SpaceX created a futuristic picture at its rocket test facility in Texas on Thursday, when a robot dog wandered through the wreckage of its latest prototype starship.
SpaceX launched the prototype of the rocket, called Starship serial No. 10, or SN10, on Wednesday. Like the last two previous prototypes, the SN10 rose almost 33,000 feet above the company’s facilities in the city of Boca Chica. Then he shut down the engines and plummeted to Earth on his stomach, controlling his fall with four wings.
Unlike its predecessors, which crashed into the ground and exploded immediately, the SN10 successfully reactivated its engines to rise and gently touch the ground. But then it exploded spectacularly 10 minutes later.
SpaceX’s prototype SN10 Starship rocket exploded on the airfield minutes after the touchdown on Wednesday.
SPadre.com
With clean air and reopened roads, SpaceX photographers and fans flocked to the company’s facilities on Thursday morning to watch the cleanup from a distance. That’s when they spotted a fascinating four-legged robot roaming the wreckage.
Spadre.com shared agile bot videos on Twitter.
—SPadre (@SpacePadreIsle) March 4, 2021
The real machine is a Boston Dynamics robot dog “Spot”, which SpaceX apparently renamed Zeus, according to photos showing the name printed on a red house where the robot lives.
Zeus has been seen inspecting SpaceX landing sites before. It is unclear what exactly the mechanical dog was doing at the SN10 blast site, but Zeus is probably equipped with cameras and sensors to collect data, as approaching destroyed rockets can be unsafe for humans.
SpaceX did not respond to Insider’s request for more details.
—SPadre (@SpacePadreIsle) March 4, 2021
The rocket that Zeus was inspecting was designed as the upper stage of a two-part system; an approximately 23-story booster called the Super Heavy would one day put the spacecraft in orbit. But eliminating these explosions from the vehicle’s landing process is crucial, as SpaceX is designing the Starship and Super Heavy to be fully and quickly reusable. A spacecraft that explodes after landing is, of course, difficult to relaunch.
If the system works, however, Starship-Super Heavy could reduce the cost of reaching space by 1,000 times, as it would eliminate the need to build new rockets and spaceships for each space flight. Musk wants to build a fleet of reusable starships to boost hypersonic travel around the world on Earth, take astronauts to the moon and, one day, transport people to Mars.
Musk said he is “highly confident” that SpaceX will launch an unlocked spacecraft to Mars in 2024, followed by a manned mission in 2026.