Intra-planet transportation via space, how long till it becomes reality?

For decades now, our civilization has relied on aircrafts and ships for domestic and inter-continental travel. Even though the invention of aeroplanes and jet propulsion has made the world a smaller place and created new and exciting opportunities for millions across the world, the transportation technology has stagnated and is calling for a change. Many private companies like SpaceX are developing cross planet transportation systems using reusable rockets, capable of sending you across the world in less than half an hour, so far only SpaceX has succeeded in reusing and safely landing their boosters on land and Drone ships in the ocean multiple times with an illustrious success rate.

The space-faring firm is currently developing the Starship, a stainless steel rocket designed to send the first humans on a mission to Mars. The Starship could, however, also be used as a vehicle for a point to point hypersonic transportation system on earth.

SpaceX’s Starship, credit- SpaceX

How does it work?

SpaceX is planning to build spaceports around the world about 20 miles offshore, this would help ensure acceptable noise levels during a launch. The Starship will be mounted upon the Falcon 9 booster which will launch the Starship into space and then head back to earth and land (to be re-fueled and prepared for the next flight). The Starship will continue its journey towards its destination and then land on the designated spaceport, where the passengers will de-board and the Starship will be prepared for the next launch.

What are the advantages?

• Inter continental travel time would be reduced, with most long distance trips being under 30 minutes.

A comparison between commercial flight times and Starship. Source- SpaceX

• Since space has no air and therefore no friction, the ride will be turbulence free once the Starship reaches space. Moreover, the passengers will experience zero gravity for majority of the duration of the flight.
• As the travelling time across the world reduces, new and exciting opportunities will be created for millions across the world.

Challenges faced

• There are various safety concerns about the system, as human spaceflight is complex and anything could go wrong at any minute, this however will be improved as better safety measures and fail-safes are introduced.
• The biggest challenge however, will be faced by the passengers during the launch and landings, as they will be subjected to high G-forces. As NASA astronaut Doug Hurley who recently travelled to space on the Falcon 9 rocket said, “From the time the engines lit, the first two-and-a-half minutes to staging was about like we expected, except you can never simulate the Gs, so as the Gs built you could certainly feel those.”
• The intra-Earth flights would hold around 1000 people with no space for amenities. As for the price, Space Review estimated in October 2017 that it could work out to somewhere around $1,200 per person, which we hope will be reduced as the technology becomes more mainstream.

Conclusion

The Starship is in its earliest stages of development and still has a long road ahead. The company expects to finish the construction of the Starship by 2024 and the rigorous testing and trials before we can even think of human trials will probably take a couple years but we can safely say that the future of space travel seems promising and exciting — this will commence a new era of efficient transportation once it becomes reality.