Elon Musk and his portfolio of companies continue to push the envelope in terms of technology. Sure, some of the sci-fi projects of his companies seem implausible (because they really are), but they are still attractive to a lot of people. The newest Starship from Musk’s space company SpaceX is science fiction at its finest. According to Musk, this flying monster of a spaceship will be able to carry 1,000 passengers at a time for $500-$2000 and transfer them from one continent to another in a matter of minutes.
This seems like a far-fetched idea, but Musk is adamant that it will work. In one of his latest tweets, he said that the SpaceX Starship would achieve Mach 25 – that is 25-times the speed of sound. Or in measuring that is closer to our understanding, precisely 19,181mph. That is insanely fast, even by airplane standards (modern commercial airplanes travel at 600mph). Thanks to this crazy speed, the Starship will be able to travel between continents from 15-20 minutes, compared to commercial airplane’s 8-24 hours. Like all other SpaceX ships, this one is also completely reusable after each flight.
The SpaceX Starship won’t offer the same amenities as an aircraft, but according to Musk that’s not the point: “~1000, as all seats would be “coach” & no toilets, pilot area or food galley needed. Most flights would only be 15 to 20 mins. It’s an ICBM traveling at Mach 25 that lands”.
The passengers of the Starship will also be restrained like in a roller coaster, due to the insane acceleration and deceleration of the aircraft. This will be probably the biggest hurdle to overcome, as some passengers might have issues with the intense G-forces such a ship would create.
In the most recent tweet Elon must shared images of the protype currently being built and added: “Great progress by Starship Cape team. Started several months behind, but catching up fast. This will be a super fun race to orbit, moon & Mars!”
Just left Starship Texas build site. Very proud of progress SpaceX team has made! Pics are of 9m dome rotation & Starship airframe behind windbreak. pic.twitter.com/1cmOzkPlkn
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 5, 2019
Musk plans to give an update on the prototype on Aug. 24 from the Boca Chica facility, according to Space.com.
Image by SpaceX-Imagery
