SpaceX plans unprecedented Starship landing, aiming to recover both stages

In recent months, the main difficulties facing the future of space travel have been examined. It has been shown that stability and the development of new technologies are critically important for returning to the Moon, reaching Mars, and possibly exploring other worlds in the solar system. However, when it comes to distances beyond these boundaries, they become so vast that the journey could take centuries, exceeding a human lifespan.

Therefore, in the last chapter of the series on space travel, we will set aside budgetary and technological limitations to present a very distant future. What would it be like to land on a giant ship capable of accommodating a small civilization, where people are born, live, and die during a multi-century or millennia-long journey through interstellar space?

Despite the futuristic nature of the idea, it is not new. In January 1918, American rocket engineer Robert Goddard hypothesized that when the Sun and Earth cool down, humanity will have to build giant ships that will allow us to travel through space in search of a new home. Since such ships would carry several generations of space travelers, they became known as generation ships.

Inside such a ship, there must be residential quarters, recreation areas, schools, hospitals, workshops, factories, and, most importantly, extensive agricultural lands. This is not about a traditional spacecraft with a few astronauts in small compartments, but about an environment capable of reproducing all the conditions necessary for life on our planet.

One of the most famous projects is the Stanford Torus, a giant ring with a diameter of about 1.8 km, designed to accommodate approximately 10,000 inhabitants. It would rotate around its axis, creating artificial gravity similar to Earth's, allowing residents to stay on the floor and conduct normal activities.

A huge stationary mirror installed outside would reflect sunlight onto a set of secondary mirrors, directing it inside the ring. This way, the residential and agricultural areas could be illuminated, and day and night cycles could be simulated. However, this system would only work when the ship was relatively close to the Sun. When moving into interstellar space, a different energy source would be required to illuminate crops, power mechanisms, and heat the inhabitants.

A nuclear source would be one of the most suitable options. Fission could provide electricity and heat for long periods. Nuclear fusion, if it ever becomes more practical and reliable, could offer an even more interesting source for extremely long missions. Nevertheless, energy would have to be used with maximum rationality; it could not be wasted on creating AI cat videos, for example.

Building this space city would be an extremely complex task. It would need to function for hundreds of years without external support. Water, air, and nutrients would have to be constantly recycled. Organic waste could be processed and turned into fertilizer. Plants would produce food and help replenish oxygen. In this colossal ship, microorganisms would play a fundamental role at various stages of these cycles.

We are still far from being able to sustain a human population indefinitely in a completely closed ecosystem. But research is already underway in this direction, helping to understand the problems that a generation ship must solve. One example is the European Space Agency's (ESA) MELiSSA project, which studies how to reproduce biological cycles capable of regenerating water, producing oxygen, and generating food from waste.

Radiation protection would also be vital. And here we are not talking about temporary or partial protection, as most travelers on this ship would be exposed to cosmic radiation throughout their lives. A structure with a large amount of water or hydrogen-rich materials would not be enough to reduce the impact. We would certainly need additional protection, such as a magnetic shield surrounding the ship, so that it doesn't leave with the people and arrive at its destination with a squad of X-Men.

But the problems associated with a generation ship go beyond technology. The social organization of this space civilization would depend on laws that, in addition to ensuring order and good coexistence, would also guarantee the preservation of the environment, which would be vital for the survival of the entire population. People would be born, live, and die aboard. The ship would be the only world they knew. Freedom, opportunities, cultural diversity, and decent living conditions would need to be guaranteed. We would need to find ways to govern and raise children so that the mission of this civilization could be passed down from generation to generation.

Now imagine the emotions of this population when they finally reach their cosmic destination. Entire generations of travelers, who have never seen a world other than the artificial environment of their ship, will encounter a vast planet, with landscapes, oceans, and horizons they have never seen for the first time. A world different from Earth, which may require new adaptations. And the choice of this destination had to be extremely careful, as the amount of fuel needed to accelerate and decelerate this ship would be so enormous that we are unlikely to find a 'gas station' for refueling and heading elsewhere.

The generation ship would be much more than just a vehicle. It would become a way to take not only people but also the entire ecosystem, society, and part of our history on Earth with us. Certainly, we are far from creating anything like this. But contemplating these possibilities helps us understand the scale of the problems we will have to overcome if we ever want to cross the distances between stars.

In this series, we have seen how curiosity and the desire to explore the universe stimulate the development of technologies that allow us to expand our boundaries within the solar system. But when we look beyond it, we realize that the problems are so extraordinary that perhaps we will dare to venture into interstellar space only when this journey ceases to be merely a desire and becomes a necessity.

And if that day comes, perhaps our descendants will look up at the sky on a distant planet with the certainty that it all began here. In the small blue world where you looked at the stars and dared to call them home.

SpaceX aims to execute a never-before-attempted maneuver in its next Starship test: simultaneously capturing the Super Heavy booster and the upper stage of the spacecraft using the mechanical arms of the launch tower. This attempt is scheduled for Friday, the 13th, during the 15th test flight of the giant rocket.

If the operation proceeds as planned, it could constitute the first complete recovery of an orbital launch system. The company views this procedure as a crucial advancement toward transforming Starship into a fully reusable space vehicle capable of more frequent flights.

The mission will be conducted from Starbase, which is SpaceX's facility located in southern Texas, United States. The launch window is scheduled to last 75 minutes, starting at 7:45 PM Brasília time.

Regarding the upper stage trajectory, Starship is expected to reach an orbit of about 275 kilometers in altitude and complete approximately 14 orbits around the Earth, totaling a mission duration exceeding 22 hours.

Similar to the previous flight, the spacecraft is also set to launch 26 Starlink V3 satellites, which are new-generation models intended to expand SpaceX's planned satellite internet network.

Flight 14, conducted on September 28th, was the initial milestone where Starship reached Earth orbit, concluding that mission with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean about three hours after liftoff.

However, the dual capture attempt is not guaranteed. SpaceX has communicated that it may suspend the operation if any anomaly is detected during the flight. The route also includes alternatives to ensure the safe return of the spacecraft or its redirection to predefined zones in the ocean.

The return of American astronauts to the Moon depends on the existence of an orbital refueling station, which currently does not exist. According to the latest estimate, the crewed mission planned by SpaceX would require Starship to be refueled 22 times per trip.

This number was mentioned by Charlie Precourt, a former astronaut and member of NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, during a meeting held on October 22, as reported by Ars Technica. They refer to these SpaceX Starship launches necessary for a single landing on the Moon.

Neither the panel nor NASA provided details on the calculation. However, Elon Musk, owner of SpaceX, contested this estimate on X, stating that the actual figure would be between six and eight.

NASA aims to send astronauts to the lunar south pole in early 2028 during the Artemis IV mission. Due to delays with Starship, the agency reopened the competition for the landing module, and Jeff Bezos' company, Blue Origin, entered the race.

SpaceX plans to launch a Starship that will remain in orbit serving as a depot. Subsequently, other Starships, acting as tanker ships, would ascend to supply it. Finally, the spacecraft destined for the Moon would be refueled at this depot and continue its journey.

This process is compared to filling a reserve tank using more than twenty trips of tanker trucks before starting the journey. This transfer has never been executed in space. Furthermore, the fuel used is not gasoline; Starship uses liquid oxygen and methane, substances kept at extremely low temperatures that tend to evaporate gradually in a vacuum.

The amount of fuel lost during this procedure determines the number of trips required, which justifies the divergence between different estimates. The first test of this orbital transfer is scheduled for early 2027.

Currently, Starship flies every few months. Musk promised to intensify launches to weekly in early 2027 and double that frequency by the end of the year.

Maintaining this pace and without failures, the 22 refueling flights, added to the depot flight, would take approximately three months.

In contrast, Blue Origin bets on four launches of the New Glenn rocket. The first three are intended to leave rocket stages in orbit, while in the fourth launch, the Blue Moon module docks with these stages and heads toward the Moon without performing a fuel transfer.