Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has come again with a new yet stimulating proposition. In a recent post on Twitter, Musk shared an animation of Starship hurling the Starlink satellites into an orbit just like the candies in a Pez dispenser.
Musk seemed excited about the idea and made us wonder if this could be a possibility as well. This $216 million starship is used to transport cargo and crew to the Moon and, in fact, Mars too, for the upcoming missions. According to SpaceX, “Starship will be the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, with the ability to carry in excess of 100 metric tons into Earth orbit”.
It can be seen in the animation above how the Starlink satellites are being dribbled from the tapered opening of a starship rocket in a folded arrangement. Before being released into orbit, they are assimilated inside the starship just like the sweets being packed in a Pez dispenser. However, Starlink satellites are responsible for providing seamless internet connectivity from space and are linked to the dishes directly across the world.
Currently, the major source of deploying Starlink satellites into orbit is through Falcon 9 rockets, but in a recent statement released by Musk, he said that the team is planning to depend on starships for the deployment of Starlink V2.0 satellites. He stated, “It’s the only thing that can carry the Starlink Two satellites.” We’ve already produced the first, and we have on-site, the first Starlink Two, and it’s seven meters long (23 ft). The Falcon [9] has neither the volume nor the mass-to-orbit capability required for Starlink Two. So even if we shrank the Starlink Two down, the total mass of the Falcon is not nearly enough to do Starlink Two.”
The reason why the Falcon 9 rocket can’t sustain these next-generation V2.0 Starlink satellites into orbit is because of their higher mass. These upcoming satellites are four times the mass of the currently used satellites, with a total weight of 27,600 lbs for each satellite. However, the starship is required to complete its first orbital flight before having these next-generation satellites integrated into it, similar to the candies in a Pez.
SpaceX has recently been criticized by NASA and certain astronomers for its plans to deploy about 30,000 second-generation Starlink satellites due to environmental and orbital hazards. Currently, it has launched about 2,000 satellites into orbit.
