{"id":2755,"date":"2021-02-02T10:11:25","date_gmt":"2021-02-02T10:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/?p=1337068"},"modified":"2021-02-02T10:11:25","modified_gmt":"2021-02-02T10:11:25","slug":"spacex-and-nasa-who-will-win-the-space-tourism-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=2755","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX and NASA: Who will win the space tourism race?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

No-one has visited the Moon since 1972. But with the advent of commercial human spaceflight<\/a>, the urge to return is resurgent and generating a new space race<\/a>. NASA has selected the private company SpaceX to be part of its commercial spaceflight operations, but the firm is also pursuing its own space exploration agenda.<\/p>\n

To enable flights to the Moon and beyond, both NASA and SpaceX are developing new heavy-lift rockets: SpaceX\u2019s Starship<\/a> and NASA\u2019s Space Launch System<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But how do they differ and which one is more powerful?<\/p>\n

Starship<\/h2>\n

Rockets go through multiple stages to get into orbit. By discarding spent fuel tanks while in flight, the rocket becomes lighter and therefore easier to accelerate. Once in operation, SpaceX\u2019s launch system will be composed of two stages: the launch vehicle known as Super Heavy and the Starship.<\/p>\n

Super Heavy is powered by the Raptor rocket engine<\/a>, burning a combination of liquid methane and liquid oxygen. The basic principle of a liquid fuel rocket engine is that two propellants, \u2013 a fuel such as kerosene and an oxidizer such as liquid oxygen \u2013 are brought together in a combustion chamber and ignited. The flame produces hot gas under high pressure which is expelled at high speed through the engine nozzle to produce thrust.<\/p>\n

The rocket will provide 15 million pounds of thrust at launch, which is approximately twice as much<\/a> as the rockets of the Apollo era. Atop the launcher sits the Starship, itself powered by another six Raptor engines and equipped with a large mission bay for accommodating satellites, compartments for up to 100 crew, and even extra fuel tanks for refueling in space, which is critical to long-duration<\/span> interplanetary human spaceflight.<\/p>\n

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\"Artist's
<\/i><\/a>Super Heavy separating from Starship. Wikipedia, CC BY-SA<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

The Starship is designed to operate both in the vacuum of space and within the atmospheres of Earth and Mars, using small moveable wings to glide to the desired landing zone.<\/p>\n

Once over the landing area, the Starship flips into a vertical position and uses its onboard Raptor engines to make a powered descent and landing. It will have sufficient thrust to lift itself off the surface of Mars or the Moon, overcoming the weaker gravity of these worlds, and return to Earth \u2013 again making a powered soft landing. The Starship and Super Heavy are both fully reusable and the entire system is designed to lift more than 100 tons of payload to the surface of the Moon or Mars.<\/p>\n