Superheavy 101: All You NEED To Know About SpaceX's Monster

ah the spacex starship likely to become the king of space and second to no other vessel but today let's explore the starship's best friend introducing the super heavy booster planned to weigh in at 300 tons empty and hold over 3000 tons of propellant super heavy will perform mind-bending feats of strength and agility but what's the big deal when it comes to reusable rocket boosters and why is super heavy so special so far orbital rockets have always come in separate sections one day humanity will develop a millennium falcon but for now we go from standing still in our planet's surface to low earth orbit on the spacex falcon and the soyuz and we use many other rockets that all use pretty much the same type of chemical propulsion technology a rocket travels forward by squirting propellant out of its tail end and while orbital rockets burn their fuel with an explosive emission the word squirt is accurate because burning or not the rocket propellant needs to be shot out of the engines at high speed in order to accelerate the vehicle some lower thrust lower efficiency rockets use water as their propellant which doesn't combust at all as it gets squirted out of a nozzle each kilogram of propellant that gets blasted out of a rocket's engines makes the rocket one kilogram less heavy as a rocket continues to use up its propellant it gets lighter and lighter which allows it to accelerate faster and faster when it's almost completely empty it will be gaining speed at a much higher rate than when it was completely full propellant accounts for most of the weight of a rocket but the engines and body of the rocket have weight too which is one reason all orbital rockets are staged meaning they break apart into sections when the first stage is empty it doesn't make sense for the second stage to have to drag along the weight of the first stage with it another reason rockets are staged is because rocket engines perform differently when inside the atmosphere than when out in the vacuum of space it's crucial for a first stage's engines in the falcon 9's case 9 merlin engines to be optimized for sea level pressure the second stage of the falcon 9 will be so powerful compared to the small amount of mass it will have to push it only needs one engine the mvac or merlin vacuum engine optimized for use in space over the past decade spacex has been able to experiment with and perfect propulsive landing and reuse of the falcon 9 first stage while the first stage attempts to land the second stage continues to propel the mission payload to orbital speed be it humans communication satellites or supplies for the iss it needs to get out of the atmosphere and reach a sideways speed of around 7.8 kilometers per second or it will fall back down to the surface 7.8 km per second is around 17 500 miles per hour or 28 000 kilometers per hour the takeaway from this is that to get into space and stay there you need to go really really fast spacex is in the midst of crushing the rest of the aerospace industry launching more falcon 9s than any other company or nation launches any rocket with the exception of the chinese long march and i happen to be showing falcon heavy footage here that uses three separate tubes two of which are side boosters landing and a center core not shown currently spacex is the only launch provider that has flown a rocket more than once spacex has bigger plans than the falcon 9 however whose second stage is expendable and is usually intentionally deorbited much of it will burn up in the atmosphere but not without a strong chance of solid debris landing back on earth as indicated by this actual notice to airman declaring a zone in the indian ocean unsafe that was issued by spacex during an iss resupply mission this footage happens to be from the deorbit of the european atv spacecraft the next groundbreaking step for spacex is to develop a 100 percent rapidly reusable launch system in the starships case the starship spacecraft is the second stage and the first stage is the super heavy booster the super heavy booster and the falcon 9 booster are completely different rockets in completely different classes and normally wouldn't be compared to each other but since the falcon 9 is our benchmark for a reusable first stage and has provided us with the best examples of propulsive landing footage it's nice to see them side by side the falcon 9 first stage holds only 400 tons of propellant while super heavy holds over 3 000 tons the falcon 9 second stage gets filled up with propellant from umbilical connections on the side while starship will receive its many tons of propellant through the body of the super heavy booster the liquid fuel and liquid oxygen will be pumped upwards from ground support systems through pipes inside super heavy that travel up its entire length of around 70 meters this is for rapid reusability so that no plumbing needs to be attached to the side of the starship launch system the super heavy boosters main job is to get starship out of the atmosphere and well on its way to orbital speed once the vehicle reaches a certain point super heavy will turn off its engines an action known as miko or main engine cutoff and then it will release the starship an event called stage separation these events happen during a specific time window they have to happen after the entire vehicle is going fast enough for the starship to be able to do the rest of the acceleration up to orbital speed all by itself but they also have to happen before super heavy gets too low on propellant while the starship will have a robust heat shield for entering the earth's atmosphere while traveling at blistering orbital speeds and surviving it the falcon 9 booster and super heavy don't need a heat shield because they will always remain sub-orbital when the time comes and thanks to it being mostly empty of propellant but still having an orchestra of high-powered raptor engines super heavy will perform a groundbreaking feat the boost back burn i love being able to enjoy the falcon 9 rocket doing the exact same boost back maneuver that super heavy will rely on like something out of a science fiction film it will use small spurts of propellant in opposing directions out of its rcs system to about face turning its aft forward and its four afterward burning the main engines while facing away from the direction of travel will subtract from super heavy speed and cause it to slow down it will continue burning until it cancels out all of its prograde momentum and begins to travel back towards the launch site it will fall through the atmosphere and once it reaches the thicker air will be able to guide itself well using its grid fins just like the falcon 9 does utilizing aerodynamic control rather than rocket propulsion which at this point has been almost completely exhausted super heavy is now mostly a hollow tube weighing in at just about the lightest it will weigh during operation but is still the size of a 20-story building as it falls through the air towards the landing pad its cluster of rapture engines remain quiet wait what that one merlin engine in this falcon heavy example is on fire calm down little merlin you're off duty now and in this falcons case only the center engine will fire for the landing burn but for super heavy at just the right time a small group of raptors at the center of the vehicle will break the silence and start back up into a cacophonous roar timing is extremely important as super heavy plummets towards the earth's surface with barely any propellant left slowing the vehicle down not too quickly and not too slowly for a beautiful soft propulsive landing if the vehicle slows down too quickly it will end up hovering and might run out of fuel before it's able to touch down if the vehicle slows down too slowly it will just crash into the surface super heavy is now ready to be reset and refilled with propellant seeing the super heavy booster and the entire starship launch system in action is going to be mind-blowing to say the least spacex's goal is to have the starship launch system be as rapid as an airliners getting ready for the next takeoff immediately after landing if you like this video please indicate that you'd like to see more by selecting the like button i very much enjoyed working hard to make this video and i want to give a huge shout out to eric x who teamed up with me to make these renders oh and special thanks for the support and good vibes we're getting on patreon i hate doing ads and asking people to join but i want to thank the members from the bottom of my heart open your mind and reach for the stars [Music] you

Channel: smallstars

Views: 492,827

Rating: 4.943182 out of 5

Keywords: gravity link starship, spin gravity, artificial gravity, spacex, spacex news, starship, rocket science, mars, NASA, space, orbit, velocity, deep space, science, rocket, elon musk, raptor engine, International Space Station, Space Shuttle, space exploration, spacex starship, constant acceleration, the expanse, space station, spacex station, station, virgin galactic, star wars, star trek, voyager station, voyager, gateway, orbital, hotel, voyager station spacex, superheavy, booster

Id: 4KcxC4IBCsU

Length: 10min 10sec (610 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 17 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/welcometoskellytown]

Great video. Elon said yesterday the first prototype will likely have 2 to 4 engines to start.

[u/sockpuppets]

3:03 - nope.