Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / SpaceX progressing on Starship in-space refueling

Transcript

SpaceX progressing on Starship in-space refueling · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:00
  Hey everybody, welcome back to the Elon Musk podcast.
• 0:03
  This is a show where we discuss
• 0:04
  the critical crossroads that shape SpaceX, Tesla, X, the
• 0:08
  boring company and Neuralink. And
• 0:10
  I'm your host, Will Walden. One
• 0:12
  more thing before we start Google podcasts is being
• 0:16
  discontinued by Google. So if you want to continue
• 0:20
  getting episodes of the Elon Musk podcast, please
• 0:22
  check us out over at YouTube Music. Search
• 0:26
  us out over there. And that's where you'll be able
• 0:28
  to find our podcast through Google products. Thank
• 0:32
  you so much for understanding. I
• 0:33
  had no control over this. Google
• 0:35
  pulled the Google podcast app off of Android. And
• 0:39
  I want to let you know where to continue finding
• 0:41
  the show over at YouTube Music. Search
• 0:43
  for Elon Musk podcast. Today's
• 0:46
  episode is all about Starship going to the moon.
• 0:51
  And there are certain things
• 0:52
  that SpaceX has to do with Starship before they can
• 0:55
  send the Starship to the lunar surface for the
• 0:58
  Artemis missions. One of those things is a
• 1:00
  propellant transfer in Earth orbit. Another
• 1:05
  thing they have to do is IFT four, which is the
• 1:07
  next flight of Starship. This
• 1:09
  video is brought to you by current. It's
• 1:11
  a great bank. I use it myself. And
• 1:13
  I'll tell you more about that later on in the
• 1:15
  video. And they're in the process
• 1:17
  right now of readying Starship for the flight,
• 1:20
  readying the booster for the flight, and the FAA
• 1:23
  SpaceX are both working together to check off items
• 1:27
  before they can actually send Starship to space
• 1:30
  again. Now, IFT three went really well
• 1:34
  according to SpaceX, and also according to NASA. A
• 1:38
  NASA spokesperson said that SpaceX expects to launch
• 1:42
  Starship super heavy test flight by the end of May.
• 1:46
  That is incredible. If
• 1:48
  this is a turn out, it's about a 1 .5 month
• 1:50
  turnaround for a Starship launch. And
• 1:53
  if this keeps happening, we could possibly see a new
• 1:56
  Starship launch every single month. How
• 2:00
  wild would that be? I'm all for it. Now,
• 2:03
  we also have some more information about the lunar
• 2:07
  journey for Starship. This is the huge one. Low
• 2:11
  Earth orbit is big, but going to the moon is the
• 2:14
  first step to going to Mars. Now,
• 2:16
  they have to do a propellant transfer during a
• 2:19
  flight in order to show NASA that they are capable
• 2:24
  of sending a Starship to the moon. Now,
• 2:27
  this is important here, because in the next year
• 2:31
  by 2025, they want to be able to do this. So
• 2:34
  it's 2024 now, almost midway. And
• 2:38
  if they can do this by 2025, ship to ship
• 2:40
  propellant transfer demo, they're going to launch two
• 2:43
  Starships that will meet in low Earth orbit. And
• 2:47
  then the rendezvous and dock two Starships, two
• 2:51
  Starships will dock together, then they'll
• 2:53
  transfer propellant between those two Starships. That's
• 2:57
  what they need to do. But before they do that, that's
• 3:00
  going to be in 2025. But before they do, let's roll
• 3:02
  back to 2024. The tipping point propellant
• 3:04
  transfer demo happened during flight three. This
• 3:08
  is confirmed by NASA. Propellant
• 3:10
  transfer demo flight system review in 2024, confirmed
• 3:15
  and completed by SpaceX. And
• 3:18
  it's confirmed by NASA. That
• 3:21
  is an overview of the mission architecture, high
• 3:23
  level Starship and hardware designs, key subsystems,
• 3:26
  preliminary integration of models and analysis. Now,
• 3:30
  the next thing they have to do is propellant
• 3:32
  transfer hardware development, build, test and
• 3:34
  integration of docking mechanisms. This
• 3:37
  is for the two Starships that dock together and
• 3:40
  transfer propellant relative navigation sensors. So
• 3:44
  they have to be able to navigate near each other
• 3:47
  and to each other from a launch, quick disconnect,
• 3:51
  and also hot gas thrusters. So
• 3:54
  when they're up there, they have to be able to move
• 3:56
  around in space. That's what the hot gas thrusters
• 3:59
  are for. So when they're close, they
• 4:01
  have to, you know, those little ones that go, those
• 4:03
  ones, that's what they're talking about. They
• 4:06
  have to be able to navigate while they're in
• 4:07
  space. They're virtually weightless. So
• 4:10
  they need something to push them around when they're in
• 4:12
  space. So the hot gas thrusters,
• 4:14
  they're testing those in 2024. Now,
• 4:19
  that may be in a future launch. IFT
• 4:23
  four, which is coming up by the end of May, which
• 4:25
  we were talking about before, they're going to do
• 4:28
  a test of the landing of the booster in the Gulf of
• 4:32
  Mexico. And also they're going to test
• 4:35
  a Starship coming back into orbit at the highest
• 4:38
  temperature that it can go. So
• 4:40
  those are the next steps for IFT four. Now,
• 4:42
  going back to the propellant demo, there will
• 4:45
  be two Starships involved, two different Starships,
• 4:48
  one's a Starship target. This
• 4:50
  is a new thing. And then there's a Starship
• 4:52
  chaser. And let's go over the target
• 4:54
  Starship first, it launches first, then it receives
• 4:58
  propellant during the transfer has active docking
• 5:01
  mechanisms, has passive, relative navigation features,
• 5:05
  and also performs a de orbit burn. So
• 5:08
  when it's in orbit, it'll fly back down to Earth.
• 5:11
  This is important, because IFT
• 5:13
  four is testing those systems, the de orbit burn
• 5:17
  is super important for this to work. Now
• 5:20
  there's a second Starship that's going up, the
• 5:22
  Starship chaser, which launches second, it chases
• 5:25
  the target, target goes first, the chaser flies
• 5:28
  after and catches it, the transfer is the propellant
• 5:31
  to the target has passive docking mechanisms, the
• 5:35
  other one had active and has active relative
• 5:38
  navigation sensors, and performs de orbit burn as
• 5:41
  well. So both of these Starships
• 5:43
  will launch to orbit, and both will come back down
• 5:45
  to Earth that alone is a huge deal for Starships
• 5:50
  lunar ambitions. So the ship to ship propellant
• 5:53
  transfer, let's go over it real quick, they're going
• 5:55
  to launch two Starships, and then they can meet an
• 5:58
  orbit, they're going to rendezvous dock together.
• 6:00
  And then they're going to
• 6:02
  transfer propellant between the two, and then return
• 6:05
  to Earth and land on the Mechazilla at Starbase,
• 6:11
  Texas. That's in 2025. Now,
• 6:14
  after that, the Artemis missions will start the
• 6:17
  lunar architecture system for Starship. Starship
• 6:22
  and SpaceX have a 10 year lunar architecture capability
• 6:26
  study, the Luna 10, that's just been released, lunar
• 6:30
  surface innovation consortium LSIC was the first to
• 6:33
  break this. Now we're going to go into
• 6:35
  this a little bit, because there's a lot to cover
• 6:37
  here. I want to give you guys $50.
• 6:41
  Now, okay, hold on, hold on, I
• 6:42
  want to give you 50 bucks. But
• 6:44
  you have to do something. And
• 6:46
  this you have to sign up for a current account. It's
• 6:48
  current my bank. Okay, I've been with current for
• 6:52
  years, they've treated me very well. And
• 6:55
  it's all done through the current app. You
• 6:57
  don't ever have to go to a bank. But
• 6:59
  they are FDIC insured, and they are very, very secure.
• 7:03
  There's checking accounts, saving
• 7:05
  his accounts, teen accounts, you can buy crypto on
• 7:08
  there, anything you want to do, like a normal bank,
• 7:10
  but it's so much better than any bank interface
• 7:14
  you're used to. It's just so much simpler.
• 7:16
  That's why I use them. Everything
• 7:17
  else is easy. They actually have like a
• 7:19
  payday, advanced thing to so if you need money
• 7:23
  before your paycheck comes in, they'll loan you the
• 7:26
  money until your check comes in. It's
• 7:28
  wild. They're a great bank, great
• 7:30
  institution. And they're sponsoring this
• 7:33
  channel. Now, if you want $50, use my
• 7:36
  link in the description and sign up for an account,
• 7:39
  you get 50 bucks, I get an affiliate 50 bucks, I
• 7:42
  got to make that clear to you that you make some
• 7:44
  money, I get some money too, it's free to sign up.
• 7:47
  And my link is in the
• 7:48
  description. If you use my link, that's
• 7:49
  the only way you can get the $50. So
• 7:52
  let's get back to spaceflight news. SpaceX
• 7:54
  designs, manufactures and launches the world's most
• 7:56
  advanced rockets to enable Luna 10 and other
• 8:00
  commercial partners, transportation, Starship,
• 8:03
  it's affordable, it's huge, you can take anything you
• 8:06
  want to on a Starship basically, it'll be
• 8:08
  leveraged to enable Luna 10 and other commercial
• 8:11
  partners. So Luna 10 is SpaceX's 10
• 8:14
  year ambitious plan to go to the moon and start the
• 8:18
  process of building on the moon to a surface platform.
• 8:22
  We've never heard of this before.
• 8:23
  This is brand new to everybody.
• 8:24
  Post landing Starships are large
• 8:27
  surface platforms. They can provide services and
• 8:30
  host third party equipment. So
• 8:32
  it can become something else once it lands. It's
• 8:35
  not a Starship anymore, it becomes a platform. And
• 8:39
  the SpaceX brains exact expertise and experience
• 8:41
  operating a fleet of 6000 laser link star link
• 8:44
  satellites to lunar operations. So
• 8:46
  we know now it's been confirmed by SpaceX that
• 8:49
  they're going to be use some sort of Starship and
• 8:53
  Starlink capabilities together on the lunar
• 8:56
  surface. And they go on to say that
• 8:58
  Starship is the most powerful launch vehicle
• 9:00
  right now, which is the truth, but they have a
• 9:02
  framework in mind for this transit and mobility is the
• 9:06
  Starship communications is the Starlink and third
• 9:09
  party hosting and services. So
• 9:11
  when the Starships landed on the moon, it can
• 9:14
  provide power and communications to third
• 9:17
  parties and possibly storage as well. So
• 9:21
  they they want to be able to do this affordably. So
• 9:24
  affordable mass transfer between Earth and moon is
• 9:27
  foundational to enabling sustainable lunar presence.
• 9:32
  Now Starship will recoup R &D
• 9:33
  investments via a variety of other use cases,
• 9:36
  including terrestrial satellite launches. Satellite
• 9:41
  launches from the moon. Is that true? Could
• 9:45
  they do that? Okay, three Starship landings
• 9:47
  begin a robust lunar base. So
• 9:50
  it only takes three to start a lunar colony
• 9:54
  utility Starship says Starship one hub for power
• 9:58
  communications, data and commodity storage. So
• 10:02
  this will power everything that comes after it. This
• 10:06
  is the hub, this is the utility. This
• 10:08
  is the thing that everybody needs in order to survive
• 10:11
  and thrive on the lunar surface. The
• 10:14
  rolling stock Starship. These
• 10:16
  are new Starships rovers construction equipment, ISRU
• 10:20
  plants, and other spite site specific payloads. So
• 10:25
  rovers could be possibly see some sort of hybrid
• 10:30
  Starship and Tesla vehicle. Maybe
• 10:34
  that would be great. Construction
• 10:37
  equipment, things to make landing pads, possibly
• 10:39
  things to make roads, and also to level the the
• 10:44
  lunar regulates so they can build a colony up there.
• 10:48
  Then habitation Starship is
• 10:49
  number three speaking of colonies serves as a crew
• 10:52
  habitat for the site. So they're going to land that
• 10:55
  and then the crew will be able to use all of these
• 10:57
  tools to build on the moon. Now
• 11:00
  we're going to go to depth about the utility Starship,
• 11:02
  then we're going to go into a little bit more
• 11:04
  information, we're going to get some more information
• 11:06
  about the actual mission here. Starship
• 11:09
  lands, deploys cargo and services. Pretty
• 11:13
  straightforward, provides backhaul between moon and
• 11:16
  earth, which is great local connectivity through hosted
• 11:20
  payloads Starship provides about 55 meters of height.
• 11:25
  So they're going to use this
• 11:27
  as communication as well. So
• 11:29
  provides on the order of tens of kilowatts to hosted
• 11:32
  payloads and surface users can provide 100 plus
• 11:36
  kilowatts if configured. So that's the power the
• 11:39
  Starship has probably some sort of solar panels in
• 11:44
  this, I mean, there's there's going to be solar
• 11:46
  on the Starship itself, but they're probably going to
• 11:49
  build solar panels panels on the ground on the lunar
• 11:52
  surface for the astronauts to use for future missions.
• 11:57
  Post landing utility of lunar
• 12:00
  cargo, delivery Starships Starship can deliver 100
• 12:03
  plus tons of lunar cargo and remain as a surface
• 12:07
  asset itself. Edit this out. It
• 12:12
  could do numerous things, propellant and fluid
• 12:15
  storage, empty prop tanks provide fluid storage space,
• 12:20
  which could be other propellant could be maybe
• 12:23
  water in the future if they empty it out. And
• 12:26
  this can this might not be drinking water, this could
• 12:28
  be for septic systems or things like that. Oxygen
• 12:32
  tanks hold about 1000 tons of liquid oxygen, could use
• 12:36
  tanks to store other liquid or gases. They
• 12:41
  could use it for methane boil off available for
• 12:45
  lunar surface users. So they're talking about people
• 12:49
  going to the moon with Starship, it's going to be
• 12:52
  they have a whole plan for this. We
• 12:55
  know that they were planning on it, but we
• 12:57
  didn't know what the plan was until right now. Now,
• 13:01
  landing latest Starship surface platform provide
• 13:03
  power, habitation, communications connectivity,
• 13:07
  fluid and commodity storage components and materials,
• 13:10
  it'll be a way for humans to go to the moon, use
• 13:13
  rovers, use equipment, build on the moon's surface, and
• 13:18
  then set up a colony there so they can learn how to
• 13:20
  live in space. And then eventually, eventually,
• 13:25
  SpaceX could send people to Mars. This
• 13:30
  is how they test the Mars habitation, they do it on
• 13:34
  the moon first. If this works within 10 years
• 13:39
  from now, we could possibly see a lunar surface base
• 13:44
  and also the beginnings of a Mars base. Hey,
• 13:49
  thank you so much for listening today. I
• 13:51
  really do appreciate your support. If
• 13:53
  you could take a second and hit the subscribe or
• 13:55
  the follow button on whatever podcast platform
• 13:57
  that you're listening on right now, I greatly
• 14:00
  appreciate it. It helps out the show
• 14:01
  tremendously, and you'll never miss an episode. And
• 14:04
  each episode is about 10 minutes or less to get you
• 14:07
  caught up quickly. And please, if you want to
• 14:09
  support the show even more, go to patreon .com slash
• 14:13
  stage zero. And please take care of
• 14:16
  yourselves and each other. And
• 14:17
  I'll see you tomorrow.