SpaceX's new Lunar Starship Option to Go Straight to the Moon! Better than NASA...

SpaceX's new Lunar Starship Option to Go Straight to the Moon! Better than NASA...
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#spacezone #spacex #starship #spacexstarship
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SpaceX's new Lunar Starship Option to Go Straight to the Moon! Better than NASA...
Looking at NASA’s plans today, it’s easy to think that going to the Moon has become very complicated—multiple launches, orbital refueling, rendezvous, and strange lunar orbits. Sometimes you just wish we could use one rocket and go straight to the Moon!
Funny enough, that idea already existed. And the crazy part is, it might actually be possible today, with just a few tweaks to SpaceX’s famous Starship vehicle.
This is the idea of Nova Starship.
SpaceX's new Lunar Starship Option to Go Straight to the Moon! Better than NASA...
You see, there are several ways humans can travel to the Moon, and the first successful method was used during NASA’s Apollo program. This approach is called lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR). Instead of landing one giant spacecraft on the Moon, Apollo used multiple spacecraft, each with a specific job.
In the Apollo missions, the combined spacecraft first entered a low orbit around the Moon, about 100 kilometers above the surface. Once in orbit, the spacecraft split apart. The lunar module separated and descended to the surface, while the command module stayed in orbit. After the astronauts completed their work on the Moon, the lunar module’s ascent stage lifted off and met back up with the command module. Using onboard computers, radar, and pilot control, the two vehicles docked in lunar orbit—usually within a few hours. The crew then transferred back into the command module and headed home, leaving the lunar module behind.
This method worked extremely well. It was first used on Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon while Michael Collins stayed in orbit. Every crewed Moon landing after that—through Apollo 17 in 1972—used the same technique. One big advantage of LOR was efficiency: the entire spacecraft didn’t need to land and take off from the Moon, which saved a huge amount of fuel.
SpaceX's new Lunar Starship Option to Go Straight to the Moon! Better than NASA...
Fast forward to today, and NASA’s Artemis program plans to use a similar idea. Astronauts will launch aboard the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in the Orion spacecraft, travel to lunar orbit, and then transfer to a separate lander—just like Apollo did.
The big difference is the lander itself. NASA has selected a modified version of SpaceX’s Starship as the lunar lander, called Starship HLS. Unlike Apollo’s lunar module, Starship will launch separately and uncrewed. Before it can head to the Moon, it has to be refueled in Earth orbit. That refueling will be done by tanker versions of Starship, each carrying fuel, and it may take anywhere from 4 to 12 launches to fully top it off.