This Reflection Paper is based on SpaceX starship research (in high detail) will also be needed to clarify your stance on certain aspects of the technological innovation and products to support your arguments. Throughout your discussion, use sources of information to support your arguments for each reflection question below: 1. Do you believe the advantages of the technological innovation outweigh the consequences considering how people can be impacted both directly and indirectly from this innovation? Explain your stance in detail. 2. Who will not be able to experience the benefits of the innovation? Explain. What are the solutions in which the benefits of this innovation can be distributed more equitably? 3. Will you personally benefit or realistically be impacted (directly and indirectly) from this technological innovation? Using headings, organize your paper with the following subsection titles: Assessment of Pros vs. Cons (reflection question #1) Distribution of Benefits (reflection question #2) Personal Impact (reflection question #3) Reference List Use separate paragraphs for different ideas/concepts.

This is research which is reffered in question

Introduction

The SpaceX Starship is a super heavy-lift launch vehicle that is two-stage to orbit and fully reusable as well. SpaceX has been developing the super heavy-lift launch vehicle since the year 2012. The innovation is a spaceflight self-funded private project. The term Starship is being used to refer to the second phase of the project. The design of this second stage is a long duration cargo and finally passenger carrying spacecraft (Teigens et al., 2020). At the beginning, no booster stages will be used in the spacecraft. This omission of boosters is part of an extensive research that is set to prove out launch and landing and recapitulate on various details of design more so on the atmospheric re-entry of the spacecraft. Currently, the spacecraft is undergoing testing on its own on suborbital altitudes. However, orbital launches will later on be used on the spacecraft. During these orbital launches, a booster stage will be included as well. The need for progression past the low earth orbit as well as the need for having reusable rockets are the main factors making this innovation necessary (Flife journals flife journals & planners, 2020). This report will discuss the details and alternatives of the SpaceXs Starship, its significance as well as the negative impact that it will have on the future of humanity.

Details and Alternatives

The design of the SpaceX Starship is in such a way that it will at first be a long duration cargo spacecraft and later on a passenger carrying spacecraft. At the beginning of the project, the SpaceX Starship only had a few crew who were to see to it that it became a reality. However, since the year 2018, the project has had a larger team for its building and development. This increment in the number of personnel working on the project was as a result of the fact that the Chief Executive Officer of SpaceX, Elon Musk, announced Starship as the major project whose development his company would be focusing the most on (Meena, 2020). This decision was after the first human spaceflight (Crew Dragon) was launched in May 2020.

People have been having questions on when the launching of the Starship would take place from the earth to the fourth planet- Mars. While responding to these questions and concerns, Elon Musk said that the parent company- SpaceX- has major plans to ensure that the Starship makes its first mission from the sun to the fourth planet. During that first debut, the spacecraft will have no crew on board. It is not until the year 2024 that the Starship is expected to make another trip to the fourth planet once more. However, on this second mission, the Starship will have humans on board. One of the major goals that the company has in mind when developing the Starship is ensuring that in the next few years, it will be possible for people to travel to Mars and back (Milligan, 2019). Elon Musk continually expresses his desire for human beings from earth to take over Mars as a backup option in case of any issues that may occur on earth. Elon Musk further estimates that it will take about the next 25 years to make it possible for life at Mars to be fully sustainable without having to rely on help from the earth.

One of the main areas of focus for the Starship is reduced costs while launching. This field has had many competitors over the years with some of the major ones being Rocket Lab and Blue Origin. On top of that, the Starship is facing competition from Blue origins first planned reusable rocket, New Glenn (Madry, 2019). Unlike the Starship which is set to be launched in 2022, New Glenn is set to be launched in 2020. Rocket Lab specializes on the construction of reusable and low cost rockets. If people rely more on the alternatives, there is a high probability that the mission of having humans live on Mars takes longer than expected.

References

Flife journals flife journals & planners. (2020). Notebook: Dotted starship falcon heavy rocket journal SpaceX.

Madry, S. (2019). Disruptive space technologies and innovations: The next chapter. Springer.

Meena, R. P. (2020). UPSC prelims 2020 current affairs: Science and technology. GRASP IAS.

Milligan, A. (2019). Cutting-edge SpaceX news. Lerner Publications .

Teigens, V., Skalfist, P., & Mikelsten, D. (2020). The conquest of space. Cambridge Stanford Books.