Table Of ContentStarship To Mars
The First 20 Years
Second
Edition
Erik Seedhouse
SpaceX
Starship To Mars – The First 20 Years
Second Edition
Erik Seedhouse
SpaceX
Starship To Mars – The First 20 Years
Second Edition
Erik Seedhouse
Applied Aviation Sciences
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Daytona Beach, FL, USA
SPRINGER-PRAXIS BOOKS IN SPACE EXPLORATION
Space Exploration
ISSN 2731-5401 ISSN 2731-541X (eBook)
Springer Praxis Books
ISBN 978-3-030-99180-7 ISBN 978-3-030-99181-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99181-4
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Contents
Dedication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
Prologue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
1 Elon Musk: Mars Messiah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 The Engine of Competition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3 The Engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
4 The Rise of the Falcon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
5 Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
6 The Dragon has Landed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
7 The Space Taxi Race . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .110
8 Red Risks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143
9 Starship. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .171
10 The Rise of SpaceX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .189
Appendix I: Elon Musk Testimonies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .197
Appendix II: SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) Missions . . . . . . . . . . .203
Appendix III: Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) Round 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .210
Appendix IV: NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .214
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .218
v
DEDICATION
To Lava
Deeply loved, completely spoiled and missed beyond words.
Lava was a Nebelung, one of the more social and intelligent breeds. He used to walk with
our dogs and became something of a minor celebrity where we live because people used to
stop their cars and ask us if Lava was really a cat! Writing can be a lonely pursuit with long
hours spent at a keyboard, and having written 30 books, that could have added up to a lot of
time alone. But sitting next to me for much of my writing, purring like a tractor, was Lava,
who very sadly crossed over the Rainbow Bridge shortly after this book was completed.
Acknowledgements
In writing this book, the author has been fortunate to have had five reviewers who
made such positive comments concerning the content of this publication. He is
also grateful to Hannah Kaufman at Springer and to Clive Horwood and his team
at Praxis for guiding this book through the publication process. The author also
gratefully acknowledges all those who gave permission to use many of the images
in this book. The author also expresses his deep appreciation to Mike Shayler,
whose attention to detail and patience greatly facilitated the publication of this
book, and to Project Manager, Ms. A. Meenahkumary and her team for producing
the final proof.
vii
About the Author
Erik Seedhouse works as a professor in Space Operations at Embry-Riddle
Aeronautical University, located just up the road from the Space Coast in Florida.
He lives in Flagler Beach, which means he can often watch SpaceX launches from
his lanai. After completing his first degree in Sports Science at Northumbria
University in the UK, Erik joined the 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment, the
world’s most elite airborne regiment. During his time in the ‘Paras’, Erik spent
several months involved in various counternarcotics operations in Belize (anyone
who has seen the series ‘Narcos’ will be familiar with what these operations
entailed). Later, he spent several months learning the intricacies of desert warfare
on the Akamas Range in Cyprus. He made more than 30 jumps from a Hercules
C130 aircraft, performed more than 200 abseils from a helicopter and fired more
light anti-tank weapons than he cares to remember!
Upon returning to the comparatively mundane world of academia, the author
embarked upon a master’s degree at Sheffield University, also in the UK. He sup-
ported his studies by winning prize money in 100km running races. After placing
third in the World 100km Championships in 1992 and setting the North American
100km record, the author turned to ultra-distance triathlon, winning the World
Endurance Triathlon Championships in 1995 and 1996. For good measure, he also
won the inaugural World Double Ironman Championships in 1995 and the infa-
mous Decatriathlon, an event requiring competitors to swim 38km, cycle 1,800km,
and run 422km. Non-stop!
Returning to academia in 1996, Erik pursued his Ph.D. at the German Space
Agency’s Institute for Space Medicine through a grant from the European Space
Agency – thanks ESA! While conducting his Ph.D. studies he still found time to
win Ultraman Hawai’i and the European Ultraman Championships, as well as
completing the Race Across America bike race. Due to his success as the world’s
leading ultra-distance triathlete, Erik was featured in dozens of magazines and
viii
About the Author ix
television interviews. In 1997, GQ magazine nominated him as the ‘Fittest Man in
the World’.
In 1999, Erik decided it was time to get a real job. He retired from being a pro-
fessional triathlete and started post-doctoral studies at Simon Fraser University’s
School of Kinesiology in sunny Vancouver, Canada. In 2005, the author worked as
an astronaut training consultant for Bigelow Aerospace and wrote ‘Tourists in
Space’, a training manual for spaceflight participants. In 2009, he was one of the
final group of candidates in the Canadian Space Agency’s Astronaut Recruitment
Campaign. He came close but not close enough. Between 2008 and 2012, he
served as director of the Canadian Forces manned centrifuge and hypobaric cham-
ber operations. In addition to his work as a professor, Erik works as a manned
spaceflight consultant, professional speaker, triathlon coach and author. He has
also worked as a film consultant to Hollywood on such productions as ‘Into the
Unknown’ featuring Mark Strong. He is an instructor for the International Institute
of Astronautical Sciences and completed his suborbital scientist astronaut training
in 2016. At the time of writing, Erik has written 30 books. When not writing, he
can be found climbing big mountains or spending time with his wife Alice on the
Big Island of Hawai’i, or in Sandefjord, Norway.
Prologue
“We want the exciting things we see in sci-fi, in like sci-fi movies, books – we
want them to come true one day.”
“Consciousness is a very rare and precious thing, we should take whatever
steps we can to preserve the light of consciousness. We should do our very
best to become a multi-planet species, extend consciousness beyond Earth,
and we should do it now.”
Elon Musk. The Rise of Elon Musk’s Engineering Masterpiece
SpaceX is like no other rocket company. It was started by someone who knew
nothing about rockets but who went on to become the chief technology officer of
a company whose vehicles have turned the launch industry on its head in a very
short span of time. Elon Musk does not have an aerospace degree; he is self-
taught, meaning he read a lot of books and talked to a lot of people. Shortly after
SpaceX was launched, Apollo astronauts Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan – two
of Musk’s heroes who inspired the Mars Messiah to start his company in the first
place – testified against commercial spaceflight, saying the way SpaceX was going
about the business of building launch vehicles was all wrong. Yet despite the nay-
sayers, despite the trauma of 2008 when Tesla was almost bankrupt and the
American economy had tanked in the worst recession since the Great Depression,
despite his first three rockets failing, despite crisis after crisis that would have
crushed anyone else, Musk prevailed. When SpaceX finally managed to launch to
orbit after three unsuccessful flights, NASA called Musk and told him the agency
had awarded the company one and a half billion dollars. That launch was a supreme
achievement, because at the time only four entities had launched a rocket into
orbit – the United States, Russia, China… and SpaceX. Since then, SpaceX has
racked up success after success as the company grabbed the headlines with
x
