SpaceX's Starship hopper before falling over in a storm.
SpaceX
SpaceX and Elon Musk have great ambitions to send the spaceship around the Moon and finally to Mars. The eye-catching stainless steel spacecraft currently under development will use a metallic heat shield, and this heat shield is already undergoing a fairly serious stress test.
Musk has posted a video on Twitter overnight that shows a dramatic and very loud roasting test Sharing the Temperature: 1
In an interview with Popular Mechanics, Musk described Starship's unusual heat shield as "like a stainless steel sandwich," where fuel or water flowed between layers. The top layer has tiny perforations that bleed the fluid outward to cool the spaceship.
If you see Musk and a flamethrower mentioned near each other, this will evoke the notorious Flamethrower saga of the Boring Company .
A Twitter user asked if SpaceX had borrowed some boring flamethrowers for the test. "These are industrial strengths," musk answered. "Not recommended for home use!"
SpaceX built a prototype "Hopper" Starship for takeoff and landing tests, but this week suffered a setback when high winds blew up the nose cone in Texas . Musk says the repair will take a few weeks. At least we know that the heat shield design withstands the punishment.
