Elon MuskThis is, I think, the most inspiring thing that I’ve ever seen. And I just like to thank the SpaceX team and the suppliers, and the people of Boca Chica and Brownsville. Thank you for your support. And, just like, wow, what an incredible job by such a great team to build this incredible vehicle. First of all I want to start with that. I mean, I’m just so proud to work with such a great team. And it’s really windy here, by the way. If you’re watching this online, it is really windy.这是我这辈子见过的最震撼人心的东西。我要感谢 SpaceX 团队、供应商，还有 Boca Chica 和 Brownsville 的所有人。谢谢你们的支持。真的是，哇，这么伟大的团队造出了这么不可思议的飞行器，干得漂亮。首先我想先说这个。我真的非常自豪能和这样一支优秀的团队共事。顺便说一下，这里风很大——如果你是在网上看直播，这里真的风很大。
Elon MuskSo, the point of this presentation and this event is really… there are two elements to it. One is to inspire the public, get people excited about our future in space, and get people fired up about the future. There are so many things to worry about, so many things to be concerned about. There are many troubles in the world, of course, and these are important, and we need to solve them. But we also need things that make us excited to be alive, that make us glad to wake up in the morning and be fired up about the future and think, yeah, the future is going to be great.这次发布会和活动的意义，其实有两个层面。一是激励公众，让大家对我们的太空未来感到兴奋，对未来充满热情。世界上有太多让人担忧的事情，当然，这些问题很重要，我们也需要去解决它们。但我们同样需要那些让我们感到活着真好的东西，让我们早上醒来愿意起床、对未来充满期待，心想：是的，未来会很美好。
Elon MuskThis space exploration is one of those things; and becoming a spacefaring civilization being out there among the stars. This is one of the things that I know it makes me glad to be alive; I think it makes many people glad to be alive. It’s one of the best things. We are faced with a choice: Which future do you want? Do you want the future where we become a spacefaring civilization and are in many worlds and are out there among the stars or one where we are forever confined to Earth? And I say it is the first and I hope you agree with me. (02:30)太空探索就是这样一件事——成为一个星际文明，翱翔于群星之间。这是我确信能让自己感到活着真好的事情之一，我想也让很多人有同样的感受。这是最美好的事情之一。我们面临着一个选择：你想要哪种未来？是成为星际文明、生活在多个世界、遨游群星之间的未来，还是永远被困在地球上的未来？我的答案是前者，我希望你也同意我的看法。
Elon MuskThe critical breakthrough that’s needed for us to become a spacefaring civilization is to make space travel like air travel. So, with air travel, when you fly a plane, you fly that plane many times. I mean, the risk of stating the obvious, it really almost any motor transport, whether it’s a plane or a car, a horse, a bicycle is reusable. You use that motor transport many times. If you had to get a new plane every time you flew somewhere and even get to have two planes for the return journey, very few people could afford to fly. Or if you could use a car only once, very few people could afford to drive a car. So, the critical breakthrough that’s necessary is a rapidly reusable orbital rocket. This is basically the Holy Grail of space. The fundamental thing that’s required.让我们成为星际文明所需要的关键突破，是让太空旅行像航空旅行一样。飞机飞一趟之后，还可以再飞很多趟。我说一个显而易见的事实——几乎所有交通工具，无论是飞机、汽车、马还是自行车，都是可以重复使用的。你会一遍遍地使用它。如果每次飞去某个地方都需要买一架新飞机，往返还要两架，那几乎没有人能负担得起机票。如果汽车只能开一次，也几乎没有人能负担得起买车。所以，关键的突破就是实现快速可复用的轨道火箭。这基本上是太空领域的「圣杯」，是最根本的要求。
Elon MuskAnd it is a very hard thing to do. It’s only barely possible with the physics of Earth. I mean, if Earth’s gravity was a little heavier, it would be impossible. And if Earth’s gravity was a little lighter, it would be quite easy. So, we’re really right on the cusp of what is physically possible. So, in order to create a rapidly reusable rocket and fully reusable orbital rocket, you have to have engines that have incredibly high, specific impulse ( I sp ), that essentially are extremely efficient.这件事非常难。在地球的物理条件下，这只是勉强可行的。如果地球重力再大一点，这就不可能实现；如果地球重力再小一点，就会轻松很多。所以我们真的处于物理可行性的临界点上。为了造出快速可复用、完全可复用的轨道火箭，发动机必须有极高的比冲（I sp），也就是说效率必须极高。
Elon MuskYou need to have a structure that is also incredibly mass efficient. And then that all needs to come back to the launch pad and be able to be refilled with propellant and flown again very quickly, just like an aircraft. It’s just because of the physics of Earth being quite a deep gravity well and having quite a thick atmosphere; this is a very tough but not impossible thing. But it is the most fundamental thing. With SpaceX, we started out 17 years ago, and the first rocket we designed was the Falcon 1, which was that guy right there. (05:00)结构也必须有极高的质量效率。然后整个系统需要返回发射台，补充推进剂，然后像飞机一样快速再次起飞。正是因为地球是一个相当深的引力井，而且大气层相当厚，这是一件非常困难但并非不可能的事。但这是最根本的事情。SpaceX 创立于 17 年前，我们设计的第一款火箭是 Falcon 1，就是那边那位先生。
Elon MuskWhen we started off, we were very naive. And in fact, the reason I should say… it’s September 28 th ; this is the 11th anniversary of the first time SpaceX reached orbit. Eleven years ago today, SpaceX made orbit for the first time. It was actually our fourth launch. And if that launch had not succeeded, that would have been the end of SpaceX. I’d run out of money, there were no more investors, and that would have been it. So, if that fourth launch had not succeeded, that would have been curtains.我们最初真的非常天真。其实我应该说……今天是 9 月 28 日，这是 SpaceX 首次进入轨道的 11 周年纪念日。11 年前的今天，SpaceX 第一次进入轨道。那实际上是我们的第四次发射。如果那次发射没有成功，SpaceX 就会就此终结。钱已经用完了，也没有更多投资人了，就到此为止了。所以，如果第四次发射没有成功，那就是终场。
Elon MuskBut fortunately, fate smiled on us that day, and we made it to orbit. I have great respect for anyone who makes it to orbit. That is a hard thing. We were very naive, obviously very naive on many levels back then, because we did actually try to recover the first stage. The first stage had a parachute on it, and we thought, okay, we’ll just pop the parachute when it comes back into the atmosphere. Then it’ll land somewhere in the ocean, and we’ll go fish it out of the ocean with a boat. This does not work. I actually remember getting mad at the parachute supplier, like, your parachute doesn’t work. Nah, it wasn’t their fault.幸运的是，命运那天对我们微笑了，我们进入了轨道。我对任何能进入轨道的人都深表敬意，这真的很难。我们当时显然非常天真，在很多方面都非常天真，因为我们确实尝试过回收第一级。第一级装了一个降落伞，我们以为，好，等它返回大气层的时候打开降落伞，然后它会落在海洋里某个地方，我们再用船去打捞。这根本行不通。我记得我当时甚至对降落伞供应商发火，说你们的降落伞根本不好使。其实不是他们的问题。
Elon MuskWhen the rocket comes in from space, that first stage is coming in like, you know, Mach 10 to 12, and it hits the atmosphere like it’s a concrete wall and ‘boom’. So, you actually have to orient the rocket carefully. You have to have aerodynamic surfaces, and you have to do an entry burn to slow it down. Then you’ve got to guide it through the atmosphere and then do a propulsive landing. This took us many, many attempts.火箭从太空返回时，第一级以大约 Mach 10 到 12 的速度冲进大气层，像撞上一堵混凝土墙一样，「砰」地一声就碎了。所以你实际上需要仔细调整火箭姿态，需要有气动控制面，还需要做减速点火来降速。然后你得在大气层中导引它，再做推力着陆。这花了我们非常、非常多次尝试。
Elon MuskWe actually did a video, a blooper reel of all the times we failed, which was a lot. (07:30) I think it might have taken us like 14 attempts or something before we finally successfully landed the rocket. If we’ve gone to the next slide, you can take a look at… – This is Grasshopper, that’s actually Falcon 9. It’s hard to tell the scale, but that’s a Falcon 9 size booster with one engine and big legs with giant shock absorbers; we didn’t know what the heck we were doing.我们还做了一个视频，把所有失败画面做成了一个「翻车集锦」，失败的次数真的很多。我想大概试了 14 次左右才成功落地。如果切到下一张幻灯片，你可以看一下……这是 Grasshopper，那个其实是 Falcon 9。很难判断比例，但那是一个 Falcon 9 大小的助推器，只装了一台发动机，还有带着巨型减震器的大脚架——我们当时根本不知道自己在干什么。
Elon MuskElon Musk (voice-over) : Now amazingly, Grasshopper had zero blessures; Grasshopper is still alive.（旁白）令人惊叹的是，Grasshopper 一次伤亡都没有；Grasshopper 还活着。
Elon MuskThe cows are confused.那些奶牛都一脸懵。
Elon MuskThey have Falcon1; what you saw there was a Falcon 9 size vehicle. What’s really kind of hard to grasp at a visceral level is that this giant ship will do the same thing that Grasshopper did. This thing is going to take off, fly to 65,000 feet, about 20 kilometers, and come back and land in about one or two months. So that giant thing – it’s really going to be pretty epic to see that thing take off and come back. And then hopefully, yeah, … (applause) – Yeah, it’s wild.它们有 Falcon 1；你刚才看到的是一辆 Falcon 9 大小的飞行器。真正难以从直觉上把握的是，这艘巨大的飞船将做和 Grasshopper 一样的事情。这东西要起飞，飞到 65,000 英尺，大约 20 公里高，然后返回着陆，大概一两个月后就会发生。所以那个庞然大物——看它起飞再返回，肯定会非常震撼。然后希望……（掌声）——是的，太疯狂了。
Elon MuskThis is a quite radical… I’ll talk about it later in the presentation; it’s, this is quite a new approach to controlling a rocket – much more akin to a skydiver than a plane. But I’ll talk about that later. (10:00) So, going from Falcon 1 to Falcon 9 to Falcon Heavy, which we launched… actually, the first launch of Falcon Heavy was only February of last year. So, it’s only been about a year and a half since the first Falcon Heavy launch when we did two side-by-side booster landings. And I always liked this video. It was done by my friend Jonah .这是一种相当激进的……我稍后会在发布会上讲到；这是一种控制火箭的全新方式——更像是跳伞运动员，而不是飞机。但这个稍后再说。所以，从 Falcon 1 到 Falcon 9，再到 Falcon Heavy——我们发射 Falcon Heavy 其实……第一次 Falcon Heavy 发射就是去年 2 月。所以自第一次 Falcon Heavy 发射、我们完成两枚侧助推器并排着陆，到现在才一年半左右。我一直很喜欢这段视频，是我朋友 Jonah 拍的。
Elon MuskYeah. I never thought that would happen, actually. (12:30) I’m glad that it did. Some people were like, wait, why do we have the Roadster with the astronaut, you know, Starman. Actually, this came from a discussion with my friend Jonah. I was at his kitchen, and I was like, you know, normally when they do a rocket launch, there’s a launch of a rock of concrete, but that doesn’t sound very inspiring. So, what do you think the most sort of fun thing is that we could launch? And he was like, well, why don’t you launch your Tesla? And I was like, that’s a great idea.是的，我从没想到这一幕真的会发生。我很庆幸它发生了。有些人问，为什么要把带着宇航员的 Roadster——也就是 Starman——放上去。其实这来自一次和我朋友 Jonah 的讨论。我在他家厨房里，说，你知道，通常火箭试飞会带一个混凝土块，但那听起来不太有感觉。你觉得我们能带什么最有趣的东西？他说，为什么不把你的 Tesla 送上去？我说，这个主意绝了。
Elon MuskAnd another friend of mine, she said: “Why don’t you put a tiny Tesla on the dashboard?” So we put a tiny Tesla on the dashboard with a tiny Starman in the tiny Tesla. This is just to confuse the aliens in the future. They’ll be like, what the heck is this? You know, just want something that captures the imagination, gets people excited about space.还有一个朋友说：「为什么不在仪表盘上放一辆迷你 Tesla？」所以我们就在仪表盘上放了一辆迷你 Tesla，迷你 Tesla 里还有一个迷你 Starman。这纯粹是为了将来迷惑外星人——他们会说，这到底是什么玩意儿？就是想要一些能激发想象力、让大家对太空感到兴奋的东西。
Elon MuskSo, let’s see Starship. You can really see it right there, obviously. There’s a picture, more a rendering. It’s about 50 meters, sort of 165 feet or so.那我们来看看 Starship。你现在可以清晰地看到它就在那里。这里有一张图，更像是渲染图。它大约 50 米，也就是差不多 165 英尺左右。
Elon MuskActually, I notice we have an error in our ship dry mass here; my apologies. I wish it was 85 tons. This ship dry mass has to be approximately 120 tons. The initial Mach 1 prototype is closer to 200 tons, and in series production, I think it’ll probably be about 120 tons. If we get really lucky, it might get down to 110; 99 would be super epic. So, in terms of its usefulness, it’ll be able to do about 150 tons with full reusability to orbit and back.我注意到这里我们的飞船干重数据有个错误，很抱歉。我希望是 85 吨，但飞船干重大约要 120 吨。最初的 Mach 1 原型机接近 200 吨，量产之后我认为大概是 120 吨。运气特别好的话可能降到 110 吨；99 吨就超级史诗级了。就其实用性而言，完全可复用的情况下，它可以向轨道运送约 150 吨载荷，然后返回。
Elon MuskThis is a very big number for full reusability. The very initial versions, we’re confident will do over a 100 tons, but I think there’s a clear path to 150 tons. The cost of a fully reusable system is basically (15:00) the cost of the propellant, which is mostly oxygen. This is three and a half tons of oxygen for every one ton of fuel. So, one of the advantages of this architecture over the Falcon architecture is that we actually use more oxygen per unit of fuel rather than less. Merlin or the Falcon architecture is about two and a half tons of oxygen for every one ton of fuel. This is three and a half tons of oxygen for every one ton of fuel. So when it ascends, it’s really mostly liquid oxygen because when you get to vacuum, there’s no air, basically.对于完全可复用的系统来说，这是一个非常大的数字。最初几个版本，我们有信心超过 100 吨，但我认为有清晰的路径可以达到 150 吨。一个完全可复用系统的成本，基本上就是推进剂的成本，而推进剂主要是氧气——每 1 吨燃料对应 3.5 吨氧气。这种架构比 Falcon 架构的一个优势在于，我们每单位燃料实际上使用了更多的氧气，而不是更少。Merlin 或 Falcon 架构大约是每 1 吨燃料对应 2.5 吨氧气，而这里是每 1 吨燃料对应 3.5 吨氧气。所以当它上升时，本质上主要是液氧，因为到了真空中基本没有空气。
Elon MuskSo, the next slide. Earlier I was talking about how Starship enters and how it’s controlled.下一张幻灯片。我之前讲到了 Starship 如何再入大气层以及如何控制姿态。
Elon MuskIt’s quite different from anything else. It’s really falling, and so we’re doing a controlled fall. With a rocket you’re actually trying to break as opposed to… you’re trying to create drag instead of lift, it’s really the opposite of an aircraft. You want the most amount of drag that you can produce. And you want some lift, especially when you’re in the upper atmosphere, mostly so that you don’t… you can control the maximum heating rate. You want enough lift to keep yourself high in the low-density portion of the atmosphere, so you can burn off velocity. Basically, it goes like, if this is the Earth, it goes at about a 60 degree.它和其他任何飞行器都非常不同。它实际上是在「落」，所以我们做的是受控坠落。对于火箭来说，你实际上要制造阻力而不是升力，这与飞机完全相反。你想要产生尽可能多的阻力。同时你也需要一些升力，特别是在高层大气中，主要是为了控制最大加热速率。你需要足够的升力来让自己停留在大气层的低密度部分，这样才能消耗掉速度。大致上，如果这是地球，它以大约 60 度的角度进入……
Elon MuskMy hand is the rocket – it’s going at about 60 degrees. So when in orbit, you’re actually going at around 25 times the speed of sound horizontal to the ground. This is a very important concept that is counterintuitive to our normal daily life. Being in orbit, being in zero G is not about altitude. It’s about velocity. How fast are you going – horizontally? When something’s in orbit, it’s zooming around the Earth so fast that the outward acceleration, outward radial acceleration, is equal to the inward acceleration of gravity. And then you have zero gravity. This is why you actually have zero gravity.我的手代表火箭——它以大约 60 度角进入。在轨道上时，你实际上是以大约 25 倍音速的速度水平飞行。这是一个非常重要的概念，与我们日常生活的直觉完全相反。处于轨道上、处于失重状态，与高度无关，而与速度有关——你水平方向飞得有多快？当一个物体在轨道上时，它绕地球飞行的速度如此之快，向外的径向加速度等于向内的重力加速度，于是就产生了失重。这就是为什么会有失重。
Elon MuskPeople often think the Space Station is stationary, (17:30) but it’s actually going around the world at 25 times the speed of sound or about 17,000 miles an hour. It always looks stationary in the pictures. And since there’s no air, you don’t have to have an aerodynamic structure. So it can be a totally crazy structure that doesn’t look like it should be able to go 25 times the speed of sound, but it does. And you can only feel the acceleration. You can’t feel velocity. People sometimes wonder, what does it feel like to go 25 times the speed of sound? Actually, it feels like nothing. Only accelerating to there feels like something.人们常以为空间站是静止的，但它其实以 25 倍音速、大约每小时 17,000 英里的速度绕地球飞行。在图片里它看起来总是静止的。由于没有空气，它不需要有气动外形，所以可以是一个看起来完全疯狂、似乎不可能以 25 倍音速飞行的结构——但它就是可以。你只能感受到加速度，感受不到速度本身。人们有时会问，以 25 倍音速飞行是什么感觉？其实什么感觉都没有。只有加速到那个速度的过程才有感觉。
Elon MuskSo, the Starship is coming in – this platform is the Earth – it’s coming in at hypersonic velocity like this, sort of around a 60-degree angle. So, it comes like this and then starts falling and then just falls like a skydiver, and it’s just controlling itself – and then it turns and lands like that. That’s an incredibly elaborate explanation. There you can get a sense for it. This is much better.所以，Starship 是这样进入的——这个平台代表地球——它以高超音速以大约 60 度的角度进来，然后开始下落，就像跳伞运动员一样自由坠落，同时控制自身姿态——然后转身，这样着陆。这个解释复杂得令人叹为观止。你可以在这里感受一下，这个视频解释得好多了。
Elon MuskThere you go. See, same thing. It’ll look totally nuts to see that thing land. Yeah, that’ll be crazy.你看，就是这样。和之前说的一模一样。看那东西着陆肯定会让人觉得完全疯了。是的，太疯狂了。
Elon MuskSo let’s talk about the Raptor engine. The ship will have a total of six engines.那我们来说说 Raptor 发动机。飞船总共将配备六台发动机。
Elon MuskThree of the sea-level variety of Raptor, and those are actually on the rocket right now. So, we have the three sea-level… in fact, that’s a picture of just inside – that’s what it looks like. So, we’ve got the three sea-level Raptor engines, and they gimbal, which means that the whole engine moves. So, the way the rocket steers is by moving the entire engine. Whereas an aircraft engine is static, and you move by moving the control surfaces, like the ailerons and rudder and elevator and flaps… – The rocket – when the engines are powered, you moved the entire engine to steer it. The Starship will have three sea-level engines that move up to about 15 degrees angle and three vacuum engines that are optimized for efficiency in orbit that will not move. They will be just fixed it in place.三台是海平面版 Raptor，现在已经装在火箭上了。所以我们有三台海平面版……事实上，那张图片就是内部的样子——就长那样。我们有三台海平面版 Raptor 发动机，它们可以摆动，也就是说整台发动机都可以移动。火箭转向的方式就是移动整台发动机。而飞机的发动机是固定的，转向靠的是移动控制面，比如副翼、方向舵、升降舵和襟翼。火箭——在发动机工作时，通过移动整台发动机来控制方向。Starship 将有三台可偏转约 15 度的海平面发动机，以及三台针对轨道效率优化的真空版发动机，真空版发动机不会移动，固定安装。
Elon MuskAnd that allows us to have the biggest bell nozzle (20:00) for the vacuum Raptor engines. Aspirationally, the target is a 380 second I sp for the vacuum engine. This is a very… – In sort of space geek terms, this is like really a great number. And even for the steel alloy engines to get over a 350 second I sp is also really great. So actually… – sorry, I’m looking at the slide here, and you’re not. So, that’s what I meant by ‘it looks like that on the inside’… – go back one slide. That’s the inside of the Starship right now.这样可以让真空版 Raptor 发动机装上最大的钟形喷管。在理想状态下，真空发动机的目标比冲是 380 秒。对于太空极客来说，这是一个非常厉害的数字。即使是钢合金发动机能达到 350 秒以上的比冲，也非常了不起。好的……抱歉，我在看幻灯片，你们看不到。所以这就是我说的「内部就是那个样子」……往前翻一页。那就是现在 Starship 内部的样子。
Elon MuskThat’s what it looks like in the base. All right. Then heat shield.底部就是这个样子。好的，然后是隔热盾。
Elon MuskI’ve gone through various iterations of heat shield. There’s a lot of ways to skin the cat here.隔热盾我经历了很多次迭代，这方面有很多种实现方式。
Elon MuskUltimately, we decided to have heat shield hexagonal tiles, ceramic tiles, basically like a tiny glass vermicelli at a microstructure level. Very light, but very crack resistant – essentially glass tiles. And there, because Starship is a steel construction… – At first, it feels like, “Oh, it’s steel. Does that mean it’s heavy?” No, actually, it’s the lightest construction. I think the best design decision on this whole thing is 301 stainless steel. Because at cryogenic temperatures, a 301 stainless actually has about the same effective strength as an advanced composite or aluminum-lithium. Unlike most steals, which get brittle at low temperatures, 301 stainless gets much stronger.最终我们决定采用六边形隔热瓦，也就是陶瓷瓦，微观结构上基本像极细的玻璃丝。非常轻，但抗裂性很强——本质上就是玻璃瓦。因为 Starship 是钢结构……乍一听会觉得，「哦，是钢？那不是很重吗？」不，实际上这是最轻的构造方案。我认为整个设计中最好的决策就是选用 301 不锈钢。因为在低温环境下，301 不锈钢的有效强度与先进复合材料或铝锂合金大致相当。与大多数在低温下变脆的钢材不同，301 不锈钢在低温下反而变得更强。
Elon MuskAnd if it’s in the extra hard condition, meaning it’s cold-rolled to extra hard condition, it also gets way stronger. Actually, its strength-to-weight ratio at cryogenic temperatures is equivalent, or even perhaps slightly better than advanced composites or aluminum-lithium. This is not well appreciated. (22:30) Because if you just look at the materials manual and say like, what is the strength of stainless steel? It looks much weaker than it is. If you say, what is the strength at cryogenic temperature? Oh, much stronger; at very low temperature, almost twice as strong. That’s when it becomes better than carbon fiber or aluminum-lithium.如果处于超硬状态——也就是经过冷轧达到超硬状态——它还会变得更加强大。实际上，它在低温下的强度重量比相当于甚至可能略优于先进复合材料或铝锂合金。这一点并不广为人知。因为如果你只查材料手册，看不锈钢的强度，会觉得它比其他材料弱很多。但如果你问，低温下它的强度是多少？哦，强多了——在极低温度下，几乎是常温的两倍强。这时候它就比碳纤维或铝锂合金更好了。
Elon MuskAnd this is another benefit: It also has a high melting temperature. So, for a reusable ship, you’re coming in like a meteor. You want something that does not melt at a low temperature. You want something that melts at a high temperature. And this is where steel is extremely good as well. Steel has a melting temperature around sort of 1500 degrees centigrade whereas aluminum, you know, maybe 300 or 400 degrees, and same thing for carbon fiber. And that’s really pushing it.还有另一个好处：它的熔点也很高。对于可复用飞船来说，你再入大气层时就像一颗陨石。你希望用的材料在较低温度下不会熔化，而是在更高温度下才熔化。这正是钢的极大优势。钢的熔点大约在 1500 摄氏度左右，而铝的熔点大概只有 300 到 400 度，碳纤维也差不多，这已经是极限了。
Elon MuskHaving that much higher melting temperature means that you don’t need any shielding on the leeward side of the ship when it comes in for entry. And the shielding you need on the windward side – the hot side – is massively reduced because the thickness of the tile is actually for a reusable system – It’s dependent on what back shell temperature, like how hot does the back of the tile that interfaces with the airframe get. And because the steel can take a much higher temperature, your heat shield, even on the windward side, is much lighter. But the net effect is that a 301 stainless steel rocket is actually the lightest possible reusable architecture.这么高的熔点意味着，飞船再入时背风面完全不需要任何隔热层。而迎风面——高温面——所需的隔热层也大大减少，因为对于可复用系统来说，隔热瓦的厚度取决于背板温度，也就是隔热瓦背面与机体接触的地方能承受多高的温度。由于钢材能承受更高的温度，即使是迎风面的隔热盾也要轻得多。综合下来，301 不锈钢火箭实际上是最轻的可复用架构方案。
Elon MuskThen, to come to cost. The carbon fiber we were using was $130 a ton. The steel is $2,500 a ton. Oh, sorry, $130,000 a ton versus $2,500 a ton. That makes much more sense. It’s $130,000 a ton for the carbon fiber and $2,500 a ton for the steel. So, the steel is about 2% of the cost of the carbon fiber. So, this is a good thing we changed from carbon fiber to steel, by far. (25:00) And it’s very easy to weld stainless steel, the evidence being that we welded it outdoors without a factory. Great skills by the team, but with carbon fiber, this is impossible; with aluminum-lithium, also impossible. But steel is easy to weld, and it is resilient to the elements.再来说成本。我们之前用的碳纤维是每吨 13 万美元，钢是每吨 2,500 美元。哦，对，是每吨 $130,000 对比每吨 $2,500，这才说得通。碳纤维每吨 $130,000，钢每吨 $2,500。所以钢的成本大约是碳纤维的 2%。从碳纤维换成钢，这个决定太正确了。而且不锈钢非常容易焊接，证据就是我们在户外、没有工厂的情况下就把它焊起来了。团队技术很强，但碳纤维这样做是不可能的，铝锂合金也不可能。而钢很容易焊接，而且对环境的适应性很强。
Elon MuskAnd also, actually, (… 25:36), like on Mars, you can cut that up, you can weld it, you can modify it. No problem. Yeah. That’s a good point. You’re out there on the Moon or Mars; you want something that you can modify, that you can cut up and use for other things. That’s like for sure a great thing. So anyway, steel – obviously I’m in love with steel; I had to say it, you know. So, let’s see, going on to the booster.还有一点，在火星上，你可以把它切开、焊接、改造，完全没问题。是的，说得很对。你在月球或火星上，你需要的是可以改造、可以切割用于其他用途的材料。这绝对是个大优势。总之，钢——我显然对钢爱得不行，非说不可，你懂的。好，我们继续，来看助推器。
Elon MuskSo, the booster is designed to take up to 37 Raptor engines. I’m not sure if we’ll go that high, but you can really have 31. I think the minimum number you’d want is maybe around 24. But the booster is designed to be able to take multiple engines out, so you can actually add or subtract engines as you’d like. You basically just need a lot of force pushing up. Over time, I think you probably want around a 7,500 ton force rocket which is about twice the thrust of a Saturn V, a little more than twice the thrust, and on a roughly 5,000 ton gross liftoff mass for roughly one and a half thrust-to-weight.助推器设计最多可搭载 37 台 Raptor 发动机。我不确定会不会用到那么多，但实际上可以装 31 台。我认为最少大概需要 24 台左右。但助推器的设计支持增减发动机数量，你可以随意增删。基本上你就是需要很大的向上推力。从长远来看，我认为大概需要一枚推力约 7,500 吨力的火箭，大约是 Saturn V 推力的两倍多一点，起飞总质量约 5,000 吨，推重比约为 1.5 左右。
Elon MuskFor a reusable rocket, you actually want a high thrust-to-weight rather than with an expendable rocket, where you want a low thrust-to-weight, because any thrust-to-weight below one is not useful; like, if you have a less thrust than your weight, you don’t move. So, you actually want a high thrust-to-weight for a reusable rocket. This is a very important (27:30) design optimization change. So that’s why I think more engines are probably good and getting up to around 7,500 tons over time and a one and a half thrust-to-weight ratio, or more.对于可复用火箭，你实际上希望有高推重比，而不是像一次性火箭那样要低推重比——因为推重比低于 1 是没有意义的，如果推力小于重力就飞不起来。所以对于可复用火箭，你真的希望有高推重比。这是一个非常重要的设计优化方向。所以我认为多装发动机可能更好，长期来看推力达到约 7,500 吨力，推重比达到 1.5 或更高。
Elon MuskWe think we’re probably going to adjust the grid fins designed to be kind of like a diamond shape. It looks cooler. It works better too. And then the rear fins are actually just legs. They’re not needed for stabilization or guidance. They’re essentially there for legs.我们可能会把栅格翼改成钻石形状，看起来更酷，性能也更好。尾部的鳍翼实际上就是着陆腿，不需要用于稳定或导向，它们的主要作用就是充当支腿。
Elon MuskAll right. So let’s go into some of the development testing. This is a Raptor firing.好的，我们来看一些研发测试内容。这是一次 Raptor 点火试验。
Elon MuskAll right. And then, obviously, we had a Raptor fire on the Starhopper. Yeah.好的，然后，我们当然也在 Starhopper 上进行了 Raptor 点火。是的。
Elon MuskIt’s kind of hard to see it to appreciate scale, but it’s the same diameter as the Starship. And obviously, it’s just right over there. So, it’s kind of hard to tell if it’s the size of a trashcan or, you know, how big it is, but it’s about… the body diameter is about 9 meters or 30 feet and not including the legs span. (30:00) Yeah. So, this gives you a sense of size.很难从视觉上感受它的尺寸，但它和 Starship 的直径一样。而且它就在那边。所以很难判断它是一个垃圾桶大小还是有多大，但大约……机身直径约 9 米，也就是 30 英尺，这还不包括腿展。是的，这能给你一个尺寸感。
Elon MuskSo the little pixel there… little pixels are a human. And then there’s the Hopper next to it, the Millennium Falcon for comparison, then Starship, which is what you see before you. And then what it will look like with the full stack, which is almost two and a half times as tall as this vehicle. This simulation will give you a sense of the scale of things.那个小像素……那些小像素就是人。旁边是 Hopper，再旁边是千年隼号作为参照，然后是 Starship，也就是你现在眼前这个。再然后是完全叠加后的样子，那会是这个飞行器的将近两倍半高。这个模拟动画会让你对尺寸有个直观感受。
Elon MuskElon Musk (voice-over): It slightly reminds me of a scene from Spaceballs.（旁白）这稍微让我想起了《太空炮弹》里的某个场景。
Elon MuskElon Musk (voice-over): This is the orbital refilling. Orbital refilling is extremely important for getting to Mars and getting to the Moon to establish a city on Moon or Mars. This is a vital step.（旁白）这是轨道补加推进剂。轨道补加对于前往火星、前往月球，以及在月球或火星建立城市，都是极其重要的，是关键一步。
Elon MuskAll right.好的。
AudienceTo Moon.去月球。
Elon MuskTo Mars. Exactly.去火星。没错。
Elon MuskA rapidly reusable orbital launcher rocket is… a rapidly reusable rocket is required for – alliteration – for getting a breakthrough in cost of access to space; that you don’t throw the rockets away every flight. But another key step is refilling on orbit so that Starship can get to orbit with, let’s say, 150 tons of payload for the Moon or Mars or beyond. And then it can get tanked up to fill up its propellant tanks and so that it can depart from low Earth orbit (35:00) with 1,200 tons of propellant. This is a very big thing so that your delta velocity is enough to transport about 150 tons to the surface of the Moon or Mars with full reusability and orbital refilling.快速可复用的轨道发射火箭——快速可复用的火箭——是实现太空进入成本突破的必要条件，也就是不要每次飞行都把火箭扔掉。但另一个关键步骤是轨道补加推进剂，这样 Starship 进入轨道后，比如说可以携带 150 吨载荷前往月球、火星或更远处，然后在轨道上加满推进剂罐，以便从近地轨道出发时携带 1,200 吨推进剂。这非常重要，这样你的速度增量才足以在完全可复用和轨道补加的条件下，将约 150 吨运送到月球或火星表面。
Elon MuskThe orbital refilling is actually a simplified version of what SpaceX does in docking with the Space Station. So it’s actually harder to dock with the Space Station than it is to do orbital refilling, but in practicing docking with the Space Station, SpaceX has also learned how to rendezvous and dock in orbit in a complex environment. So this is one of the other critical pieces of the puzzle needed to establish a base on the Moon and Mars, a city, ultimately. And yeah, so those are the critical ingredients. So, we think it will be very exciting to have a base on the Moon.轨道补加实际上是 SpaceX 与空间站对接操作的简化版。与空间站对接其实比轨道补加更难，但通过练习与空间站对接，SpaceX 也学会了如何在复杂环境中进行轨道交会与对接。这是在月球和火星建立基地、最终建立城市所需拼图中的另一块关键碎片。这些就是关键要素。我们认为，在月球上建立基地将会非常令人兴奋。
Elon MuskEven if it’s just a science base that… – for example, we have a base at Antarctica. Many countries have bases in Antarctica for science research, and this would be an incredible area for research. So whether or not people want to live on the Moon, there’s definitely a lot of science to be done. And I think it’s close as well. So, that would be quite exciting to do. And then, of course, we can go to other places in the solar system like Saturn. But the critical thing that we need to focus on, I think, is the fastest path to a self-sustaining city on Mars. This is the fundamental thing.哪怕只是一个科学基地……比如说，我们在南极洲有基地，很多国家在南极洲都有科学研究基地，月球将会是一个不可思议的研究领域。所以无论人们是否想住在月球上，那里肯定有很多科学工作可以做。而且我认为它也很近。所以这会是相当令人兴奋的事。当然，我们还可以去太阳系的其他地方，比如土星。但我认为我们需要聚焦的关键事情，是以最快的速度在火星上建立一座自给自足的城市。这才是最根本的事情。
Elon MuskAs far as we know, we are the only consciousness or the only life that’s out there. There might be other life, but we’ve seen no signs of it. And people often ask me, what do you know about the aliens and that, and I’m like, man, I tell you, I’m pretty sure I’d know if there were aliens. I have not seen any sign of aliens. And what if the military is hiding aliens in area 51 or something, you know; that’s a popular meme. (37:30) Well, let me tell you: the biggest, the fastest way to increase defense funding would be to bring up like, “Hey, we found an alien.” (…37:40) like, “Ah, there’s more money for defense, definitely”. Guaranteed, there (…37:46) would be like on display in two seconds. The reality is, as far as we know, this is the only place, at least in this part of the galaxy or in the Milky Way, where there is consciousness. And it’s taken a long time for us to get to this point.就我们所知，我们是宇宙中唯一的意识，或者说唯一的生命。也许存在其他生命，但我们没有看到任何迹象。人们经常问我，你知道外星人的事吗，我就说，伙计，我跟你讲，我相当确定如果有外星人，我应该会知道的。我没有看到任何外星人的迹象。那如果军方把外星人藏在 51 区之类的地方呢，这是个流行的梗。我来告诉你：增加国防预算最快、最简单的方法，就是说「嘿，我们发现外星人了」——「啊，那绝对要多给国防经费」，百分百保证，立刻就会公之于众。现实是，就我们所知，这是整个星系或银河系中已知存在意识的唯一地方。我们走到今天这一步花了很长时间。
Elon MuskYou know, according to the geological records, Earth has been around for about four and a half billion years, although it was mostly molten magma for about half a billion years. So, but still, several billion years with at least bacterial life and multicellular life for several hundred million years. But here’s the interesting part. The sun is gradually getting hotter and bigger, and over time even in the absence of global warming – man-made stuff – the sun will expand, and it will overheat the Earth. My guess is probably… – On human timescales, this is a long time, but there are only several hundred million years left. That’s all, that’s all we got. Okay. Several hundred million years. But sort of from an evolutionary standpoint, basically, if it took an extra 10% longer for conscious life to evolve on Earth, it wouldn’t evolve at all because it would have been incinerated by the sun.根据地质记录，地球已经存在约 45 亿年，尽管其中大约有 5 亿年基本上是熔融岩浆状态。但即便如此，仍有数十亿年存在至少是细菌层面的生命，多细胞生命也已存在数亿年。但有趣的地方来了：太阳在逐渐变热变大，随着时间推移，即使没有全球变暖——也就是人为因素——太阳也会膨胀，会把地球烤热。我猜大概……在人类的时间尺度上这是很长的时间，但大概只剩下几亿年了。就这些，就这么多了。好吧，几亿年。但从进化的角度来看，如果有意识的生命在地球上进化多花了 10% 的时间，它根本就不会进化出来，因为会被太阳烧掉。
Elon MuskWhat I’m saying is that it appears that consciousness is a very rare and precious thing, and we should take whatever steps we can to preserve the light of consciousness. The window has been opened only now – after four and a half billion years, is that window open. That’s a long time to wait, and it might not stay open for long. I’m pretty optimistic by nature, but there’s some chance, there’s some chance that window will not be open for long. I think we should become a multi-planet civilization while that window is open. And if we do, I think the probable outcome for Earth is even better because then Mars could help Earth one day. And so I think we should really do our very best to become a multi-planet species and to extend consciousness beyond Earth. And we should do it now. Thank you. (40:13)我想说的是，意识似乎是一种极其稀有而珍贵的东西，我们应该尽一切努力来守护意识之光。这扇窗口才刚刚打开——在 45 亿年之后，这扇窗口才打开。等待了这么长时间，而它可能不会一直开着。我天生比较乐观，但有些可能性是存在的，有些可能性是这扇窗口不会长时间开着。我认为我们应该趁窗口还开着的时候成为多行星文明。如果我们做到了，我认为地球的结局甚至会更好，因为到时候火星可以反过来帮助地球。所以我认为我们真的应该竭尽全力成为多行星物种，将意识延伸到地球以外。而且我们应该现在就做。谢谢。