Imagination of space exploration technology company's starship going to Saturn system
It was June 5438+ 10, 2009, and He Deman tracked the impact at the Science Control Center of the Ames Research Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). As a 33-year-old planetary scientist, this is her first major task for NASA, which is mainly responsible for coordinating ground telescopes to observe impacts.
NASA tried to "touch the ice on the moon" through the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission. In the 1960s and early 1970s, the Apollo spacecraft landed on the moon, and then a gray and barren world was discovered. But later, scientists began to believe that there was some water ice under the edge of the crater at the moon's poles, which was the residue of comet impact for billions of years. The mission goal of the Centauri rocket is to hit one of the craters and verify whether the scientist's guess is correct.
After carefully studying the impact data, NASA announced that water was indeed found in the material plume caused by the impact of the Centauri rocket and in the material ejected by the moon rock when it was hit.
For Jennifer He Deman, this is one of the key moments in her career. This experience strengthened her interest in planetary science, especially in tracking water on other planets. She said: "It is surprising that the result of this task has such a far-reaching impact." .
The discovery of water ice on the moon opened a new era. Planetary scientists have found that ice and water are almost everywhere in the solar system: there are water ice on Europa and Enceladus, on the surface of Mars, and even on more distant planets, such as Pluto or Neptune's largest moon Triton.
These discoveries bring all kinds of imaginary prospects. Where there is water, or there used to be water, there may be life. Therefore, scientists are not only looking for fossils in the long-term dry lake bed of Mars, but also looking for life in the vast oceans of Europa, Enceladus and other planets. For human space exploration, the widespread existence of water also provides great opportunities: where there is water, there are components of rocket fuel-liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.
To a large extent, these findings have also affected the focus of NASA's scientific and manned space program. In the agency's annual planetary science budget of about $3 billion, more and more funds are used to support missions that may find evidence of life on other planets. In the past four years, NASA has been making a plan to send astronauts to the moon again and extract water there to prepare for sending humans to Mars in the future.
For scientists, there are always more questions than answers, and the available funds are often not enough to meet the tasks they want to perform. The ubiquity of water in the solar system has further aroused the interest of planetary scientists, who hope to send exploration robots to further places in the solar system to determine the characteristics of ice deposits and underground oceans on various planets. As we know more about the solar system, its mysteries become more and more, far beyond our imagination. Therefore, it is particularly frustrating that we can't fly to those mysterious planets at present and really solve these mysteries.
Korolev crater in northern Mars is about 82 kilometers in diameter. This photo was taken by the Mars Express Exploration Satellite of the European Space Agency.
So, what if we can do it?
Some planetary scientists have begun to agree that, for example, the new rocket "Starship" of Space Exploration Technology Company has unprecedented carrying capacity and unusual low-cost potential, which may bring solar system exploration into a new era. Imagine that we can launch a lander to Europa and explore its huge and warm underground ocean. At the recent NASA planning meeting, planetary scientists considered the possibility of this task. They launched a complex spaceship costing billions of dollars to Europa for further scientific research. Under the best conditions, the size and mass of this spacecraft can only be compared with a mini refrigerator.
In contrast, if there is a more powerful spacecraft like the starship, humans may be able to launch more scientific research payloads to Europa, which is equivalent to a single-story house without furniture, and reach the outer solar system in a way we never thought of, which will provide a revolutionary new way to explore these worlds.
The origin of starships
Engineers of Space Exploration Technology Company have been working hard for the development of the starship for about five years, and have completed several initial flight tests in the past 12 months. Although there is still a lot of technical work to be done, the super-heavy rocket being developed by the company has many advantages, including reusability and low cost, and it is possible to send rockets weighing 100 tons to the surface of most celestial bodies in the solar system.
Elon musk, the founder of Space Exploration Technology Company, regards this starship as a key rocket to send humans to Mars and finally settle there. However, in the eyes of planetary scientists, this spacecraft has countless other uses in science, exploration and national defense.
Highly reliable starships may take several years to come out, but from the beginning of 2022, space exploration technology companies may conduct a series of orbital test flights. Now, NASA's manned space program has such confidence in the starship that it is used as the landing system for its Artemis moon program. If the starship finally fails, NASA may not be able to return to the moon.
In August, 20021year, the spacecraft of the starship was partially hoisted above the super-heavy booster.
"Starships can provide unprecedented payloads for missions on Mars and other planets," Jennifer Hedman said. "The question that planetary scientists need to think about is how to use this extraordinary ability. If we want to seize these opportunities and get a payload in the unmanned test flight, we need to act now. "
In 20 18, space exploration technology company first came into contact with planetary science, and solved some basic problems by holding a series of "Mars seminars", such as possible landing sites on Mars, knowledge gaps related to human safety life and work on the surface of Mars, etc.
The company also invited celebrities in the field of Mars research, and dozens of people participated in it. Some researchers accepted the idea of space exploration technology company, but others were skeptical. With the passage of time, as the space exploration technology company built and tested the prototype, even some skeptics began to believe in the potential of this starship.
"As the starship gradually became a reality, people's ideas began to change," said tania Harrison, a planetary scientist and Mars expert who attended the Mars seminar. "NASA chose to use a starship to carry out the mission to the moon, which is a huge improvement in its reliability."
New white paper
Earlier this year, many researchers attending the seminar began to realize that the participation of NASA is imminent in the process of using starships to perform scientific tasks. Therefore, they wrote a white paper entitled "Accelerating the Science of Mars and the Moon through the Starship Mission of Space Exploration Technology Company", with Jennifer He Deman as the first author.
More than 20 Mars researchers (including tania Harrison) from academia, industry and space exploration technology companies signed the white paper. They loudly appealed to the leadership of NASA, hoping that the latter could provide funds for the development of the scientific payload of the starship.
These scientists and engineers wrote: "NASA must formulate a funding plan consistent with the development path of the starship, including a rapid development schedule. Compared with traditional planetary science missions, starships have relatively high risk tolerance, and if successful, they will eventually bring high potential scientific value. "
For many years, the primary task of NASA's planetary exploration has been to bring back rock samples from Mars and conduct detailed research in high-tech laboratories on Earth. Finally, the agency proposed a baseline plan for cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA) and began to seek some funds for the return mission of Mars samples. If all goes well, NASA hopes to bring back several kilograms of rock samples from Mars before 203 1.
Because the starship can not only land on other planets, but also take off from other planets, it is fully capable of changing the return mission of Mars samples. It is estimated that the starship may bring back two tons of rock samples, not just two kilograms.
This possibility makes planetary scientists very excited, and not just the younger generation. James Hyde of Brown University in the United States helped NASA choose the location of Apollo moon landing program in 1960s, and participated in the training of astronauts on the moon. After that, he began an outstanding career in planetary science.
Hyde enthusiastically signed the white paper and said that he appreciated the vision of Space Exploration Technology Company and was willing to work hard to achieve this goal. He also saw the young spirit, vitality and determination to promote the Apollo program at the headquarters of Space Exploration Technology Company in Hawthorne, California. "Standing on the floor of the space exploration technology company factory, I experienced the closest feeling to the Apollo program," Hyde said.
How will NASA act?
NASA's Perseverance probe took a selfie on Mars.
At present, it seems a bit far-fetched to establish a NASA project to support the scientific payload of the starship. NASA usually prefers to hand over projects to multiple bidders, rather than creating specific projects for specific aircraft. In addition, even if the leadership of NASA decides to create a specific project of starship scientific payload, it is doubtful whether the US Congress (or even the White House) will agree. Members of Congress like to provide jobs for their constituencies and states, and NASA's traditional contractors meet this demand. In contrast, space exploration technology companies pay great attention to cutting costs and improving efficiency. It works in several states and employs relatively few contractors.
Previously, NASA bid for Artemis' "human landing system" and finally chose the starship of Space Exploration Technology Company as the only choice. The us congress has raised strong opposition to this. However, for the scientific payload plan to fly to the moon, Mars and beyond, if we can only choose space exploration technology company, the US Congress will have a more intense opposition.
Take the Mars sample return mission as an example. NASA plans to cooperate with the European Space Agency, an important ally in the space field, to launch a sample recovery rover (developed in Europe) and a launch vehicle made by Northrop Grumman for NASA. The launch time of this mission is not earlier than 2026, and it may take the new launch vehicle Vulcan of the United Launch Alliance (ULA, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Boeing National Defense Aerospace Safety Company). Then, the return orbiter made in Europe will carry the Ariane 6 rocket also developed in Europe and bring a small number of samples back to Earth.
However, some people have suggested that there are other options. It has been suggested that NASA should establish a "commercial Mars payload service" project and distribute the contract to transport scientific payloads to Mars.
Learning projects from CLPS
The commercial Mars payload service project will learn from NASA's commercial lunar payload service (CLPS) project, and its main purpose is to provide funds for private companies to build spacecraft that can transport NASA payloads to the lunar surface, such as lunar lander/aircraft, lunar rover and launch vehicle. So far, NASA has provided six contracts for different bidders, with a total budget of $2.6 billion by 2028.
Scientists from the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) have also put forward similar ideas. They believe that "projects similar to CLPS and focusing on Mars can promote the development of Mars exploration technology and scientific load in the future".
In the commercial Mars project, NASA may provide funds for its research center and other academic groups. Scientists will be responsible for developing scientific payloads to Mars and enabling them to support the use of starships. This may relieve some political pressure on NASA.
Thomas Zubqin, general manager of NASA's scientific mission, also supports the CLPS project and is willing to take a certain degree of failure risk. He said that NASA should consider putting all large rockets online in the next few years and make full use of their capabilities.
Possible future tasks
In the process of building more planetary spacecraft, scientists will also encounter other obstacles, because they are less and less concerned about quality restrictions. Only relatively few people in the world know how to make such a spacecraft, and it takes time to train more people. On the other hand, the ground facilities for spacecraft to receive vacuum and vibration tests are also very limited; Then there is the problem of cost-the most expensive thing to launch a scientific probe is not a rocket, but a probe.
A senior NASA official believes that since the mission is carried out by a starship, the budget of the Scientific Mission Committee should not be suddenly doubled. On the contrary, starships will eventually reduce the cost of launching spacecraft, especially if they have the ability to launch frequently.
In the future, space exploration technology companies may provide regular "carpooling" flights to Jupiter every two years. Multiple probes of different sizes may carry the same starship and reach Jupiter system with its power and propulsion. Once there, each spacecraft can fly to its own orbit or destination, and rely on the starship as a communication relay to send signals back to Earth. This will save a lot of mass space and propellant for each spacecraft launch.
Space exploration technology company may launch the first interstellar spacecraft to Mars in 2024; This may be just a test flight to prove that this huge aircraft can carry out the mission of entering the orbit of Mars. On NASA's schedule, no scientific exploration mission can catch up with this first flight, but the next Mars window will open at the end of 2026, which seems to be a more reasonable time for Space Exploration Technology Corporation and NASA.
For NASA, it is possible to put the scientific load on the interstellar spacecraft flying to Mars during this period. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory can make a replica of the "Perseverance" rover with a completely different set of scientific instruments. NASA may also launch two replicas of Mars reconnaissance orbiters to replace the aging communication infrastructure on Mars. Engineers can also expand the scale of the Mars oxygen in-situ resource utilization experiment (Mo Xie) to produce more oxygen from the Martian atmosphere. In addition, NASA can send a bigger drill into the underground of Mars to see if it is really warmer and wetter.
A NASA source said: "We are also happy to fill the starship with spacecraft like Ingenuity." Earlier this year, the Wit unmanned helicopter persistently landed on Mars, becoming the first aircraft to "power-control flight on another planet".
Elon musk himself realized the importance of cooperation with the scientific community to improve the feasibility of the starship. Not long ago, Musk talked with scientists at the National Academy of Sciences for more than an hour, expressing his views on more profound topics such as starships and planetary science.
"The starship is designed as a universal transportation device for the wider solar system," Musk said. "You can bring a100t object to the surface of Europa. This far exceeds the carrying capacity of a small rocket. So, I think this is very exciting. Obviously, we have a lot to prove. But from an architectural point of view, starships can transport almost any mass to any solid surface of the solar system. "