this video was brought to you by brilliant. Hi, welcome to another episode of Cold Fusion. In mid-October 2024, SpaceX successfully completed a feat that was only thought possible in Sci-Fi movies a few decades ago. Well, Elon Musk's Starship rocket has performed a remarkable feat by lifting off from a launch pad in Texas before its first stage booster was recaptured on the very same spot. They effectively caught a rocket the size of a 20-story skyscraper from space with a pair of giant chopsticks. You don't have to be an engineer to know how difficult that is. If you were following the news, you would have seen the videos. Simply put, it looks like a rocket reattaching to a station. To the untrained eye, it's no different from launching any other rocket. And in fact, the internet was full of memes saying that the video was simply reversed, which I do hope that people were joking about. But truly, just from the videos, it's hard to judge how massive this thing is. It was around 9 m.

or 30 ft across weighed 275 tons or 66,000 lb and was traveling at a speed of 27,350 KM hour or 17,000 mph when it re-entered the atmosphere. I honestly think that if this event happened in the 1980s, people would be lining up in the streets to watch it unfold at Times Square and on televisions around the world. But today, it was only scattered enthusiasts checking it out on live stream. But regardless of how popular it was, the SpaceX Landing just changed space travel forever. This success is a landmark achievement, not only for SpaceX but for the entire space industry. And while the event has been talked about to some degree, it hasn't really received the attention it deserves. So that's what we'll do today in this quick episode. We'll see just how insane it was for SpaceX to catch a booster from space, how it opens conversations about reusable rockets and affordable space travel, and why this could have a much bigger impact than we realize. You are watching Cold Fusion.

TV in 2024 simply mentioning the name Elon Musk divides people online, but regardless of Elon's controversies, there's no doubt that the founding of SpaceX has drastically changed space travel over the last two decades. So, that and that alone will be our focus. SpaceX has run circles around NASA and, needless to say, Boeing. But it's more than that. You see, revolutionized is a word that gets thrown around a lot, but this time it's actually true. Now, if you'll allow me, I'll tell you exactly how. You all know the space shuttle, the most famous old-school spacecraft that flew from 1981 to 2011. Well, that large orange thing is the fuel tank, and it's completely destroyed and burnt with each launch. And the two white rockets by the side, after each launch, they'd be crudely dropped into the ocean. As a result, they were heavily damaged and had to be rebuilt or even replaced. Even the space shuttle itself often had to be heavily refurbished after each launch. This process would take 3 to 4 months.

what a colossal waste of time and money. How much money? Well, about $444 million per launch. In 2015, SpaceX changed everything when they landed their first booster for reuse, the Falcon 9. Its first stage boosters returned to Earth by landing vertically on a drone ship or solid ground, and this resulted in minimal damage. These boosters are then quickly refurbished and prepped for another launch, and as you can guess, this slashes cost significantly. This first demonstration by SpaceX showed that space travel no longer had to be so wasteful. In 2017, they reused the booster, another milestone. Then in 2018, they started reusing the boosters regularly to launch payloads into space. Starlink, a global internet powered by satellites, just wouldn't have been possible without such advancements. In 2020, to prove their confidence in their reused hardware, SpaceX started launching humans with the reused boosters. By 2023, the company had reused one of their boosters 19 times, and that's even though the design target for reuse was 10. I have to just

stop and say that those stats are the Hallmark of world-class engineering. Almost doubling the predicted design limit is wild. Now in 2024, their largest and now most powerful rocket has just shown that it can be reused without any damage at all. The aim is to have the rocket ready for another launch in as little as 30 minutes. SpaceX's Raptor engines are also the most efficient on the market and are precision-engineered to have less wear than other rocket engines out there. So what you might be thinking, who cares? Well, let me put it this way: frankly, this changes everything. With the good old space shuttle, it would cost $54,000 per kilogram to send something into space. SpaceX got that cost down with the Falcon 9, anywhere between $3,000 and $11,000 per kg. With the Falcon super heavy, the rocket we're talking about today, that same kilogram space load would cost an estimated $200. From $54,000 to $200. That's also insane, but

It should be mentioned, and it's something that we'll get to later, that this cost reduction brings its own set of problems, namely space pollution. But regard, it's clear that this is a new era in commercial space flight. Space tourism missions to the moon and other types of space travel will be increasingly viable if we extrapolate the price drops and reliability gains. But we're getting ahead of ourselves, so catching a 20-story building hurtling through the Earth's atmosphere at up to Mark III and slowing it down to be caught with giant mechanical arms is crazy. But how is it done? Well, it's thanks to Mechazilla. Mechazilla is the name of the towering pair of mechanical arms attached to SpaceX's launch tower. Its main purpose is to catch the super heavy booster after it separated from Starship after launching it into space. This system eliminates the need for a booster splashdown or a landing on hard ground, of course, reducing refurbishment and hence saving costs and time before Starship flight 5. SpaceX

conducted four previous test flights. They each provided valuable data and insights, though not all were successful. During these earlier flights, the super heavy boosters either exploded shortly after takeoff or crashed into the ocean during landing attempts. This is actually pretty normal in the process of figuring out such a massive engineering challenge, but the SpaceX team went back to the drawing board, figured out what went wrong, and now this time the results were different. So, on October 13th, the 71 m tall or 233 ft super heavy booster detached from the upper stage at an altitude of 65 km and then began its descent. As it fell, the boosters utilized 13 of its 33 Raptor engines to slow down its descent and steer the massive structure towards Mechazilla. The real magic of this catch lies in the precise coordination between the booster's guidance systems and Mechazilla robotic arms. The super heavy controlled its descent with grid fins. These are essentially large metal waffle-like panels near the top of the booster. The

these fins act like aerodynamic brakes, steering by adjusting how air flows around it during re-entry. They allow for quick, fine-tuned adjustments as the rocket descends through the atmosphere and help it glide towards its target. These fins work alongside the thrusters to ensure that the booster aligns perfectly with the tower. At the same time, mechazilla chopstick arms, equipped with advanced sensors and actuators, moved in perfect harmony to grab the booster. This reduces wear and tear on the rocket and significantly cuts down recovery time. In a stunning display of engineering, the booster hovered just above the launch tower before mechazilla arms swooped in and secured it for rescue. This success demonstrated that the technology works, setting a new standard for rocket recovery. Generally speaking, these reusable rockets have driven big improvements in navigation systems. A combination of real-time GPS data, onboard sensors, and sophisticated algorithms constantly track the rocket's position and make split-second adjustments to its flight path. This allows SpaceX boosters to land not only on solid ground but also on a moving

ship in the middle of the ocean with pinpoint accuracy, and as we've seen, these improvements didn't happen overnight. They're the result of continuous testing and learning from each launch, just pure engineering goodness. And this precision isn't just for show either; it's essential for future missions. Imagine manned missions to the Moon being frequent and reliable while being able to take a massive payload too. And if we do get lofty, perhaps deeper space would be unlocked with this technology too. But what does this all really mean? Well, of course, reusable rockets are cheaper—65% cheaper, according to a study published by the University of California. But on top of that, the chance of going over budget is 30 times lower, and that's a huge deal. Plus, reusable rockets burn less fuel than their single-use counterparts. While still not great for the environment, at least it's better. But these cost savings don't just benefit SpaceX; they open up access for more companies. Take a small satellite startup, for example. Launching on a reusable rocket makes their mission far

more affordable. On top of that, companies can share payload space, making it easier for ever smaller missions to get off the ground. But this creates a different kind of problem. As space becomes more accessible and affordable, naturally, more companies would want to launch their own satellites into orbit. As visible in this animation, space is already crowded. And when things crash into each other up there, it gets messy. Take a look at this graphic created by Professor Mora Bajar and his colleagues. You see that red ring of particles? Well, those are countless pieces of old rockets. This is what I call a super spreader event. Large rocket bodies that have been up there for decades that are pretty much ticking time bombs. And that at some point they will either explode or something will hit them and they'll become many tens of thousands of pieces. And here in Australia, we're starting to see parts of SpaceX space junk land in the country. This is a part of a SpaceX capsule that landed in the Australian Outback a couple of years ago. While space agencies are working to

tackle this problem. It's a challenge that's only going to get tougher as the number of launches continues to rise. But despite these challenges, the usefulness of reusable rockets shouldn't be overlooked. The implications of Mechazilla's success go far beyond cutting costs; it also enables the frequency of launches to drastically increase. NASA has already tapped SpaceX to use a version of the Starship for Luna landings. Mechazilla would go a long way to making these missions faster and more affordable. Additionally, being able to catch a booster midair offers an advantage for landing on difficult terrain. Take the moon or even Mars, for example, where using conventional landing pads just isn't practical. But of course, at this present time, it's a bit of a catch-22 because you have to fly something out there with the construction materials and astronauts to actually build the first structure. But as it currently stands at this point, this is already pretty fascinating. So to SpaceX and all the engineers on that team, you've done a great job. It's

like they're not just dreaming of the future, but they're actually building it one groundbreaking catch at a time. So, what are your thoughts on this? Let me know in the comment section below. Launching objects into space is pretty complicated stuff, but have you ever wondered what the mechanics are behind such a feat? Well, fortunately, there's a fun and easy way to learn about that with brilliant.org. Brilliant is where you learn by doing, with thousands of interactive lessons in math, science, data analytics, programming, and AI. They have a course by Real Engineering, which covers rocket physics, orbital mechanics, and much more. Each lesson on Brilliant allows you to play with concepts, a method proven to be six times more effective than watching lecture videos. Plus, all content on Brilliant is crafted by teachers, researchers, and professionals from MIT, CTEK, Duke, Microsoft, Google, and more. Learn at your own pace to brush up on a project for work or just for your own self-development and curiosity. To try everything Brilliant has to offer for a full 30 days, visit brilliant.org/coldfusion. You'll also get 20% off an

annual premium subscription. I hope you did learn something from this. If you did like this video, feel free to subscribe to Cold Fusion. There's plenty of interesting stuff on here on science, technology, and business. All right, so my name's Toogo, and I'll catch you again soon for the next episode. Cheers, guys. Have a good one.

How SpaceX's Recent Launch Could Revolutionise Space Travel

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