Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / Space Debris, Nuclear Rockets, and Artemis II—This Week in Space

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Space Debris, Nuclear Rockets, and Artemis II—This Week in Space · Elon Musk Podcast

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  75 countries, that's how many nations sent representatives to
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  1 conference this week not to talk about nuclear weapons or
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  climate change or trade deals. Talk about space junk.
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  The Saudi Space Agency hosted the second annual space debris
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  conference. If you want to sign.
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  The commercial space industry is actually growing up.
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  This is the time the gold rush phase, launch fast, grab your
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  orbit, figure out the mess later is giving way to something more
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  sobering. A global reckoning with what
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  we've left behind up there in the companies building mega
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  constellations like Starlink. They are the elephant in the
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  room. So today I want to walk through
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  these stories that taken together paint a picture of
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  where Space Flight is right now. We've got the debris problem
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  demanding attention. We've got NASA pushing ahead
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  with Artemis 2 getting ready to send humans around the moon.
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  And we've got nuclear propulsion tests that could reshape how we
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  think about deep space travel entirely.
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  Growth and accountability happen at the same time.
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  And that's what a maturing industry looks like.
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  That's what the Space Flight industry looks like right now.
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  We're going to get into that right after this very short
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  break. So let's start with this debris
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  conference. The numbers here are massive. 75
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  countries showed up. The event was organized by the
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  Saudi Space Agency, but it had backing from the United Nations
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  Office for Outer Space Affairs in partnership with the
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  International Telecommunication Union.
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  Here's what Artie Holimany, the director of UNOOSA, said.
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  Global cooperation among international organizations,
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  governments, industry and academia in addressing space
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  debris challenges is no longer merely A desirable objective is
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  become an absolute necessity. She also said that leading space
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  faring nations must develop concrete plans to address
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  accumulated legacy debris. Legacy debris is a polite way of
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  saying the stuff we've been leaving up there for decades.
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  All the junk. Now why does all this matter
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  though? The International
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  Telecommunication Union manages satellite orbit allocations.
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  They're the people who coordinate who gets to park
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  where in space. When they show up at a debris
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  conference, signals that orbit management and debris are now in
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  the same conversation. They were kind of a side thing.
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  That debris thing was for a while, but now it's all coming
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  together. Can't talk about where new
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  satellites go without talking about what's already cluttering
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  up those lanes. Now.
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  Space is huge. And here's where SpaceX comes
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  into the picture, even though they weren't mentioned by name.
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  Starlink has thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit.
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  They want to get hundreds of thousands into low Earth orbit.
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  Thousands more are planned for the next few years.
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  Amazon's working on their own consolation.
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  China is doing the same thing. It's getting uncomfortable up
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  there really fast. And more objects mean more
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  collision risk. If something happens to 1
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  satellite, if one SpaceX Starlink satellite breaks, a
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  piece from that Starlink satellite could destroy numerous
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  satellites. Could be a chain reaction.
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  More collisions equal more debris, and more debris means
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  more collision risk. It's a feedback loop that keeps
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  people up at night From the UNOOSA.
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  They also featured something called the Debris Solver
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  Competition at that conference, 20 projects showcasing
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  innovative solutions for actually cleaning up space junk.
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  We're not just wringing our hands with the problem, just
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  saying like, hey, there's debris up there.
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  Who cares? It's space.
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  It's not down here. There's engineers and people
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  that want to make money, entrepreneurs actively working
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  on fixes for this. They want to make Nets,
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  harpoons, there's lasers, robotic arms.
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  If there's space junk, there's going to be money to be made.
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  It's like having a garbage person pick up your garbage in
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  front of your house. There's somebody there that does
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  that. There's a business that makes a
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  lot of money doing garbage pickup.
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  That's what these entrepreneurs want to do too.
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  They want to pick up the garbage in space.
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  They want to haul it someplace else.
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  So some of these ideas sound crazy, right?
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  Sound like science fiction, But so did Spacex's reusable rockets
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  for about 10 years ago. Now, something else crazy is
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  that I've been digging into the analytics of the show, and 37%
• 4:28
  of you are following the channel and I am forever grateful for
• 4:32
  you. The other 63% haven't hit the
• 4:34
  follower subscribe button. It's OK.
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  Sometimes you listen to a show you're not subscribed.
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  Sometimes you listen to a few episodes and it's cool, but
• 4:42
  eventually you do come around and hit the subscribe button.
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  That's what I do all the time. I'd listen to a show four or
• 4:47
  five times and I'm like, oh wait, I should have subscribed.
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  So I don't have to search for this anymore.
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  Just comes into my feed and that's going to help us out
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  tremendously. So all I ask from you, after six
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  or seven years of already doing this, I ask one second of your
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  time. So thank you for that for
• 5:02
  hitting the subscribe or follow button.
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  So there's a reckoning going on too.
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  There's an execution with what NASA is actually doing right now
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  about this. Artemis 2 is moving forward very
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  soon. February, NASA announced they're
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  pushing ahead with what's called a wet dress rehearsal for the
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  mission. And a wet dress rehearsal is
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  essentially a full simulation of launch day.
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  You load the rocket with propellants, that's the wet
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  part, Run through the entire countdown sequence and stop just
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  before ignition. They do everything they need to
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  do before launch, and then they just don't launch the rocket.
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  It's how you find problems before they become catastrophic.
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  If there's any leaks, they find them before the actual launch
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  day. This is huge because Artemis 2
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  is the mission that sends humans around the moon for the first
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  time since Apollo 4 astronauts. A loop around the far side of
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  the moon and the first crude flight of the Space Launch
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  System and Orion capsule working together.
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  And that's after Artemis 1 proved the hardware could make
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  the trip on crude. This is the next step.
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  And then Artemis 3 should have people stepping on the moon's
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  surface again. Now, there's also a Utah
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  connection worth mentioning here.
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  The solid rocket boosters, the power SLS during liftoff are
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  manufactured there. Utah has been part of NASA's
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  human spaceflight story since the space shuttle days.
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  So we talked about Artemis. We're talking about supply
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  chains and expertise that span across the country, and the
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  University of North Dakota is also involved in supporting this
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  mission. When you see universities
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  embedded in NASA programs, it's something about the depth of
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  those efforts. Together, the university and
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  NASA working hand in hand, it's huge.
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  They're not just building rockets, though.
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  They're working all across the nation, pulling in academic
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  research, industry partners in multiple states.
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  So the Artemis 2 mission needs to get through the orbit that
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  the debris fields are in now. They will plan that properly so
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  nobody gets hurt. But the Artemis missions going
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  forward will need to clean up some of this garbage.
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  Artemis 2 may face delays if the wet dress rehearsal doesn't work
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  out as planned. The heat shield issues from
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  Artemis 1 took a lot longer to resolve than anybody wanted to
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  talk about. In getting through this
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  rehearsal successfully would be signal that the program is way
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  back on track. So let's go beyond the moon
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  here. NASA is testing advances in
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  space nuclear propulsion. This all matters because it's
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  all tied into the orbit of all the space debris.
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  This is going to be a technology that could genuinely change the
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  game for deep space exploration. Chemical rockets are great for
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  getting off Earth. They produce tremendous thrust,
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  but once you're out in space, they're inefficient for long
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  journeys. You burn through fuel really
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  fast and you can only carry so much of it.
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  And once that fuel is gone, the fuel is gone.
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  You can't get more. Nuclear propulsion is a whole
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  different beast. Nuclear thermal rockets heat
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  propellant to extreme temperatures using a reactor,
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  generating far more efficiency per unit of fuel.
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  And the result of that is that you could cut the transit time
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  to Mars significantly. Some estimates suggest getting
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  there in three to four months instead of 7 to 9.
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  That's huge for safety. Less time in transit means less
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  radiation exposure for astronauts.
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  Fewer things can go wrong if you shorten the time frame.
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  And NASA has been researching this for years, but recent tests
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  suggest real progress there. And it's not going to be ready
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  next year. But we might be talking about it
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  getting ready for a Mars mission that are currently on the
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  drawing board sometime in the 20 thirties.
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  So this is the context here. We're serious about becoming a
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  multi planetary species, which is something both NASA and
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  SpaceX talk about constantly. We need propulsion systems that
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  can handle the distances involved.
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  Chemical rockets can get us to the moon.
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  Nuclear propulsion might be what gets us to Mars and beyond any
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  practical time frame. Now we have to talk about one
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  more thing. Rocket Lab, a small company
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  that's sort of pseudo competitor to SpaceX, their Neutron rocket
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  experienced a test failure recently.
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  We don't have all the details yet, but analysis seems to be
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  maintaining confidence in the company despite the set back.
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  Because they're going to fix it. It's notable because Rocket Lab
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  is one of the few companies seriously competing against
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  SpaceX in the medium lift market.
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  Neutron is their answer to Falcon 9.
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  But you know, test failures. They're part of the rocket
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  development programs. SpaceX blew up plenty of
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  prototypes on the way to success.
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  And now look at the Falcon 9. Hundreds of launches, hundreds
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  of landings. The question is always whether a
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  company can learn from the failure and move on.
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  And Rocket Lab has had a strong track record with their smaller
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  Electron rocket, so I'm not going to count them out.
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  But this business is hard, and they will learn from their
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  mistakes and they'll move on from it.
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  So where does this all tie together?
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  The same week that 75 countries gathered to talk about cleaning
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  up Earth orbit, NASA was testing the nuclear engines and
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  preparing to send humans back to the moon.
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  This is progress, and it's going to be a little bit longer, but
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  we're going to get there. And they're simultaneously
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  pushing boundaries and dealing with consequences the same exact
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  time. The early years of any industry
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  are about proving the tech that actually works, and now the
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  middle years are scaling it, and we're heading into the later
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  years of this. So they need to sustain it.
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  Commercial spaceflight is entering that third phase.
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  The launches will keep coming. Hundreds of SpaceX Starlink
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  flights will happen every year. Starship will fly and it'll take
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  thousands of Starlinks into orbit, amongst other things.
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  Starlink will grow, but so will the other competitors, and so
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  will the conversations about responsibility.
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  Question for SpaceX and every other player in the industry is
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  whether they can keep doing this and keep launching without
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  somebody there to clean up their mess and who's going to pay
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  those people in those jobs to clean up this mess?
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  We're going to have to find that out in the future.
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  Is it going to be the countries or will the will the companies
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  be taxed for clean up over the time that they have their
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  satellites in orbit?