Current Status and Evaluation of SpaceX Starship

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the feasibility of SpaceX’s current mission plans, based on the current Starship system, assumptions made and selected technologies, which are established in a baseline scenario and defined in system designs of the subsystems of Starship and the ISRU system. Nuclear reactors are to provide the power supply on Mars. Finally, the feasibility analysis is carried out using previously determined key figures and proves that with 100 t payload and 125 t empty mass, the mission plans are feasible in terms of launch and propellant mass as well as the required velocity changes. However, the analysis shows that the propellant production system and the nuclear reactors of the ISRU system in particular, with their required and produced power respectively, clearly exceed the current technology readiness level, resulting in high costs and also critical mass and volume. It is expected that it will take ten years before the required reactors are flight-ready, which is why the scope and timeframe of SpaceX’s mission plans are ultimately considered unfeasible. The elevators, whose development has not yet begun, and Starship’s electrical power system for 100 people in the future, which would require huge solar arrays, are also seen as major hurdles.