SpaceX Starship orbital flight test 5 - infographic by Tony Bela

Today US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) finally issued a launch license for the 5th integrated flight test of SpaceX's Starship rocket (booster B12, ship S30)! Here is an infographic of the upcoming flight test by Australian space illustrator Tony Bela. The flight is scheduled as soon as Sunday, October 13 (the 30-minute test window opens at 7:00 a.m. CT) from Starbase, Boca Chica, Texas.

This will be the 1st attempt to return the Super Heavy booster to the launch site and catch it.

SpaceX: "The fifth flight test of Starship will aim to take another step towards full and rapid reusability. The primary objectives will be attempting the first ever return to launch site and catch of the Super Heavy booster and another Starship reentry and landing burn, aiming for an on-target splashdown of Starship in the Indian Ocean. Extensive upgrades ahead of this flight test have been made to hardware and software across Super Heavy, Starship, and the launch and catch tower infrastructure at Starbase. One of the key upgrades on Starship ahead of flight was a complete rework of its heatshield, with SpaceX technicians spending more than 12,000 hours replacing the entire thermal protection system with newer-generation tiles, a backup ablative layer, and additional protections between the flap structures."

Tim Dodd, the Everyday Astronaut explaining HOW and WHY SpaceX will catch the booster:

SpaceX Starship orbital flight test 4 - infographic by Tony Bela

Australian space illustrator Tony Bela has created an infographic of the upcoming 4th integrated flight test of SpaceX's Starship rocket (booster B11, ship S29) on Thursday, June 6 (the 120-minute test window opens at 7:00 a.m. CT) from Starbase, Boca Chica, Texas.

SpaceX: "The fourth flight test turns our focus from achieving orbit to demonstrating the ability to return and reuse Starship and Super Heavy. The primary objectives will be executing a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico with the Super Heavy booster, and achieving a controlled entry of Starship. To accomplish this, several software and hardware upgrades have been made to increase overall reliability and address lessons learned from Flight 3. The SpaceX team will also implement operational changes, including the jettison of the Super Heavy’s hot-stage following boostback to reduce booster mass for the final phase of flight.

Flight 4 will fly a similar trajectory as the previous flight test, with Starship targeted to splashdown in the Indian Ocean. This flight path does not require a deorbit burn for reentry, maximizing public safety while still providing the opportunity to meet our primary objective of a controlled Starship reentry."

SpaceX livestream of the launch:

SpaceX Starship update 2024

On April 4th at Starbase, Texas SpaceX CEO and lead designer Elon Musk provided an unannounced update of SpaceX's Starship architecture. Here are slides and animations from his presentation.

Full presentation:

Slides from the presentation

Starship v1, v2 and v3 specifications:

Thrust comparison of Raptor v1, v2 and v3:

First Mechazilla launch tower pairs at Starbase, Texas and Cape Canaveral, Florida:

SpaceX Starship orbital flight test 3 - infographic by Tony Bela

Australian space illustrator Tony Bela has created an infographic of the upcoming 3rd integrated flight test of SpaceX's Starship rocket (booster B10, ship S28) on Thursday, March 14 (the 110-minute test window opens at 7:00 a.m. CT) from Starbase, Boca Chica, Texas.

SpaceX: "The third flight test aims to build on what we’ve learned from previous flights while attempting a number of ambitious objectives, including the successful ascent burn of both stages, opening and closing Starship’s payload door, a propellant transfer demonstration during the upper stage’s coast phase, the first ever re-light of a Raptor engine while in space, and a controlled reentry of Starship. It will also fly a new trajectory, with Starship targeted to splashdown in the Indian Ocean."

SpaceX livestream of the launch:

SpaceX Starship orbital flight test 2 - infographic by Tony Bela (updated)

Australian space illustrator Tony Bela has created an infographic of the upcoming 2nd integrated flight test of SpaceX's Starship rocket (booster B09, ship S25) on Saturday, November 18 Friday, November 17 (a 20 minute launch window opens at 7:00 a.m. CT pending final regulatory approval) from Starbase, Boca Chica, Texas.

SpaceX: "Starship’s first flight test [on April 20] provided numerous lessons learned that directly contributed to several upgrades to both the vehicle and ground infrastructure to improve the probability of success on future flights. The second flight test will debut a hot-stage separation system and a new electronic Thrust Vector Control (TVC) system for Super Heavy Raptor engines, in addition to reinforcements to the pad foundation and a water-cooled steel flame deflector, among many other enhancements."

Breakdown of Tony's infographic into phases:

Valles Marineris compared to USA

Valles Marineris (or Mariner Valleys) canyon system on Mars is one of the largest canyons of the Solar System. It is located along the equator of Mars and stretches for nearly a quarter of the planet's circumference. Valles Marineris is more than 4000 km (2500 mi) long, 200 km (120 mi) wide and up to 7 km (23,000 ft) deep.

Here is an infographic created by NASA comparing Valles Marineris to the territory of Contiguous United States (48 US states without Alaska and Hawaii) for scale:

SpaceX Starship orbital flight test 1 - infographic by Tony Bela

Australian space illustrator Tony Bela has created an infographic of the upcoming first integrated flight test of SpaceX's Starship rocket next week from Starbase, Boca Chica, Texas. We have been waiting for this test flight for a year and a half by now!

Updated version. You can download the infographic in full resolution here.

Retrofuturistic Mars exploration base by Pascal Lee

In 2021 planetary scientist, the director of Haughton-Mars Project, Pascal Lee created a painting with the same, slightly updated scene of the first human exploration mission on Mars as in Chesley Bonestell's famous painting "Exploring Mars" featured in the 1956 book "The Exploration of Mars" by Willy Ley and Wernher Von Braun.

Highlighting Bonestell's legacy, Pascal Lee wrote: "In painting this new "Exploring Mars", I wanted to pay tribute to the grand master of space art and his creation of an iconic classic, but also update elements of the landscape and hardware in light of new knowledge gained about Mars in the intervening 65 years and evolutions in our thinking about future Mars exploration systems and human surface operations."

Comparison of Bonestell's (1956) and Lee's (2021) "Exploring Mars":

Phobos as a space elevator for Mars

Building a Martian space elevator would be complicated by the Martian moon Phobos, which is in a low orbit at ~6,028 km above the Martian surface and intersects the Equator regularly, thus getting in the way of a traditional geostationary space elevator. But there is an idea instead to build a space elevator from Phobos itself.

Phobos is tidally locked to Mars (as the Moon is to Earth), where the same side of the moon stays facing the planet. A space elevator could extend down from Phobos to Mars 6,000 km, about 28 kilometers from the surface, and just out of the atmosphere of Mars. A similar space elevator cable could extend out 6,000 km the opposite direction that would counterbalance Phobos. In total the space elevator would extend out over 12,000 km which would be below Areostationary orbit of Mars (17,032 km).

A rocket launch would still be needed to get the rocket and cargo to the beginning of the space elevator 28 km above the surface. The surface of Mars is rotating at 0.25 km/s at the equator and the bottom of the space elevator would be rotating around Mars at 0.77 km/s, so only 0.52 km/s of Delta-v would be needed to get to the space elevator. Phobos orbits at 2.15 km/s and the outer most part of the space elevator would rotate around Mars at 3.52 km/s.

In our speculative Mars Colonization Timeline we have estimated such a Phobos-based space elevator could be built as soon as in 2080s–2090s. In adition to the space elevator there could be built a shuttle port at the summit of Pavonis Mons – the Martian volcano practically on the equator – for shuttles heading to and coming from Phobos space elevator. The summit of Pavonis Mons is standing 14 km above Mars' mean surface level (way above the denser part of the atmosphere), halving the needed trip to the shuttle platform at space elavator's lower tip 28 km above the surface.

Artemis rockets (SLS & Starship) that will get us to the Moon - infographic by Tony Bela

Australian space illustrator Tony Bela has created an infographic of Artemis rockets – NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), boosting Orion crew capsule to lunar orbit, and SpaceX's Human Landing System (known as Lunar Starship) – that will get the humanity back to the surface of the Moon.

You can download the infographic in its original resolution here.

SpaceX Starship update 2022

On February 10th SpaceX CEO and lead designer Elon Musk provided the latest update of SpaceX's Starship architecture. Here are slides and animations from his presentation.

Animation of Starship launch and arrival to Mars Base Alpha [updated on April 2023]:

Full presentation:

Slides from the presentation

Starship specifications:

Super Heavy booster specifications:

Map of shallow subsurface water in Valles Marineris on Mars

On December 15 scientists from Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, Russia revealed a discovery of an area with an unusually large amount of hydrogen in the Valles Marineris canyon system on Mars. Assuming the hydrogen is bound into water molecules, as much as 40% of the near-surface material in Candor Chaos region appears to be water. The discovery was made by neutron detector FREND on ESA&Roscosmos's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter orbiting Mars since October 2016. FREND is mapping the distribution of hydrogen in the uppermost meter of the planet’s surface. Hydrogen indicates the presence of water, being one of the constituents of the water molecule; it can also indicate water absorbed into the surface, or minerals that were formed in the presence of water.

While water is known to exist on Mars, most is found in the planet’s cold polar regions as ice. Typically water ice is not found exposed at the surface near the equator, as temperatures there are not cold enough for exposed water ice to be stable. Minerals seen in this part of Mars typically contain only a few percent water, much less than is evidenced by these new observations. “We found a central part of Valles Marineris to be packed full of water – far more water than we expected. This is very much like Earth’s permafrost regions, where water ice permanently persists under dry soil because of the constant low temperatures,” told one of the scientists involved in the study.

These are very inspiring discoveries for the future human colonization of Valles Marineris region we have imagined in our speculative Mars Colonization Timeline!

⇧ In the area C up to 40% of the near-surface material appears to be composed of water (by weight).

The most water-rich area in Valles Marineris region is located in Candor Chaos:

HERE is global-scale map of shallow subsurface water distribution on Mars published in 2019.

Infographic of SpaceX Starship timeline by Ryan MacDonald

Exoplanet astronomer at Cornell University's Carl Sagan Institute Ryan MacDonald (known on social media as Martian Colonist) has created an infographic of SpaceX's aspirational timeline for Starship's first missions to the Moon and Mars.

We estimate realistically the timeline will slip for a few years with #dearMoon mission happening in 2025, Lunar Starship demo landing in 2026, humans returning to the Moon in 2027, first cargo mission landing on Mars in 2027 and first crew mission landing on Mars in 2031.

SpaceX Starship interior concept for 20 to 40 passengers by Paul King

British interior architect / designer Paul King has created his detailed concept of SpaceX's Starship interior layout for 20 (one shift) to 40 (two shifts sharing the same crew pods) passengers. Concept divides the pressurized living space into six 2.5m high levels (here shown from top to bottom).

Level 6 - Flight deck

Level 5 - Crew mess hall

SpaceX Starship interior concept for 100 passengers by Joseph Lantz

Joseph Lantz has created his concept for the interior layout of SpaceX's 100-passenger Starship (the passenger capacity goal stated by Elon Musk). Therefore this concept isn't meant for the first crew Starships on Mars used as temporary habitats for the first few years (those first Starships will have much smaler crew). The concept divides the pressurized living space into 8 decks (here shown from top to bottom) and follows a common design choice of a central stairway through all the decks.

Deck 8 - Observation

NASA Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing in infographics

Tomorrow, on February 18, NASA will land its Mars 2020 Perseverance rover on Mars in Jezero Crater (Western Isidis Planitia). Its mission is to collect samples for later retrieval and it is accompanied by a small reconnaissance drone-helicopter Ingenuity - the first such craft on Mars. We will be able to watch NASA's broadcast of the landing here (starting on 19:15 UTC).

Here is an excellent infographic of Perseverance's landing sequence by Australian space illustrator Tony Bela:

Open link in new tab to view the infographic in its original resolution.

Animation of SpaceX Starship interior concept by DeepSpaceCourier

Two brothers from DeepSpaceCourier have created an animation of their concept for SpaceX's Starship interior. The animation takes through each level of the Starship showing it from 1st person perspective.

Common room:

Utilities:

Cutaway schematic of SpaceX Starship interior by Tom Dixon

British product design student Tom Dixon, in collaboration with the local Starship photographer Austin Barnard, has created a cutaway schematic of SpaceX's cargo Starship interior structure, as it can be observed at SpaceX's Starship production and testing facility in Boca Chica, Texas.

Some more speculative Starship interiors for crewed flights by SpaceX fans:

• Starship interior concept for 20 to 40 passengers by Paul King + VR tour
• Starship interior concept for 100 passengers by Joseph Lantz
• Animation of Starship interior concept by DeepSpaceCourier
• Starship interior concept for 64 passengers by Erik Corshammar & YouTuber 'smallstars'
• Cutaway diagram of Lunar Starship by Rocket Posters
• Starship interior concept for 100 passengers by Rick Kiessig & Michel Lamontagne
• Starship interior concept by Jim Murphy
• Speculative internal structure of Starship by William Falconer-Beach
• Speculative internal layout of Starship by Michel Lamontagne
• Cutaway diagram of Starship by Julian Schindler
• Cutaway diagram of Big Falcon Ship by Nick Oberg

SpaceX Starship interior concept for 64 passengers

Swedish space designer Erik Corshammar (Erc X) and YouTuber smallstars have created their concept of SpaceX's Starship interior layout for 64 passengers.





Deck 0 - cargo hold

Deck 1 - egress options & EVA spacesuits

Deck 2 & 3 - 32 crew bunks in each deck

SpaceX Starship SN8 15km test flight infographic by Tony Bela

Australian space illustrator Tony Bela has created an infographic of the upcoming 15km test flight of SpaceX's Starship SN8 test vehicle, considering the information publicly available and the observations by fan community at SpaceX's test facility in Boca Chica, Texas.

You can download the infographic in its original resolution here.

Here is his poster of Starship SN8 during lift-off and when performing its "skydiver" belly flop maneuver:

You can download the poster in its original resolution here.