The Millennium Falcon from Star Wars was the one fastest ship in the Star Wars Galaxy – but Elon Musk plans to create a name sake rocket, the Big Falcon Rocket – to launch his latest spacecraft, SpaceX, into outer space, with the express intention of reaching Mars.
SpaceX originally left the earth's surface in 2018, reaching earth orbit, and returning back for a safe landing, but the support Falcon Heavy rockets used were not large enough to reach or land on Mars. The new Big Falcon Rockets (or Super Heavy as they have been named should allow the increased distance to be travelled.
The SpaceX itself is the greatest innovation however since no spacecraft has yet to carry human passengers to Mars, land and then return them safely to terra firma on Earth.
The SpaceX, or Starship as it has become known, has seen variation iterations presented by Musk, and is under constant development, however its most recent iterations, which have been witnessed at the Company’s test facility in Texas, have shown the craft with a shiny outer shell of polished stainless steel alloy – selected over the alternative carbon due to its slightly higher strength at room temperature, and significantly higher strength at much higher temperatures.
The stainless steel alloy has apparently been selected due to its strength and stability both on the launchpad and in space. It is intended that the exterior will not be painted, as the paint cannot survive the extremely high temperatures the Starship will experience, and so will be mirror polished helping reflect heat away from the craft. This outer skin will be further liquid cooled using liquid methane at critical points that will ensure the greatest temperatures.
No doubt Elon will be in touch with DSM soon to order some of our Stainless Steel Hand Wash Basins, perfect for the astronauts to keep squeaky clean during their long journey to Mars! (if they can find a way of keeping the water in the basins in zero gravity that is . . .)