize Mars, and invest in R&D to further advance rocket technology.
“In addition to vastly increased speed, one great benefit to traveling in space outside of Earth’s atmosphere is the lack of friction as well as turbulence and weather.“ – SpaceX
With point to point rocket travel on Earth, if SpaceX succeeds in being first to market, they will gain the first mover advantage. The first mover advantage for a space exploration company may be broken down into a couple components:
Brand Recognition: SpaceX has done well with establishing strong brand recognition, although spending practically $0 on marketing.
Technology: The company has made more than a few advancements and has achieved quite a lot in the way of space technology – from creating Starlink satellite network to landing rockets and making the first fully reusable ship, space travel is significantly cheaper than before. While a typical commercial airplane cannot fly more than one route per day, SpaceX will be able to run 10X the number of flights per day thanks to rocket reusability and faster vehicle turnaround time.
Customer Loyalty: The company has built customer loyalty by consistently and successfully helping NASA with various projects [2]. NASA will certainly appear as a repeat customer into the future, and they seem to have a strong partnership.
Consumer trust: SpaceX has a rigorous testing process and spent many years before attempting a mission carrying humans. SpaceX makes a point of putting safety first, and has spoken about their goal of making risk not small, but “tiny”. SpaceX has already, for example, sold its first commercial moon flight to art investor Yusaku Maezawa with the #DearMoon mission. [3]
Competition: Space travel, exploration and associated technologies are a big whitespace in the market. There are few – if any – competitors entering the market for most of SpaceX’s services. The aerospace industry has Blue Origin, NASA (government), Lockheed Martin, and Boeing, but none of these companies are doing quite the same thing as SpaceX. Given the lack of competitors, SpaceX will play a major role setting the market price for this new type of air travel, which brings negotiating power and optimum competitive positioning. CEO Elon Musk has stated that “competition is good, bring it on” [4] in response to a question about Boeing as a competitor. The SpaceX Earth to Earth service will effectively compete with international airlines, but the target market / end consumer is a small portion of travelers who need to get to their destination quickly and have the financial means to do so.
Economies of scale: As SpaceX serves these of customers, the company will continue to try to develop cheaper and better ways to launch people and cargo into outer space. As more people take journeys, the economies of scale that result from these innovations will create a more cost efficient means of doing so.
Carbon Capture
Elon Musk replied to a question about carbon-capture for rocket fuel, stating that “rocket flights will be zero-net carbon long term.”
Airplanes account for 9% of US emissions from transportation. Believe it or not, rockets will be a more environmentally friendly method of transportation than a traditional airplane.
Cost of Earth to Earth rocket service versus Airlines?
Airlines are actually not super profitable. Airlines have been quite un-profitable during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although large by revenue, airline expenses are also very large, so they operate on low margins.
For example, the cost of operations of one of the larger commercial airplanes, the Airbus A30, averages $27500 per hour, which extrapolates to roughly $550,000 total to fly from New York City to Shanghai, China.
The Cost of SpaceX Earth to Earth travel depends on a couple of factors. Passenger cost to break-even essentially comes down to cost per launch / number of passengers. Financials – total operating expenses and margins per flight to calculate minimum sales price to break even. These numbers aren’t yet published.
How much will consumers pay?
Note that carrying capacity (number of passenger seats) on Starship is around 1000 passengers for Earth to Earth, compared to only 100 passengers for a mission to Mars due to the need for spacious amenities on a longer mission. With more passengers onboard for an Earth to Earth voyage, costs could be driven down since it would be divided among more passengers.
source: spacex
Like airlines in the 1940’s, rapid Earth to Earth transit via rocket may likely be a luxury high end service for the first few years. There are 46.8 million people in the world who have a net worth of $1 million or more, so SpaceX probably has a sizeable target market to sell rocket seats.
The amount a consumer is willing to pay depends on the amount of value created. The best way to approach this by thinking about the value of a person’s time. A 20 hour NYC to Shanghai flight versus 1 hour rocket ship ride means 19 hours time saved. When you consider that someone travelling on business could add 19 hours of hypothetical productive time, the value becomes much more clear. Companies would even likely be willing to pay more for this service as they have to write off travel time as an employee payroll expense anyways.
The question is, how much is your time worth? The value is saving people time on air travel. How much is this 19 hours of time saved worth to you?
How much will tickets cost?
According to Head of Operations Gwynne Shotwell, tickets will be cheaper than a first class ticket, but more than economy. Gwynne has mentioned that SpaceX may likely charge a few thousand dollars per passenger per flight. Perhaps one day, the company may provide flights to consumers at a low enough cost to be affordable to the average person. We don’t quite know how much it will cost
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There are 62 moons orbiting Saturn. Enceladus is one of the top places we should target to explore and learn more about.
Although each exhibits unique characteristics, Enceladus and is of interest to humans for a couple of reasons – aside from the fact that the temperature is -330 degrees F.
Enceladus moon is currently being studied by NASA for a couple of reasons, mainly because Enceladus has water.
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source: solarsystem.nasa.gov
But water on Enceladus is unique:
The Enceladus moon is surrounded by 25 mile wide crust made of ice.
Beneath the ice, a 6 mile deep ocean harbors hydrothermal vents that can reach temperatures of 400 degrees C.
These hydrothermal vents are a result of heat and pressure deep within the core, releasing such massive amounts of heat that cracks have formed in the crust, releasing vapor in the form of geysers.
Cassini Spacecraft. source: NASA/JPL
Much of what we know about Enceladus has come from the Cassini spacecraft, which orbited Saturn, and has observed the moon during flybys.
The ship was able to collect samples of vapor expelled from the geysers, which contained organic material.
Together with water, these are fundamental building blocks for life.
Enceladus contains both water, organic material, and energy – the fundamental building blocks for life. – @espressoinsight
Based on the observations from the Cassini spacecraft, it is possible that the oceans of Enceladus may be habitable to some form of life.
source: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Compared to Titan or even other planets, Enceladus moon is quite small – only 314 miles across. This is similar to one third of the driving distance from Chicago to Dallas.
Given that there is both H2O as well as organic compounds, the planet could in theory provide habitat to some obscure life form. Of course, this is just conjecture.
It cannot be stated for certain whether or not there is some type of aquatic microorganism such as plankton living in the oceans below the crust of Enceladus.
If there is life within the oceans of Enceladus, the bigger question then becomes – did life originate there, or come from somewhere else?
This brings up the question of abiogenesis or panspermia as possible theories for the origin of life.
Could life have evolved there on its own, or might it have arrived via the collision from a meteor or other object?
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Saturn’s Moon, Titan, is a top space exploration target for humans in our solar system.
Titan: Key Takeaways
Temperature is -180 deg. C (allowing Methane to exist in liquid form).
Atmospheric pressure is 45% greater than Earth.
Titan is 40% the size of Earth.
According to NASA, Titan’s crust is made of H20 ice, and has liquid water as well as ammonia ocean beneath the surface.
Titan is almost 1 billion miles from Earth.
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Why explore Saturn’s Moon, Titan?
Titan is a rare and unique place for a number of reasons. There are four components of Titan that make it unique and worth exploring.
1. Precipitation
Aside from Earth, Titan is the only place in our solar system that has precipitation based weather systems.
On Titan, precipitation is in the form of liquid methane and other hydrocarbons, as opposed to water like on Earth.
2. Atmosphere
Of the 160+ known moons in our solar system, Titan is the only one that has an atmosphere.
An atmosphere is an important feature because it shields the planet from harmful radiation, which protects anything that may want to live on or near the surface.
Atmospheres also contribute to the greenhouse effect, trapping heat near the surface, allowing temperature regularity. Titan is so cold that it may seem surprising to hear about the greenhouse effect keeping the planet warm. The fact that Titan is so far from the sun means that it simply receives less heat.
source: NASA Cassini
3. Titan’s geological chemistry
Titan has unique chemistry that features an abundance of methane and a nitrogen based atmosphere that is 50% denser than Earth’s. Methane is a molecule that consists of 4 hydrogen atoms bonded to a single carbon, with a relatively low atomic mass, it is normally a gas on Earth at room temperature and standard conditions. Titan’s conditions, however, are cold enough that methane exists in liquid form.
On Titan, the Selk impact crater location features conditions for life as we know it: evidence of past liquid water, hydrocarbon molecules, as well as oxygen, nitrogen, and energy. The crater was likely formed by some sort of asteroidal impact years ago.
Recently, NASA discovered a unique molecule (cyclopropenylidene) within Titan’s atmosphere, that could be a sign of possible life.
This molecule is interesting not only because it is a carbon based molecule – Titan has plenty of those – but that it is a pre-cursor to biochemical processes performed by biological organisms that we see on Earth.
4. Raw Materials
Humans may one day establish establish satellite colonies in order to access these valuable raw materials like methane to use as fuel for rockets and other vehicles.
Titan’s presence of hydrocarbons in such an abundance on its surface as well as atmosphere, makes it attractive as a possible re-fueling destination.
Methane, for example, is a great potential fuel source.
According to SoCalGas, methane produces more heat and light energy by mass than other fossil fuels or hydrocarbons. It produces significantly less carbon dioxide and other pollutants that contribute to smog and unhealthy air.
Methane is lightweight and is more stable than some commonly used rocket propellants such as liquid hydrogen.
Titan is considerably further than our moon as well as Mars. Because of this, sending unmanned robotic missions there takes significant time (Cassini took 7 years, for example) so we should make an effort to do so sooner to accelerate information gathering.
Astronauts may one day be able to use Titan as a layover location, or a type of galactic gas station, similar to the Moon before longer missions.
Therefore, Titan would make sense as one of the first places where humans may want to establish a base – along with the moon and Mars of course.
Exploring Titan
NASA sent the Cassini-Huygens mission to Titan in 2005 and was actually able to send photos back to Earth.
Since that time, no missions to Titan have been carried out. Perhaps the main reason may be NASA’s budget, which is certainly understandable. We have other initiatives like the International Space Station, the Artemis Space mission, and more.
But there’s good news for our future missions to Titan – in 2026, NASA plans to send another spacecraft towards Titan, which should arrive in 2034. The mission is called Dragonfly, and will examine and document potential chemical processes that could be precursors to life. By taking samples, NASA hopes to find evidence of past life, or at least understand how far prebiotic chemistry may have progressed.
As a drone-based vehicle, the Dragonfly plans to travel over 108 miles, visiting destinations such as the Selk impact crater, which has a large amount of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen present, as well as evidence of water.
Below are a few pictures of the obscure world from that Cassini space rover, which can be accessed via the Nasa Photo Journal. We notice a few specific features of Titan’s surface. But first, consider joining our email list (we only send 1 email per week).
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source: NASA photo journal
We’re able to observe methane lakes on the surface.
As the spacecraft descended towards Titan, the picture below was taken. Natural drainage channels look like an area where liquid water once flowed. It’s possible there is a shoreline depicted in the photo as well.
source: NASA photo journal
Below is the first up-close photo of Titan’s surface ever taken. We see chunks of ice, which is evidence of water. the second picture shows globules likely made of frozen water. The clusters here with fewer rocks suggest these may be channels where liquid water once flowed.
source: NASA photo journal
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Dawn of Crafting is a mobile game that scratches the crafting-resource management itch in a big way without ever clobbering you with in app purchases – (no timers, no ads!). No complex fighting, no dying, no energy timers, just a deep and fun growth and exploration game.
This game is amazingly crafted to draw you in deeper and deeper. You will start to think you’ve found everything when an entirely new person/ game/ area pops up. No matching, no puzzles, just balancing and exploring.
Best of all, you can pick it up and put it down with no saving walls or loss of progress.
I originally played Dawn of crafting 3 years ago and was so enthralled that I played for 3 days straight without opening another app and continued playing for weeks. I recently started a new Dawn of Crafting game and haven’t opened another app for 5 days.
Why is this game so engaging? The game’s simple interface is deceiving. It has a cute storyline with good writing and surprises, resource management that gets increasingly complex without being boring, discovery of new recipes and abilities and things to do. The game gradually opens up into more and more things to do without ever leaving behind the calming simplicity.
You acquire a helper and must keep yourselves fed, so the fundamental activity of the game is finding items and combining them to create new recipes, items, and tools.
The game features cooking, tools, weapons… it grows and grows. Well. I won’t spoil it for you.
Despite the age of this offering, it is fully functional and supported. Try it!
Guest post written by wyerae (reddit alias).
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