SCIFLI Starship Reentry Observation (SSRO) ACO (SpaceX Starship)
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Jennifer Ann Inman↗
SEARCH · Search NASA
Results for “Starship”
Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Starship Life Support
The design and mass cost of a starship and its life support system are investigated. The mission plan for a multi generational interstellar voyage to colonize a new planet is used to describe the starship design, including the crew habitat, accommodations, and life support. Only current technology is assumed. Highly reliable life support systems can be provided with reasonably small additional mass, suggesting that they can support long duration missions. Bioregenerative life support, growing crop plants that provide food, water, and oxygen, has been thought to need less mass than providing stored food for long duration missions. The large initial mass of hydroponics systems is paid for over time by saving the mass of stored food. However, the yearly logistics mass required to support a bioregenerative system exceeds the mass of food solids it produces, so that supplying stored dehydrated food always requires less mass than bioregenerative food production. A mixed system that grows about half the food and supplies the other half dehydrated has advantages that allow it to breakeven with stored dehydrated food in about 66 years. However, moderate increases in the hydroponics system mass to achieve high reliability, such as adding spares that double the system mass and replacing the initial system every 100 years, increase the mass cost of bioregenerative life support. In this case, the high reliability half food growing, half food supplying system does not breakeven for 389 years. An even higher reliability half and half system, with three times original system mass and replacing the system every 50 years, never breaks even. Growing food for starship life support requires more mass than providing dehydrated food, even for multigeneration voyages of hundreds of years. The benefits of growing some food may justify the added mass cost. Much more efficient recycling food production is wanted but may not be possible. A single multigenerational interstellar voyage to colonize a new planet would have cost similar to that of the Apollo program. Cost is reduced if a small crew travels slowly and lands with minimal equipment. We can go to the stars!
Jones, Harry W.↗
Applying Ada to Beech Starship avionics
As Ada solidified in its development, it became evident that it offered advantages for avionics systems because of it support for modern software engineering principles and real time applications. An Ada programming support environment was developed for two major avionics subsystems in the Beech Starship. The two subsystems include electronic flight instrument displays and the flight management computer system. Both of these systems use multiple Intel 80186 microprocessors. The flight management computer provides flight planning, navigation displays, primary flight display of checklists and other pilot advisory information. Together these systems represent nearly 80,000 lines of Ada source code and to date approximately 30 man years of effort. The Beech Starship avionics systems are in flight testing.
Funk, David W.↗
Achievable space elevators for space transportation and starship acceleration
Space elevator concepts for low-cost space launches are reviewed. Previous concepts suffered from requirements for ultra-high-strength materials, dynamically unstable systems, or from danger of collision with space debris. The use of magnetic grain streams solves these problems. Magnetic grain streams can support short space elevators for lifting payloads cheaply into Earth orbit, overcoming the material strength problem in building space elevators. Alternatively, the stream could support an international spaceport circling the Earth daily tens of miles above the equator, accessible to advanced aircraft. Mars could be equipped with a similar grain stream, using material from its moons Phobos and Deimos. Grain-stream arcs about the sun could be used for fast launches to the outer planets and for accelerating starships to near lightspeed for interstellar reconnaisance. Grain streams are essentially impervious to collisions, and could reduce the cost of space transportation by an order of magnitude.
Pearson, Jerome↗
Concept for Piloted Missions to Near-Earth Asteroids: Starship-based Approach
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
near-Earth asteroids↗
SpaceX Starship Hot Staging - From Concept to Flight
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Jason Liu↗
A Crew and Logistics Lander for the Common Habitat Architecture
The Common Habitat Architecture is a conceptual study that explores the use of a large habitat derived from the Space Launch System (SLS) liquid oxygen tank as a core habitation element that can be used for crew missions or training in 0g, 1/6g, 3/8g, and 1g. This is not part of current NASA Artemis mission planning, but instead represents an architecture that could potentially follow after the Artemis missions and initial human Mars landings. This architecture leverages Starship-derived vehicles for crew landing on and ascent from the Moon and Mars in support of long-duration surface missions with pressurized crew transfer baselined as a nominal capability. This is not the Human Landing System variant of Starship but represents a number of modifications to enable long-duration surface missions with an eight-person crew size. A rapid brainstorming study was conducted in February of 2021, using only public data, to identify options to deliver the 90-ton Common Habitat to the surface and emplace it at the intended habitation site. This study compared three lunar lander concepts and three Mars lander concepts before ultimately selecting the SpaceX Starship as the most viable lander. The Common Habitat Architecture assumes that this Starship variant can further be modified for crew and cargo delivery, assuming that the use of a common system will lead to cost benefits. It is assumed that the Starship will expend too much propellant in landing crew and logistics to be able to launch, given the assumed absence of surface propellant production. Consequently, a separable ascent stage is used for crew ascent. The pressurized elements of this modified Starship are discussed: Starship Ascent Module, Airlock, Transfer Tunnel, Pressurized Crew Transfer Module, and Logistics Modules. For each element, a description, dimensions, rough mass estimates, core capabilities, and design features are presented. Key mechanisms and internal structures of the starship are also discussed. This will include flame diverters for the ascend module, the orbital docking hatch, Pressurized Crew Transfer Module Garage door, Starship Ascent Module fairing, flame diverter blow-out panels, Pressurized Crew Transfer Module lift system, logistics module lift system, contingency crew ascent via the logistics module lift system, internal catwalks, and structural interfaces. Concept of Operations will be discussed for both Moon and Mars. This will include in-space crew rendezvous and transfer, crewed landing, shirtsleeve crew transfer, crew departure, contingency surface operations, and final element disposition. Key differences for Mars will be discussed, such as the Martian atmosphere, dust storms, the absence of crew handover, and Deep Space Exploration Vehicle rendezvous. Contingency microgravity maintenance access will also be discussed. This work will demonstrate viable pressurized crew transfer with a Starship-based lander architecture. Forward work includes Garage lighting and camera systems, Starship Ascent Module propulsion system and docking port trades, contingency habitation trades, and mass/power equipment estimation. Finally, forward work includes developing a heavy cargo return system derived from the Crew and Logistics Starship. The goal of this system is the return of at least 10,000 kg payloads from the surfaces of the Moon and Mars.
Lunar Lander↗
The Interstellar Conspiracy
If we were designing a human-carrying starship that could be launched in the not-too-distant future, it would almost certainly not use a warp drive to instantaneously bounce around the universe, as is done in Isaac Asimov's classic Foundation series or in episodes of Star Trek or Star Wars. Sadly, those starships that seem to be within technological reach could not even travel at high relativistic speeds, as does the interstellar ramjet in Poul Anderson's Tau Zero. Warp-speeds seem to be well outside the realm of currently understood physical law; proton-fusing ramjets may never be technologically feasible. Perhaps fortunately in our terrorist-plagued world, the economics of antimatter may never be attractive for large-scale starship propulsion. But interstellar travel will be possible within a few centuries, although it will certainly not be as fast as we might prefer. If humans learn how to hibernate, perhaps we will sleep our way to the stars, as do the crew in A. E. van Vogt's Far Centaurus. However, as discussed in a landmark paper in The Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, the most feasible approach to transporting a small human population to the planets (if any) of Alpha Centauri is the worldship. Such craft have often been featured in science fiction. See for example Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama, and Robert A. Heinlein's Orphans of the Sky. Worldships are essentially mobile versions of the O Neill free-space habitats. Constructed mostly from lunar and/or asteroidal materials, these solar-powered, multi-kilometer-dimension structures could house 10,000 to 100,000 humans in Earth-approximating environments. Artificial gravity would be provided by habitat rotation, and cosmic ray shielding would be provided by passive methods, such as habitat atmosphere and mass shielding, or magnetic fields. A late 21st century space-habitat venture might support itself economically by constructing large solar-powered satellites to beam energy back to Earth.
Johnson, Les↗
Nature's Way of Making Audacious Space Projects Viable
Building a starship within the next 100 years is an audacious goal. To be successful, we need sustained funding that may be difficult to maintain in the face of economic challenges that are poised to arise during these next 100 years. Our species' civilization has only recently reached the classification as (approximately) Type-I on the Kardashev scale; that is, we have spread out from one small locality to become a global species mastering the energy and resources of an entire planet. In the process we discovered the profound truth that the two-dimensional surface of our world is not flat, but has positive curvature and is closed so that its area and resources are finite. It should come as no surprise to a Type I civilization when its planet's resources dWindle; how could they not? Yet we have gone year by year, government by government, making little investment for the time when civilization becomes violent in the unwelcome contractions that must follow, when we are forced too late into the inevitable choice: to remain and diminish on an unhappy world; or to expand into the only dimension remaining perpendicularly outward from the surface into space. Then some day we may become a Type-II civilization, mastering the resources of an entire solar system. Our species cannot continue as we have on this planet for another 100 years. Doubtless it falls on us today, the very time we intended to start building a starship, to make the late choice. We wished this century to be filled with enlightenment and adventure; it could be an age of desperation and war. What a time to begin an audacious project in space! How will we maintain consistent funding for the next 100 years? Fortunately, saving a civilization, mastering a solar system, and doing other great things like building starships amount to mostly the same set of tasks. Recognizing what we must be about during the next 100 years will make it possible to do them all.
Metzger, Philip T.↗
Applications of the Electrodynamic Tether to Interstellar Travel
After considering relevant properties of the local interstellar medium and defining a sample interstellar mission, this paper considers possible interstellar applications of the electrodynamic tether, or EDT. These include use of the EDT to provide on-board power and affect trajectory modifications and direct application of the EDT to starship acceleration. It is demonstrated that comparatively modest EDTs can provide substantial quantities of on-board power, if combined with a large-area electron-collection device such as the Cassenti toroidal-field ramscoop. More substantial tethers can be used to accomplish large-radius thrustless turns. Direct application of the EDT to starship acceleration is apparently infeasible.
Matloff, Gregory L.↗
In-situ Lunar Launch and Landing Pad Construction with Regolith-Thermoset Polymer Composite Materials
Lunar launch and landing pads are necessary to mitigate risks to lander/ascent vehicles and surrounding surface assets from rocket plume ejected regolith. The current state of the art of landing and launching from the lunar surface is to land/launch on unprepared regolith surfaces. Though this has been a relatively successful approach, significant risks exist for the Artemis Program due to higher thrust levels leading to increased ejecta and cratering, presence of co-located assets in the ejecta path, and potential strict surface levelness requirements. Regolith-thermoset polymer composite materials were developed and evaluated for off Earth launch and landing pad applications. Performance under hot fire conditions was assessed for two simulated Starship lunar launch/landing environments, one targeting thermal conditions and the second targeting pressure conditions. Paver test articles were prepared at 20% and 11% polymer mass fractions. Sintered paver test articles were prepared with 20% polymer grouting filling the seams between pavers. Though significant erosion was experienced during the more extreme thermal testing conditions, all test articles successfully mitigated regolith ejecta from plume effects. A concept for preparing and emplacing the materials was developed and tested in laboratory conditions. The testing evaluated the feasibility of using twin and single screw extruder technology to mix, convey and deposit materials. Both the twin and single screw extruders were capable of processing and extruding the composite with a maximum of 90% mass fraction of regolith achieved by the twin screw extruder.A primary risk for application of regolith-thermoset polymer composites as lunar launch/landingpad is the mass of polymer required to be landed on the moon. Calculations were performed that show that a 100 m diameter, 0.025 m thick pad with polymer mass fraction of 15% will require a payload mass of 72 mt to the Lunar surface. This is below the planned Starship payload capacity to the lunar surface of 100 mt. The regolith-thermoset polymer composite based construction approach proved feasibility in three critical areas: performance under launch/landing conditions, demonstration of a mixing and depositing strategy, and fitting within the planned lunar payload capacity. It is recommended that materials and systems be developed to TRL 6 for a small-scale lunar demonstration of emplacement of a launch/landing pad via a CLPS mission to support Artemis Program roadmap gap closure activities.
ISRU↗
NASA's Initial Artemis Human Landing System
In April 2020, NASA announced the selection of three companies to begin the initial phase of development of human landing systems to take the first woman and the first person of color to the lunar surface through NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration program. The selected companies were a Blue Origin-led team with Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, and Draper; Dynetics (a Leidos company); and SpaceX. Contracts were awarded shortly after, kicking off a ten-month base period during which NASA worked closely with each company to finalize functional and performance requirements, confirm lander development standards, and establish baseline designs, schedules, and management plans for contract execution and human spaceflight certification. At the end of the base period, in the Spring of 2021, NASA awarded a single follow-on Option A contract to SpaceX to continue their work on Human Landing System (HLS) Starship development. Currently NASA and SpaceX are working collaboratively on Option A which will ultimately culminate in one uncrewed and one crewed mission to the lunar surface under Artemis III. This paper will provide a look at the Option A phase of development for the Human Landing System Program, including publicly available information on SpaceX’s HLS Starship design as well as near-term and future milestones for HLS and the Artemis program.
Lisa Watson-Morgan↗
NASA’s Human Landing System: A Sustaining Presence on the Moon
For more than a decade, efforts have been ongoing at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama, to land humans and cargo on planetary bodies like the Moon and Mars and today this work continues under the Center’s Lander Programs (LP) office. In August of 2019, NASA stood up the Human Landing System (HLS) program to be responsible for spacecrafts that will land astronauts on the Moon under Artemis. Work is well underway with the historic Artemis III mission to land the first Americans on the lunar surface in more than 50 years through the Appendix H Option A [1] contract with SpaceX. In November, NASA awarded SpaceX an Option B modification to its existing HLS Appendix H contract, which will further develop its Starship HLS to meet NASA’s sustaining lander requirements for lunar missions beyond Artemis III. In September of 2022, NASA issued an HLS Sustaining Lunar Development solicitation under the NextSTEP-2 Appendix P Broad Agency Announcement [2] asking a second provider, in addition to SpaceX, to develop and demonstrate a lander that meets the program’s extended set of requirements for missions beyond Artemis III. Under the umbrella of Sustaining Lunar Development [3], these requirements will meet NASA’s needs for recurring, long-term access to the lunar surface. Proposals were received from industry late last year and NASA is planning to award an Appendix P contract in the summer of 2023. This paper will provide an update of the Lander Program office’s progress and will discuss how the program is bridging from the initial demonstration phase of development for the Human Landing System program to the Sustaining Lunar Development phase. The paper will include publicly available information on SpaceX’s Starship HLS design as well as near-term and future milestones for HLS and the Artemis program.
Lisa Watson-Morgan↗
Space Station Freedom - A resource for aerospace education
The role of the International Space Station in future U.S. aerospace education efforts is discussed from a NASA perspective. The overall design concept and scientific and technological goals of the Space Station are reviewed, and particular attention is given to education projects such as the Davis Planetarium Student Space Station, the Starship McCullough, the Space Habitat, the working Space Station model in Austin, TX, the Challenger Center for Space Life Education, Space M+A+X, and the Space Science Student Involvement Program. Also examined are learning-theory aspects of aerospace education: child vs adult learners, educational objectives, teaching methods, and instructional materials.
Brown, Robert W.↗
International Space University
The International Space University (ISU) is described in this video, hosted by Marina Sirtis from the 'Star Trek' television show's Starship Enterprise. A complete explanation of what ISU is, how the university functions, and the benefits that the university provides are described. Included are brief comments from former ISU graduates.
Kassler, Maggie↗
The Influences of Lamination Angles on the Interior Noise Levels of an Aircraft
The feasibility of reducing the interior noise levels of an aircraft passenger cabin through optimization of the composite lay up of the fuselage is investigated. MSC/NASTRAN, a commercially available finite element code, is used to perform the dynamic analysis and subsequent optimization of the fuselage. The numerical calculation of sensitivity of acoustic pressure to lamination angle is verified using a simple thin, cylindrical shell with point force excitations as noise sources. The thin shell used represents a geometry similar to the fuselage and analytic solutions are available for the cylindrical thin shell equations of motion. Optimization of lamination angle for the reduction of interior noise is performed using a finite element model of an actual aircraft fuselage. The aircraft modeled for this study is the Beech Starship. Point forces simulate the structure borne noise produced by the engines and are applied to the fuselage at the wing mounting locations. These forces are the noise source for the optimization problem. The acoustic pressure response is reduced at a number of points in the fuselage and over a number of frequencies. The objective function is minimized with the constraint that it be larger than the maximum sound pressure level at the response points in the passenger cabin for all excitation frequencies in the range of interest. Results from the study of the fuselage model indicate that a reduction in interior noise levels is possible over a finite frequency range through optimal configuration of the lamination angles in the fuselage. Noise reductions of roughly 4 dB were attained. For frequencies outside the optimization range, the acoustic pressure response may increase after optimization. The effects of changing lamination angle on the overall structural integrity of the airframe are not considered in this study.
Fernholz, Christian M.↗
Human-Centered Design of Human-Computer-Human Dialogs in Aerospace Systems
A series of ongoing research programs at Georgia Tech established a need for a simulation support tool for aircraft computer-based aids. This led to the design and development of the Georgia Tech Electronic Flight Instrument Research Tool (GT-EFIRT). GT-EFIRT is a part-task flight simulator specifically designed to study aircraft display design and single pilot interaction. ne simulator, using commercially available graphics and Unix workstations, replicates to a high level of fidelity the Electronic Flight Instrument Systems (EFIS), Flight Management Computer (FMC) and Auto Flight Director System (AFDS) of the Boeing 757/767 aircraft. The simulator can be configured to present information using conventional looking B757n67 displays or next generation Primary Flight Displays (PFD) such as found on the Beech Starship and MD-11.
Mitchell, Christine M.↗
Vibro-Acoustics Modal Testing at NASA Langley Research Center
This paper summarizes on-going modal testing activities at the NASA Langley Research Center for two aircraft fuselage structures: a generic "aluminum testbed cylinder" (ATC) and a Beechcraft Starship fuselage (BSF). Subsequent acoustic tests will measure the interior noise field created by exterior mechanical and acoustic sources. These test results will provide validation databases for interior noise prediction codes on realistic aircraft fuselage structures. The ATC is a 12-ft-long, all-aluminum, scale model assembly. The BSF is a 40-ft-long, all-composite, complete aircraft fuselage. To date, two of seven test configurations of the ATC and all three test configurations of the BSF have been completed. The paper briefly describes the various test configurations, testing procedure, and typical results for frequencies up to 250 Hz.
Pappa, Richard S.↗