He’s back at it again. Elon Musk finally announced that the starship prototype has been completed. For those of you who don’t know what this stainless steel skyscraper is, here’s a little bit of info.
Elon Musks goal for SpaceX was to make humans an interplanetary species. Starship is his way of achieving this goal. Having gone through numerous name changes, this giant of a rocket has finally been completed it took a while but Elon finally made it happen.
The First Starship Prototype (Getty images)
What does this mean? Well, a number of things. Firstly us science enthusiasts can finally be satisfied with Elon’s promises. I for one, believe that I might be able to witness a crew of humans go to Mars within my lifetime and hopefully contribute to it in some way.
This is a huge step for the space industry and has established SpaceX as one of the bigger companies in the space race. This coupled with the rockets first launch as soon as 2023, could mark the beginning of a new era for mankind. Well Elon, our prayers are for your success.
Probably one of the most iconic figures of all time, Elon Musk leads in many industries focusing on the future of humanity as a species. From colonizing Mars to surfing the internet with our minds. He is the pioneer in electric car development with sales skyrocketing since 2016.
Elon Musk at The Unveiling Of Teslas Second Car AKA The Tesla Model S
As the current CEO of Tesla he provides people with complete renewable energy solutions. Teslas products range from solar roof tiles to mega-batteries for whole cities. He even built a supercharger network for his electric cars so that Tesla owners could charge their cars quicker.
Also the founder of SpaceX he looks for ways to make Humans a multi-planetary species. He aims to do this by making rocket boosters reusable and landing them back on earth instead of discarding them.
He also founded OpenAI, an organization dedicated to managing an ethical industry of artificial intelligence.
He also founded the Boring Company because he was sick of traffic and started digging tunnels underground for faster transport, not to mention the controversial Boring Company Flamethrower the company started selling to raise funds for tunnel digging.
Lastly, Musk created Neuralink which has recently succeeded in letting a rat brain interface with the internet.
Amidst all this Musk has been criticized time and time again for not meeting deadlines or being too ambitious but no one can argue that he has done what no one else has ever done or could dream of doing.
Albert Einstein, the worlds most renowned physicist was well, really smart. Some enthusiasts come close to worshipping him for his intellect and ingenuity.
His theory stated that the speed of light was constant, meaning that everywhere in space light travelled at the same speed (and yes light does have a speed). This was a huge for astrophysicists because they now had a universal constant(something that doesn’t change) to measure speed. Before his theory was proved, we couldn’t even calculate the speed of earth in orbit because it had to be relative to something.
To explain this, imagine two cars driving at the same speed on a road. If they drivers look at each other they look as if they are still but, if someone is standing on the side of the road they see them moving pretty fast. On the other hand, someone who is running will see the cars moving slower than the person standing on the side of the road. Einstein stated this and said that the speed of an object is relative to the observer.
So, if we say that the sun is still relative to us it might actually be moving extremely fast throughout space with us in its orbit and we wouldn’t even notice. I hope now you understand why this discovery was huge for scientists studying space. This was called the special theory of relativity.
The curvature of spacetime that I talked about in the previous blog was also discovered by Einstein, in his general theory of relativity. This theory stated that massive objects cause a distortion in spacetime which we know as gravity.
The evidence for this comes with an effect called gravitational lensing.
No its not actually circular
The image shows us what looks like a circular galaxy but, it not really circular. The bright object in the middle is so massive that it bends light around it making the galaxy appear as if it is round.
In this the blue lines are the light from the galaxy and the bright object is the blue sphere
The image above is a perfect explanation for this effect. It shows us that this massive object is bending light around it and indirectly causing distortion in spacetime.
Einsteins theory also stated that time does not pass at the same rate for everyone. His theory stated that the faster you move through space, the slower time passes for you. He explained it with the following example:
Imagine there is a clock on a wall and it reads 1:00pm a person is standing watching the clock and you start travelling at the speed of light away from the clock this means that you are travelling as fast as the light that caused you to see the time. This will result in you seeing 1:00pm but for the person standing next to the clock time will pass normally, therefore timepasses slower for you than the person watching the clock.
Einstein’s famous equation ‘E=mc^2’ where ‘E’ is energy, ‘m’ is mass and ‘c’ is the speed of light, means that mass and energy are manifestations of the same thing which also means that the faster you travel the more mass you appear to have which is why Einstein also said that matter cannot travel faster than light, effectively making the speed of light a ‘universal speed limit’. And because at the speed of light mass would become infinite it would require an infinite amount of energy to move which is impossible.
Scientists represent space as a 2D grid. Our solar system, for example, would look as if you’d drawn it on a pice of paper. This method doesn’t accurately depict reality but it does help us under stand one thing, gravity.
Anything that has mass exerts a force called gravity. Gravity is basically a force that acts between objects. For example, we attract the Earth the same way the Earth attracts us.
Anyway, gravity is represented as a divot or depression on the 2D grid. The more mass an object has the stronger its force of attraction or, the stronger its gravity. Although not represented on the spacetime grid, the force of attraction also depends on the distance between the two objects, the closer they are the stronger the force of attraction and vice versa.
Spacetime Grid Representing the Earth and Moon
So, the more massive the object, the deeper its depression in spacetime. The effect objects have on this grid is called ‘the curvature of spacetime’.
This grid is used to display the entire cosmos extending the outer reaches of space. It is accepted as a standard model that is, if Einsteins theory remains correct.
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