Starship Shakedown Cruise
Why moon tourism is a priority for SpaceX
When any new seagoing vessel enters service it will normally undergo a shakedown cruise to prove the ship systems are seaworthy. They literally take the vessel out into the deep ocean swells to see if the constant shaking causes anything to breakdown. Similarly some proving flights will also be necessary for SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft, ideally somewhere far beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO). It’s essential SpaceX complete a series of shakedown cruises before they commence Mars missions, which will send people more than 34 million miles from Earth and take ~6 months to complete. While Starship is highly automated, a full crew compliment also needs be included on these shakedown cruises because the crew play an important part of the ship’s systems. However, SpaceX are a commercial enterprise, which means they must find some way to break-even on these shakedown cruises, or at the very least mitigate the cost.
In September 2018 SpaceX announced dearMoon, the first deep space mission with Starship. This flight was financed by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, who will be accompanied by 8 select guests, collectively known as the “dearMoon Crew.” Their spacecraft should circle once around the moon, in what’s called a free-return trajectory, that uses the moon’s gravity to ensure its safe return. This should follow a hundred test flights of Starship, the first crew test flight (Polaris III), even an uncrewed landing on the moon (a far greater technical challenge), hence SpaceX will have done everything they can to ensure the safety of the dearMoon crew.
A second such flight has already been booked by Dennis and Akiko Tito, who will be accompanied by another 10 crew, whose identities have yet to be announced. In an update about this second flight, SpaceX provide a little more information for what they aim to achieve from these commercial moon missions: -
“The Titos joined the mission to contribute to SpaceX’s long-term goal to advance human spaceflight and help make life multiplanetary.” ~ SpaceX Updates
Advance Human Spaceflight
Starship is different to any other spacecraft because it can carry 12 people in relative comfort, possible more in close quarters. It’s well understood how 2 or 3 highly disciplined and superbly prepared astronauts will perform and behave on long missions far from home but what affect this might have on normal people is completely unknown. For example, On the first commercial flight of Crew Dragon, called the Inspiration4 mission, reportedly half of the crew suffered from space sickness. In addition, it’s quite normal for people to use certain substances (illicit or otherwise) to cope with stress in everyday life but they will likely find these substances in short supply on long Starship missions, no doubt producing some interesting results. Making assumptions about how normal people will behave in unusual circumstances would seem unwise. A good illustration might be the so called ‘sex raft,’ where a ‘scientist’ set a group of people adrift on a sea-raft, to prove they would inevitably resort to violence due to sexual competition…
The people chosen for the dearMoon mission are particularly diverse, composed mainly of entrepreneurs, creatives and skilled artisans. This should make them ideal candidates for a shakedown cruise, considering they are fairly representative of the type of people SpaceX might send to Mars. Given their flight will only last a week, there seems little chance they’ll completely devolve but how they interact and adapt to their new conditions should certainly be helpful. SpaceX intend to send thousands of people to Mars to found the first colony, so it’s probably wise to gauge how they survive being cooped up with the same 12 people on a relatively short trip around the moon before attempting anything more ambitious. Of course from a purely technical standpoint, finding out how Starship holds up over the week long mission with only a commercial crew for support, should prove invaluable for the even longer flight to Mars.
No doubt it would have been easier for SpaceX to send their own people on Starship to see how they held up. However, SpaceX personnel have a great deal of autonomy in their work, particularly how they solve technical problems and the hours they keep. While this could be seen as great training for Mars expeditions, these skilled personnel are driven to succeed and highly successful, hence probably unrepresentative of normal people - at least when it comes to the affects of deep space travel.
Make Life Multiplanetary
Making life multiplanetary will require a huge uplift of people, Elon Musk suggests they will need a city of a million on Mars to make it self sustaining. No doubt anyone they send will need full autonomy given their extremis, because Earth rules, regulations and edicts would have little relevance on this new world. The people with boots on the ground would be in the best position to judge what’s needed and able to act quickly to ensure the colony’s survival. Fortunately SpaceX intend to avoid Earth overreach, going by the Governing Law section of their Starlink contract: -
“For [Starlink] Services provided on Mars, or in transit to Mars via Starship or other colonization spacecraft, the parties recognize Mars as a free planet and that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities. Accordingly, disputes will be settled through self-governing principles, established in good faith, at the time of Martian settlement.” ~ SpaceX terms of service contract
The situation onboard these commercial Starship flights could be seen as analogous to Mars missions. The commercial crew will have a fair amount of freedom within the confines of Starship, so it will be instructive to see how they self-organize. Here’s a few things they might have to decide: -
Watches – will the crew have duty watches to ensure someone is awake at all times or all sleep at once?
Cleaning – should they use a cleaning rota similar to the ISS or deal with cleanliness ad hoc?
Responsibility – will seed investors (Maezawa/Tito) effectively act as mission commanders or will the crew use direct democracy to vote on any issues?
On the last point of who is responsible, either choice would be productive from SpaceX’s point of view. Starship is designed to ship settlers to Mars then serve as a foundation base on the surface, so a traditional commander will probably be in charge during these early stages. However, SpaceX suggest direct democracy is the most efficient way to govern a functioning Mars colony, instead of falling prey to Earth politics and bureaucracy.
“[Mars government requires] direct democracy by the people. Laws must be short, as there is trickery in length. Automatic expiration of rules to prevent death by bureaucracy. Any rule can be removed by 40% of people to overcome inertia. Freedom.” ~ Elon Musk
Whether these early moon cruises adopt direct democracy or a commander, it should be invaluable to see the virtues and flaws of either approach, on our closest analogue yet to a Mars mission.
In Conclusion
Space colonization is completely new, so it’s wise to start small and experiment, using a fairly representative group of individuals. Sending small groups to space for only a week should help to prove the technology and allow insight into what culture works best in this alien setting. Just as people adapted to conditions in the new world, the new-new world of Mars will require a step change in culture to ensure the colony survives until they become self sufficient. The surface conditions will be challenging to say the least, so SpaceX aim to hit the ground running.