the spring SpaceX launched a squat kind
of ugly looking but shiny little rocket
and it's called the star hopper and this
is the very beginning the first physical
representation of the entire future of
the company this is the rocket that
SpaceX is staking its future on
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the core reason that SpaceX is doing
this is because of a dream that Elon
Musk shared back at the in the early
2000s at the founding of SpaceX he
wanted to send a little plant to Mars
and have it grow there to inspire people
about space travel he thinks we need to
back up the human race to Mars start a
colony there you know an earth 2.0 and
this starship is key to all of that he
wants to use it to transport a hundred
people and 150 tons of cargo to the red
planet at a time and he thinks by 2050
we can build a sustainable colony on
Mars so SpaceX is testing the concepts
and the engines behind this starship in
South Texas and they're starting to get
this little tiny version of it called
the star hopper hopping off the ground
to prove that the engines and that the
whole concept works basically the idea
is will this thing blow up or not and so
far it hasn't blown up or we were down
there for the very first hop of this
vehicle and it was the one of the
loudest things I've ever heard but it
did not blow up and since then SpaceX
has done another hop and they're gonna
take these hops of this vehicle higher
and higher to about 3 miles up the
engines that SpaceX is using our brand
new they're called Raptor engines these
things are enormous they're about the
size of a small delivery truck in which
a controlled bomb goes off basically
after these hot tests are done and
SpaceX proves that you know the system
won't explode on whim they're gonna put
these raptor engines on an even bigger
vehicle which musk is called the orbital
version and that's gonna go into orbit
around Earth in the key thing with that
test is not only showing that it can get
into orbit but that it can come back
when a spacecraft comes back to earth
it's it's entering the atmosphere at
some point at 25 times the speed of
sound that plows through the atmosphere
builds up all this gas into a
superheated levels that can vaporize
steel so spacex needs to prove that this
vehicle will not destroy itself when it
comes back to earth because if it does
then they can't safely launch people on
it that's what you need a shield for you
need to protect the vehicle from burning
itself up when it either comes back to
earth or is entering the very thin
atmosphere of Mars there are a few
critiques of Steel and one of them is
that it's just so heavy it's dense if
you try to use too much of it your
spacecraft gets bogged down and you
can't launch as much payload into space
so you have to be really creative about
how you build your spacecraft SpaceX is
getting around this problem by trying to
go after a fuel tank structure the enol
internal structure these little ribs and
slats and things to support the larger
structure so that it doesn't fall in on
itself that way that can make the metal
really thin but also take advantage of
this cheapness and in also strength this
vehicle isn't using what SpaceX is
typically used for its Falcon 9 and
Falcon Heavy rockets that's our p1 it's
a form of kerosene it's similar to the
stuff that goes into jets it smells like
jet fuel they also use liquid oxygen the
new starship and specifically the star
hopper which just launched is using
liquid methane and liquid oxygen methane
is important because SpaceX wants to be
able to manufacture its fuel on another
planet and specifically Mars and they
can do that in theory with the thin
atmosphere that Mars has they can take
the carbon dioxide they can take water
out of the ground and they can take
sunlight and use energy to combine those
two and form methane on the surface of
Mars refuel starship and go back home to
earth the first things that SpaceX hopes
to do with a full scale fully
operational starship is to show that it
works they want to get this thing in the
orbit and then following that they want
to start sending the first missions to
Mars these would be robots equipment to
help scout out the surface and also set
up a plant to generate methane in oxygen
to fuel a future mission to come back to
earth the first crewed mission though is
going to be with a Japanese artist in
fashion billionaire called yaso kumazawa
he's going to load up one of these
starships with a
Kru full of artists and maybe a couple
astronauts just for safety and go around
the moon to show that the system works
he's willing to put his life on the line
for that and musk is even tease that he
might go himself right now SpaceX is
targeting 2023 or there abouts to launch
this crewed moon mission but by 2024 the
company wants to take advantage of a
planetary alignment which happens once
every two years with Mars on earth to
sort of close the gap between the
planets and launch the first crewed
mission to Mars land there and put boots
on the ground there's another really
important use for this vehicle they're
gonna try to launch 12,000 satellites
that is twice as many as are currently
in space right now and I think three or
four times as many as are currently
operational to build up a global network
of satellite high speed low Lattin see
internet so many times faster than you
could get today from a from a commercial
provider but to do that they're gonna
need to launch a ton of these StarLink
satellites at once in starship could be
the vehicle because it's so big and
fully reusable to do that at low cost
for SpaceX we can't think of starship
just as a rocket to launch people to
Mars it is going to be the future rocket
for SpaceX and possibly the world
it'll launch the next generation of
satellite internet it could launch
people to Mars of course it could also
launch next generation telescopes and it
could also launch NASA astronauts to the
moon as well as landing craft in any
number of things that people want to get
up that are big and they want to do it
cheaper if SpaceX can get government
support perhaps from NASA or the
Department of Defense to develop
starship it's gonna go a long way in to
helping space ice get to the point where
this system becomes a reality because
right now they're relying on a Japanese
billionaire in some of their own venture
capital funding to fund this entire
development project which they estimate
to be between two and ten billion
dollars to complete some critics say
however that 10 billion dollars is even
a low limit it may cost as much as 20
billion dollars to develop the system so
SpaceX can get outside support it can
get government funding it's going to
help make this thing a reality
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