[Courrendlin, Switzerland, September 20, 2020, rke. English below] â La question nâest pas aussi farfelue quâelle nây paraĂźt: Iriez-vous sur Mars avec Elon Musk ? SpaceX, fondĂ© en 2002, veut rĂ©volutionner l’accĂšs Ă l’espace et permettre une sociĂ©tĂ© multiplanĂ©taire. Au Texas, aprĂšs avoir rĂ©ussi Ă dĂ©placer un immeuble de 20 Ă©tages dâun endroit Ă lâautre (en lâoccurrence un morceau de fusĂ©e), l’entreprise privĂ©s prĂ©pare un gros, gros, gros engin spatial de 2 Ă©tages â Starship â pour emmener 100 personnes sur la Lune et Mars. Câest fou ? Pas tant que ça !
– Photo du haut : SpaceX
J’irais sur la planĂšte rouge, mais pas avec lui ! Musk est contre l’intelligence artificielle mais il veut implanter des puces dans notre cerveau. En plus, il n’aime pas les journalistes Ă©trangers, comme moi : cliquez ici

1 personne pĂšse en moyenne
100 kg (avec les bagages).
100 humains en fusĂ©e reprĂ©sentent 10’000 kg ou 10 tonnes, soit dix fois moins que ce que la fusĂ©e Starship peut embarquer.
Alors, on y va ?
Les enfants auditionnĂ©s sur RFJ nous font rĂȘver

« Câest gratuit pour aller sur Mars, mais il faut payer la fusĂ©e. Euh, non, ça coĂ»te. » « Pour aller sur Mars, il faut 24H, heu, non trois mois. Non quelques heures. » « Mars ? Elle est brune. Il y a des mini-volcans. » Ces extraits candides de sons recueillis auprĂšs de jeunes Ă©lĂšves par Jean-Michel Probst de la radio suprarĂ©gionale RFJ (Nord de la Suisse), laissent songeurs. Effectivement, cela va coĂ»ter une fortune pour se rendre sur la planĂšte rouge, mais tout est relatif. MalgrĂ© la pandĂ©mie et la crise Ă©conomique que traversent les Ătats-Unis, les plus grosses fortunes amĂ©ricaines ont continuĂ© de sâenrichir en 2020 : selon Forbes, leur richesse cumulĂ©e est de 3â200 milliards de dollars, soit une hausse de 8% par rapport Ă lâan dernier. Le prix du programme lunaire Apollo (1967-1972) aura coĂ»tĂ© quelque 150 milliards de dollars (majorĂ© Ă nos jours), soit seulement 5% de ces plus riches personnes. Pourtant toute cette conquĂȘte aura créé de lâemploi pour 400’000 personnes et 42’000 entreprises engagĂ©es durant 8 ans ! Pour dĂ©crocher la Lune dâici Ă 2024 avec le programme Artemis, il faudra dĂ©bourser 34 milliards de dollars. Soit 1% de lâargent des fortunĂ©s AmĂ©ricains ! Et pour repartir sur Mars ? Avec dix fois plus de budgets, on est encore loin⊠trĂšs loin de ces richards.
Pour dĂ©crocher la Lune dâici Ă 2024 avec le programme Artemis, il faudra dĂ©bourser 34 milliards de dollars. Soit 1% de lâargent des plus fortunĂ©s AmĂ©ricains !
Les Tesla Ă la rescousse
Elon Musk, qui sâest enrichi grĂące Ă son logiciel de paiement en ligne sur Internet (PayPal), nâaurait Ă©videmment pas assez de sa fortune personnelle pour financer une expĂ©dition martienne. Raison sur laquelle il peut sâappuyer sur le succĂšs de ses voitures Tesla qui lui rapportent des deniers. De plus, pour pouvoir rentabiliser ses fusĂ©es, il a misĂ© sur un systĂšme de rĂ©cupĂ©ration des Ă©tages des fusĂ©es Falcon lors des lancements, dont ceux de lanceurs Heavy avec deux propulseurs qui retournent sur Terre. Au dĂ©but, la communautĂ© spatiale ne croyait pas trop Ă cette idĂ©e de faire revenir des fusĂ©es Ă la « Tintin » â la bande dessinĂ©e dâHergĂ© â car on connaĂźt le domaine astronautique comme pas rentable. Mais, Ă force dâabnĂ©gation, le fantasque milliardaire a rĂ©ussi pas Ă pas Ă convaincre les clients dâemmener leurs satellites Ă bord de ses fusĂ©es Falcon 9 pour de multiples satellites, Falcon Heavy pour les plus lourds et maintenant Starship.
Trois tests réussis, 2 loupés

Photo : Google.
AprĂšs avoir rĂ©alisĂ© des vols dâessai Ă une altitude trĂšs basse avec des prototypes. JusquâĂ prĂ©sent, les plafonds atteints par SpaceX avec Starship nâont jamais excĂ©dĂ© les 150 mĂštres dâaltitude â trois vols ont pu ĂȘtre bouclĂ©s Ă cette hauteur : le premier en 2019, puis deux autres en aoĂ»t et septembre 2020, avec les numĂ©ros dâessais SN5 et SN6. Le prochain prototype SN8 devrait sâĂ©lever Ă 20 km dâaltitude avec lâajout, pour la premiĂšre fois, dâun « nez », câest-Ă -dire un cĂŽne positionnĂ© sur le dessus de lâappareil afin de lui donner un profil aĂ©rodynamique, et des ailerons sur le cĂŽtĂ©, pour donner de la stabilitĂ© Ă la trajectoire du Starship lorsquâil est en vol. Suite Ă lâallumage sur le pas de tir de Boca Chica, lâengin devrait revenir sur Terre. Une prouesse tout Ă fait envisageable au vu des prĂ©cĂ©dents succĂšs des Ă©tages plus petits.
Starship offre des cabines privĂ©es, de grands espaces communs, un stockage centralisĂ©, des abris contre les tempĂȘtes solaires et une galerie d’observation
Prochain essai Ă 20 km dâaltitude
On ne sait pas Ă quelle date le SN8 sera mis Ă lâĂ©preuve. Ce seuil des 20 km est Ă©voquĂ© depuis des mois (il en Ă©tait question dĂšs juillet 2020 par exemple, lors dâun premier bond de Starship Ă 20 m dâaltitude), mais nâa pas pu ĂȘtre exĂ©cutĂ© jusquâĂ prĂ©sent â aussi parce que la crise du coronavirus qui sâest dĂ©clenchĂ©e en dĂ©but dâannĂ©e sâest propagĂ©e partout et nâest toujours pas rĂ©solue.
N’empĂȘche. SpaceX veut rĂ©volutionner l’accĂšs Ă l’espace et permettre une sociĂ©tĂ© multiplanĂ©taire. La firme de Musk entreprend dĂ©jĂ des missions de routine dans l’espace avec ses lanceurs Falcon 9 et Falcon Heavy pour un ensemble de clients divers, dont la NASA, le ministĂšre de la DĂ©fense, des gouvernements internationaux et des sociĂ©tĂ©s commerciales de premier plan. SpaceX apporte un soutien supplĂ©mentaire Ă la NASA avec le vaisseau spatial Dragon en effectuant des missions de rĂ©approvisionnement en fret et de retour vers et depuis la Station spatiale internationale (ISS).
La plus grosse fusée de tous les temps

Le carĂ©nage de la charge utile standard du vaisseau est de 9 m de diamĂštre extĂ©rieur, ce qui en fait le plus grand volume de charge utile utilisable de tous les lanceurs actuels ou en dĂ©veloppement. La fusĂ©e aura 120 m de haut. Le vaisseau a Ă©tĂ© conçu dĂšs le dĂ©part pour pouvoir transporter plus de 100 tonnes de marchandises vers Mars et la Lune. La version cargo peut Ă©galement ĂȘtre utilisĂ©e pour le transport rapide de point Ă point vers la Terre. DiffĂ©rentes configurations de la soute sont disponibles et permettent un dĂ©ploiement entiĂšrement autonome de la cargaison vers la Terre, la Lune ou les surfaces martiennes.
S’inspirant de l’expĂ©rience acquise lors du dĂ©veloppement de Dragon pour le programme d’Ă©quipage commercial, la configuration de l’Ă©quipage du vaisseau spatial pourrait transporter jusqu’Ă 100 personnes de la Terre vers la Lune et Mars. La configuration de l’Ă©quipage du Starship comprend des cabines privĂ©es, de grands espaces communs, un stockage centralisĂ©, des abris contre les tempĂȘtes solaires et une galerie d’observation. Ăa promet !


WOULD YOU GO TO MARS WITH ELON MUSK?
[Courrendlin, Switzerland, September 20, 2020, rke] â The question is not as crazy as it appears: Would you go to Mars with Elon Musk? SpaceX, founded in 2002, wants to revolutionize access to space and enable a multiplanetary society. In Texas, after successfully moving a 20-story building from one place to another (in this case a piece of a rocket), the private company is preparing a big, big, big 2-story spacecraft – Starship – to take 100 people to the Moon and Mars. Is that crazy? Oh, no!
I would go to the red planet, but not with him! Musk is against artificial intelligence but he wants to implant chips in our brains. Besides, he doesn’t like foreign journalists, like me : click here
1 person weighs on average 220 lbs (with luggage). 100 humans in a rocket give 22’000 lbs (or 10 tons): ten times less than what the Starship rocket can embark.
So, let’s go?

The children auditioned on RFJ make us dream -> in french
” Reaching Mars is free, but you must pay for the rocket. Uh, no, it costs. “To go to Mars takes 24 hours, uh, no, three months. Not a few hours. ” “Mars? It’s brown. There are mini volcanoes. “These candid excerpts of audio sounds collected from young students by Jean-Michel Probst of the supra-regional radio station RFJ (Northern Switzerland), leave one wondering. Indeed, it will cost a fortune to get to the Red Planet, but it’s all relative. Despite the pandemic and the economic crisis that the United States is going through, the biggest American fortunes have continued to grow richer in 2020: according to Forbes, their cumulative wealth is 3’200 billion dollars, an increase of 8% compared to last year. The price of the Apollo lunar program (1967-1972) will have cost some 150 billion dollars (increased to the present day), or only 5% of these richest people. Yet all this conquest will have created employment for 400’000 people and 42’000 companies hired for 8 years! To land the Moon by 2024 with the Artemis program, it will cost 34 billion dollars. That is 1% of the money of the wealthy Americans! And to go back to Mars? With ten times the budget, we are still far… very far from these rich people.
Tesla at the helm
Elon Musk, who got rich thanks to his online payment software on the Internet (PayPal), would obviously not have enough of his personal fortune to finance a Martian expedition. That’s why he can rely on the success of his Tesla cars, which bring him money. In addition, to be able to make his rockets profitable, he bet on a system of recovery of the stages of Falcon rockets during launches, including those of Heavy launchers with two propellants that return to Earth.
At the beginning, the space community did not believe too much in the idea of returning rockets to the “Tintin” – HergĂ©’s comic strip – because the astronautics field is known to be unprofitable. But, by dint of self-sacrifice, the whimsical billionaire, succeeded step by step in convincing customers to take their satellites aboard his Falcon 9 rockets for multiple satellites, Falcon Heavy for the heavier ones and now Starship.
Three successful tests, 2 failures

The SN6âs single Raptor engine was ignited at 12:48 p.m., 10 minutes after a siren was sounded warning nearby Boca Chica Village residents that a launch was imminent, and flew for about 50 seconds before landing on a pad adjacent to the launch stand.
After conducting test flights at very low altitudes with prototypes. To date, the ceilings reached by SpaceX with Starship have never exceeded 492 feet high – three flights have been completed at this height: the first in 2019, then two more in August and September 2020, with test numbers SN5 and SN6. The next SN8 prototype is expected to reach an altitude of 12 miles, with the addition, for the first time, of a “nose,” a cone positioned on top of the aircraft to give it an aerodynamic profile, and ailerons on the side to give stability to the Starship’s trajectory when in flight. Following the ignition on the launch pad of Boca Chica, the aircraft should return to Earth. A feat quite conceivable in view of the previous successes of the smaller stages. It is not known when the SN8 will be tested. This 12 miles threshold has been talked about for months (it was mentioned as early as July 2020, for example, during a first Starship leap at 65 feet high), but has not been executed until now – also because the coronavirus crisis that started at the beginning of the year has spread everywhere and is still not solved.
To land the Moon by 2024 with the Artemis program, it will cost 34 billion dollars. That is 1% of the money of the wealthy Americans!
Revolutionize access to space
SpaceX was founded in 2002 to revolutionize access to space and enable a multi-planetary society. Today, SpaceX performs routine missions to space with its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles for a diverse set of customers, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Department of Defense, international governments, and leading commercial companies. SpaceX provides further support to NASA with the Dragon spacecraft by conducting cargo resupply and return missions to and from the International Space Station (ISS). The standard payload fairing on the spacecraft is 29 feet in outside diameter, making it the largest usable payload volume of any launcher currently in service or under development. The rocket will be 120 m high. The spacecraft has been designed from the outset to be able to carry more than 100 tons of cargo to Mars and the Moon.
The biggest rocket of ever time
The cargo version can also be used for rapid point-to-point transport to Earth. Different cargo bay configurations are available and allow a fully autonomous deployment of the cargo to Earth, the Moon or Martian surfaces. Starship was designed from the onset to be able to carry more than 100 tons of cargo to Mars and the Moon. The cargo version can also be used for rapid point-to-point Earth transport. Various payload bay configurations are available and allow for fully autonomous deployment of cargo to Earth, Lunar, or Martian surfaces. SpaceX was founded with the goal of making life multi-planetary. The Starship program is realizing this goal with the crew configuration of Starship. Drawing on experience from the development of Dragon for the Commercial Crew Program, the Starship crew configuration can transport up to 100 people from Earth into LEO (Low Earth Orbit) and on to the Moon and Mars. The crew configuration of Starship includes private cabins, large common areas, centralized storage, solar storm shelters and a viewing gallery. It seems to be promising!
Starship includes private cabins, large common areas, centralized storage, solar storm shelters and a viewing gallery.