Also promoting large Scottish engineering projects. Scotland Must Welcome Starships
Starships for Scotland is for Starships fans who want to see Elon Musk' big shiny rockets using Scotland and its seas as a gateway to the Moon and Mars. Starships for Scotland has no connection with Elon Musk or any of businesses or organisations. Elon Musk has said he wants to build 1000 of his big shiny rockets a
nd distribute them around the world. Of all European countries Scotland is best placed to host Starships due to its location and its existing industrial base. A Starship is a fully reusable super-heavy lift launch system. The Starship system comprises a reusable first stage, called Super Heavy, and a reusable second stage and space vehicle. In its orbital configuration it will be bigger and more powerful than a Saturn V Moon rocket.. A Starship users guide can be found here.https://www.spacex.com/media/starship_users_guide_v1.pdf
For Scotland to welcome Starships the minimum requirement would be:
• 2 converted oilrigs as orbital and sub orbital launch platforms for regular flights.
• 1 converted oilrig for caching the first stage Super Heavy and as safety platform for the sub orbital Starship.
• 1 onshore base and launch pad for Fitting out, or outfitting new Starships and servicing of existing ones.
• 1 Centre for cabin crew and passenger training and public awareness. Other requirements would be:
• An east coast, as rockets are best at flying east. Best in all Europe.
• Cities and ports prepared to welcome new technology.
• Construction yards to convert the oil rigs.
• A workforce expert in all oil related matters.
• Firms that manufactures satellites.(Note Scotland now manufactures more satellites than anywhere outside of the United States).
• A good source of methane for now.
• Abundant renewable energy to produces the rocket fuel methane from Scotland’s waste CO2. This process is known as the Sabatier process.
• A relatively remote area.
• A high standard of centres of higher education and research intuitions. Some other considerations are:
Noise: The super-heavy lift launch system in its orbital configuration with its 28 to 31 sea-level optimized Raptors engines would only fly from the rigs as well as the upper Starship with 6 Raptors engines. When landing and launching from the onshore base for Fitting out, or outfitting only 3 Raptors engines would be used. Wildlife: There are National Wildlife Refuges both at Boca Chica and Cape Canaveral which is where the Starships are made and will arrive from. In the USA rockets and wildlife seem to coexist. Scottish tourism: There would be an obvious boost to accommodation and tourism providers from Starships, from the arrival and departure of passengers, moon and mars colonists and rocket viewers. With March 3th, 2022 being the 200th pre-anniversary of the man who will become the greatest engineer in the galaxy. Commander Montgomery Scott being born in Linlithgow and serving his apprenticeship in the Aberdeen space ship yards, let us hope 2022 will be the year SpaceX Starships come to Scotland.
