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On today's episode, we are getting
into the latest space news, including Starship

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is getting quote unquote one thousand new
changes before its second test flight, NASA

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lock's a research team in a Martian
simulator for a whole year, and Blue

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Origin is developing a crew capsule with
NASA's help. This is the space race.

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Starship is facing well over a thousand
design changes, and we'll need another

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six weeks to implement them all before
another test flight is possible. That is

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the latest confirmation from SpaceX CEO Elon
Musk. On June twenty fourth, Elon

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attended a Twitter spaces event with author
Ashley Vance, and during a conversation,

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the CEO spoke for a bit on
some of the changes to his company's super

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heavy launch vehicle and some of the
changes being made to ensure a better chance

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at getting into orbit with the next
test. Thousands of changes is almost certainly

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an exaggeration, but Musk did give
us at least one specific example hot staging.

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Hot staging is a method of separating
stages of a launch vehicle midflight,

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which has been used mostly by Russian
rockets for some time now. Normally,

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when a vehicle stages, the engines
stop for a few moments to allow inertia

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and the separation devices to slowly and
safely pull the used booster or vehicle section

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away from the upper ones before igniting
the upper stage engines and continuing the flight.

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Hot staging instead keeps those lower stage
engines on, but begins to taper

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the thrust down and then lighting the
upper stage engines while the two stages are

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still attached. This allows the vehicle
to maintain a controlled acceleration, but it

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also runs risks like incinerating your lower
stage booster with the force of the upper

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stage engines. To combat this,
rockets like the Soviet and One had large

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vents at the separation joint between stages, as well as extra shielding just under

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the upper stage engines to protect the
booster, and Eli says that's exactly how

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Starship is being upgraded. A small
extension to the first stage super heavy booster

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will be added that's basically just a
reinforced vent. This will let the upper

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stage's jet plume be safely redirected outwards
and allow for hot staging. Musk believes

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that this will be the most risky
part of the next launch's test, which

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is fair if the shielding isn't enough, the first stage booster will be blown

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apart, likely taking the payload with
it, and if any of the upper

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stage engines fail to light, the
whole vehicle could be blown off course.

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It is, however, a good
upgrade to the overall design. If SpaceX

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can perfect the system, it will
give Starship a smooth acceleration curve while escaping

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the Earth's atmosphere, which is usually
the hardest part of a launch, and

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losing engines makes that attempt even harder. During Starship's first test flight on April

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twentieth, several engines weren't engaged.
They either failed to light or were taken

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offline by the SpaceX ground team in
response to dangerous readings. Many observers believe

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that the plume of crushed concrete from
the destroyed launchpad played a part in that

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issue, but Elon pointed out a
bigger problem during his chat on Twitter spaces

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Apparently, the manifold that directs superheated
methane into the combustion chambers of the ship's

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engines had sprung several leaks during the
test. The super heavy booster had never

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been tested at anything more than fifty
percent power before, and as it turned

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out, superheated gas at high pressure
was more than certain parts of the manifolds

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could handle. The problem happened around
the areas where the manifolds had to be

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bolted to the ship itself, a
common spot for fluid systems to leak.

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The solution, Elon says was to
redesign the manifolds themselves and use a higher

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torque rating to secure the bolts.
Musk also brought up the new Deluch system,

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a high pressure showerheadlike device that will
shoot water upwards from a large steel

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plate mounted under the orbital launch mount. SpaceX watchers have been discussing this system

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for a couple of weeks now,
so we are mostly familiar with how it's

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supposed to work. Time will tell, though, if it actually stops the

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next Starship launch from blowing a sizeable
hole in the Boca Chika sand. But

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while those are big changes involving many
smaller adjustments, it's hardly thousands. However,

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Elon is likely talking about the changes
we already know are being implemented to

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the Starship and super heavy designs,
things like swapping out the older hydraulic control

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units, the ones that ended up
exploding on the first Starship launch for new

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electric units. That's a fairly complex
change that will end up solving some of

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the issues we saw on April twentieth. We've also seen a lot of testing

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at SpaceX's test range at Massey,
Texas with regards to the flight termination system,

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at least that's what it looks like. The FDS not operating like it

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should have back in April was probably
the most concerning hardware failure of the day,

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and if SpaceX hopes to secure another
launch license from the FAA, they

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will need to address at and Finally, we have also been seeing interesting hardware

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variations from newer models of Starship coming
out of the star Factory. Sightings of

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a strange new internal structure has had
observers wandering about crew compartments and Starship Lander

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variants. While this look at the
nose cone of Ship thirty appears to have

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the first glimpse of a reaction control
system, the delicate thrusters required to help

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a ship make precise maneuvers in space
like for docking. Those are indeed a

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lot of changes being made to Starship's
design, possibly even thousands, like Ulon

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says, and they will take some
time to implement properly, even if several

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of these changes are already complete on
different prototypes. But Musk's timeline hasn't changed

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from the one he provided on Twitter
last week in response to some questions.

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But whether or not Starship gets a
second crack at reaching orbit in six weeks

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isn't up to him. It's up
to the FAA, who is currently dealing

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with a lawsuit and finishing up their
investigation of the first Starship launch, an

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investigation which is guaranteed to present a
list of changes the FAA will want to

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see before allowing SpaceX to proceed with
a second test. Like we said though

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last week, could NASA and the
US government have too much riding on success

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of Starship and we've all seen how
long they'll keep a project going once they've

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invested in it. Just look at
Boeing Starliner or the SOS. In the

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meantime, let's all keep an eye
on the build site. Will always learn

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more from watching work being done than
listening to a media event. The first

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real training for MARS has begun on
June twenty fifth, at seven thirty Eastern

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Time. A four person crew of
NASA volunteers stepped into the simulated Mars base

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at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and they'll spend a whole

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year in their conducting tests for the
crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog or CHAPPIE

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tests. Mission one will be the
first to use this mock environment, and

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crew will be monitored remotely by researchers
and medical staff. Named Mars Don Alpha,

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the seventeen hundred square foot three D
printed hab structure and an adjacent Mars

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Sandbox simulated environment were built to study
the effects of living on Mars for these

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small crew of four. Researchers Anka
Solariu, Kelly Haston, Nathan Jones,

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and Ross Brockwell are the first of
three crews who will spend extended periods of

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time inside the mock hab, testing
the psychological effects of living in the isolation

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and danger that surviving on Mars will
bring on any crew we send there.

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These analog astronauts will be eating only
food that is already stored on site and

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only leaving the hab to make mock
trips outside into the Mars Sandbox area in

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their EVA suits. They'll even have
simulated communication leg their talks with Mission control

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being delayed by twenty two minutes both
ways to approximate the realities of talking back

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and forth with a crew on Mars. The crew were selected to be as

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close to real astronauts as possible.
They all have at least one stem field

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degree, they all have some professional
experience in their chosen field or military training,

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of course, and they all had
to pass the same physical and psychological

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testing as other astronaut candidates. The
Champion experiments are all about testing for the

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one thing we really can test from
Earth. Resource restrictions, isolation, communication,

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leg ration, food, and the
rigorous schedule of upkeep required to maintain

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their hab are all forms of restriction
that will affect the mental state of the

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people we send to Mars. The
only thing that won't be tested is the

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length of daytime and gravity. NASA
texts can easily control the day night cycle

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in the simulation, but according to
studies, the extra thirty nine minutes and

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thirty five seconds of a Martian day
really only impact mission controlled back on Earth,

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so there's no real need to test
the astronauts, who will pretty easily

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adapt to the change. NASA can't
test the thirty eight percent gravity for obvious

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reasons. The first test of Martian
conditions might be simulated, but we shouldn't

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forget that these crews are still taking
a risk here. Psychological damage from living

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in isolation is a very real threat, and it's important that we understand what

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could happen to the people we sent
to Mars when the time comes. Best

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of luck Mission one. On June
fifteenth, NASA announced that they had signed

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agreements with seven companies through their Commercial
Space Capabilities Too initiative, with the goal

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to help these companies with their space
infrastructure and vehicle projects. And while we

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did discuss these agreements just last week, there was one contract that we wanted

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to spend some more time on.
The contract with Blue Origin, the launch

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company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Like with the other contracts, NASA's

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partnership with Blue Origin is unfunded and
revolves around NASA giving the company their expertise

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and their res to help in any
capacity they can. That is an incredible

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boost to any space launch company,
funding or not. But like we mentioned,

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six other companies are getting the same
treatment. So what makes Blue Origins

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contracts stand out? As it turns
out, NASA is helping Blue Origin develop

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a crude vehicle for high frequency US
access to orbit, which is extremely interesting.

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NASA currently has three crude vehicles that
are rated for use in orbit for

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their missions, the Orion capsule made
by NASA themselves, Crew Dragon made by

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SpaceX, and Soius made by the
Russian Space Agency ross Cosmos, but they

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have invested in other vehicles such as
the dream Chaser space plane made by Sierra

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Space and the Starliner crew capsule made
by Boeing. The problem is that the

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Orion isn't really meant for rapid use, being as it is an exploration craft

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made for the Artemis missions, and
with the Sous being a design from the

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late nineteen sixties and Russia's increasing unreliability, NASA really only has Dragon to work

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with for things like crew transfers to
the ISS. Dream Chaser could change that,

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but there's still months away from a
potential flight test, and Boeing has

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been struggling to get their Starliner capsule
working for so long that NASA is likely

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starting to look elsewhere, and that's
where Blue Origin comes in. Technically,

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the company has two crew rated vehicles, the New Shepherd and the Blue Moon,

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which is their prototype lunar lander that's
just been contracted to carry the Artemis

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five astronauts to the Moon's surface.
New Shepherd is probably closer to what NASA

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is looking for with this partnership,
though as part of a suborbital launch system.

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The New Shepherd none the less flew
twenty two successful missions before failing back

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in September twenty twenty two, and
the launch escape system managed to get the

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capsule to safety in that instance.
Regardless, that is a pretty good track

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record. Even if NASA needs something
hardier than a suborbital tourist capsule, and

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it's likely Blue Origin has been working
on something that is fit for orbital work.

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Their heavy lift rocket, the New
Glen, is just about ready for

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its own test launch and was designed
to ferry payloads and vehicles like the Blue

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moon Lander into space. It's a
pretty good bet that Blue Origin could get

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an orbit capable crude capsule ready,
especially if NASA lends a hand. Now,

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there's no guarantee that this partnership comes
to anything, but Blue Origin definitely

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has the resources to compete with SpaceX
in this arena. Most importantly, their

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plans already include partnerships with Sierra Space
and Bowing. They are a good company

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to use this sort of unfunded contract
with, and if Boeing ever gets around

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to getting Starline or working properly,
NASA would have access to three crew ready

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fast deployment capsules and a space plane
to boot, which is not a bad

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stable to keep