Elon Musk's INSANE NEW Starship 2.0 SHOCKS The Entire Space Industry!

 What do you do while you build the most powerful  spacecraft on Earth?    You announce  an even bigger and more powerful spacecraft!    Most people won’t do that, but that is  exactly what Elon Musk is doing!    While building the Starship, which no other  rocket    comes close to, the CEO has revealed the next  version of the Starship, which is simply    a monster!    What does the next generation Starship look  like?    And why does SpaceX  need such a huge rocket?    Join us as we dive into the Starship 2.0 just  revealed by    SpaceX!    SpaceX is an ambitious company!    Under the control of Elon Musk, it has been  moving    from one huge milestone to another.    The company currently operates the most powerful  rocket, the Falcon Heavy, while still owning    one of the most active rockets in operation,  the Falcon 9.    SpaceX regularly sends payloads to orbit for  private companies, including    itself, and government entities like the US  military.    SpaceX is also a close launch  partner for NASA, ferrying cargo and personnel    to the International Space Station.    The  working relationship is even set to go deeper,    with SpaceX featuring heavily in NASA’s  missions to the moon and beyond!    Owning the most powerful rocket flying has  not stopped Musk from dreaming even    bigger.    SpaceX is currently developing a rocket that  will allow Musk to achieve his    biggest dreams.    Musk has accomplished a lot already, but his  most ambitious aim is to    start a colony on Mars, putting people permanently  on the planet!    That is no mean feat  as the plan calls for about one million people    to be transported from the Earth to Mars!    But you can’t just take a million people  and dump them on the harsh environment of    Mars!    You simply have to prepare the environment  ahead of their arrival!    This requires tons of tons of cargo to provide  everything needed, including life support    systems, food, tools, etc.!    Currently, no spacecraft can take humans from  the Earth to    Mars, not to talk of the many tons of cargo  Musk has to move!    But he has taken the bull  by the horn by developing the spacecraft he    needs, the Starship!    While still in development, many people already  see the potential of the massive rocket!    NASA wants to use it to land American astronauts  on the moon.    The Pentagon will use  it to move military cargo worldwide in minutes.    Astronomers, satellite companies, and  aspiring space tourists are eyeing its potential    to slash the cost of getting to space  drastically.    Musk calls it the holy grail of space technology!    The Starship stands taller than the Statue  of Liberty when fully stacked together, at    nearly 400 feet!    It is also taller than Saturn 5, the rocket  that sent American astronauts    to the moon during NASA’s Apollo program.    The Starship is designed to be roughly  twice as powerful as the Saturn 5 and has    a wider diameter than other orbital spacecraft  at 30 feet.    This will make it possible to transport large  amounts of cargo or many people    at once.    To get to orbit, Starship sits atop a towering  rocket booster called Super Heavy.    However, as soon as the two pieces of the  spacecraft escape from the Earth’s    atmosphere, the two parts separate near the  edge of space.    As Starship continues to  orbit, the Super Heavy booster that helped    it off the ground returns for a landing near  its    launchpad.    But the booster will not land per se because  a massive tower equipped with    mechanical arms, which Musk calls chopsticks,  will grab the descending rocket to land it    softly.    Starship will also return to the Earth’s  atmosphere on its side.    Shortly before landing,  the Starship will reignite its engines to    flip itself vertically for a soft landing,  also to be    caught by the chopsticks.    Even before the first orbital test flight  of the Starship, the spacecraft has seen lots    of  upgrades.    For example, SpaceX had been developing the  rocket engine known as the    Raptor that provides the thrust on the Starship.    SpaceX is now working on the version  of these engines, which offers more thrust,    is easier to produce, and costs less to make.    About the new Raptor, Musk said a “complete  design overhaul is necessary for the    engine that can actually make life multi-planetary.”    He also revealed the new engine  wouldn’t be called Raptor.    SpaceX has also revealed it will increase  the number of Raptor engines on both the    Starship and Super Heavy booster.    This will increase the total payload the spacecraft  can lift from about 100 tons to over 150 tons.    The company uses a different approach to rocket  building that has allowed it to proceed    at a quick pace.    It tests out whole prototypes instead of separate  components.    Sure,  many prototypes have ended up in flames, but    the disasters have helped SpaceX learn  and make adjustments quickly.    What is amazing about the Starship, even before  the new larger version revealed by    Musk, is the many uses people outside of SpaceX  have dreamed up for it and are    currently spending money researching!    The US military has its own concepts for  SpaceX rockets.    In January, the Air Force gave SpaceX $102  million to study using the    spacecraft as a cargo ship that could deploy  resources to various parts of the world in    a  matter of minutes or point-to-point transportation.    Potentially, Starship would launch to  orbit and re-enter over a particular region    to deliver humanitarian supplies or military  cargo in a fraction of the time needed by    traditional military aircraft.    The legality and  logistics of such a concept are the only things    remaining to be worked out.    Something else that was mind-blowing even  before Musk revealed the new Starship is    the cost implications.    Despite its power and size, the rocket system  is cheaper than the    Falcon 9, primarily because of its reusable  design.    Musk has revealed that Starship  flights could cost as low as 2 million dollars    per launch, compared to each Falcon 9,  which costs roughly 62 million dollars!    So, imagine what the new, bigger, and more  powerful Starship 2.0 will be!    There is no  other way around it; Starship 2.0 is huge!    Musk revealed it is up to eight times larger  than the current version!    The CEO has said 2.0 will be 18 meters in  diameter, doubling    the 9 meters of the version his company is  working on!    The original design of the  Starship was 12 meters in diameter before    it was slimmed down, which means Musk is  not content with the reduction and wants to    go bigger!    One thing about building rockets is that they  follow proportions.    For example, after  doubling the diameter, you have to adjust    the height.    So let’s say SpaceX doubles the  current height, currently 120 meters.    That means Starship 2.0 is 240 meters tall!    That  will yield a nine times volume increase!    But the new height is the same as the popular  Woolworth building in New York and three-quarters    the height of the Eiffel Tower in  Paris!    With this calculation, Starship 2.0 could  be lifting about 1000 tons of payload per    launch!    If SpaceX had stuck to the original dimensions  of the Starship, it would probably be able    to lift 300 tons per launch, but this massive  upgrade will more than triple that carrying    capacity!    Of course, Starship 2.0 will require more  Raptor engines.    We could be looking at more  than 100 engines per launch!    This is why SpaceX is working on making the  Raptor and    its successor cheaper and faster to build  because it would soon need lots of it!    Musk  plans to bring down the cost to about $200,000    per Raptor, far below the current cost of  about 2 million dollars!    The most powerful rocket ever conceived was  the Sea Dragon, designed by Robert    Truax in the ’60s.    It stood 150 meters tall and could lift 550  tons of payload at once.    But  of course, it was never built.    That would not be the case with Starship 2.0,  which is even    more powerful, because Musk has his goal for  the upgraded rocket.    This brings us to why Musk wants a more powerful  version of an already powerful    rocket.    It is simple; he needs a more powerful rocket  to hasten up his Mars plans and    solve some logistic challenges.    For example, the current Starship can transport  about 100 people at once.    That would  take about 10,000 trips to meet his one million    colonizer target.    However, with the 2.0,  he could be transporting between 800 and 1000    people per trip, significantly cutting the  number of trips required.    Also, Starship 2.0 will allow Musk to move  cargos that cannot be broken down.    Setting  up shelter on Mars will require heavy equipment    like cranes and bulldozers, which are  not easy to pull apart and reassemble.    Other equipment that will produce the fuel  needed for return trips must be transported    from the Earth, at least initially.    Let’s hear what you think of Musk’s Starship  2.0 in the comment section below