SpaceX is preparing to launch the largest rocket in history. Starship, its fully reusable interplanetary spacecraft, is designed for crewed missions to the Moon and Mars. But SpaceX CEO Elon Musk envisions even greater possibilities: transforming how we explore the entire Solar System.
Developed in Texas, Starship pairs a massive upper stage with the Super Heavy booster. Both are fully reusable, slashing costs and enabling frequent launches. Fully stacked, it can deliver 100 metric tons of payload to orbit.
In a mid-November virtual meeting hosted by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Musk highlighted its scientific promise. "It is extremely important that we become a multiplanetary species as soon as possible," he said. "Along the way, we could learn a lot about the nature of the universe," thanks to Starship's capacity for numerous scientific instruments. "Imagine a 100-ton object on the surface of Europa," he added.
Beyond payload capacity, Starship's low cost per launch—potentially under $2 million—could fund missions previously deemed impossible for budget-constrained agencies like NASA and ESA. "Low cost of access has the potential to be a real game-changer for scientific research," notes Andrew Westphal from UC Berkeley. This opens doors to privately funded missions and citizen science consortia.
Scientists are already envisioning Starship's applications. A paper by NASA's Jennifer Heldmann at Ames Research Center outlines key opportunities.
Starship eliminates the need to miniaturize instruments, allowing full-scale gear. "You could deliver a big drilling rig," Heldmann explains, "digging nearly a mile deep, like on Earth." This unlocks deep access to lunar and Martian interiors and resources—ideas once considered impractical. "With Starship, you can do it and still have room left," she says. "What else do you want to bring?"
Its return capability also enables large-scale sample returns from diverse sites, revealing insights into the Moon's volcanic past or Mars' potential for life.
Starship could enable bold missions, like a Neptune orbiter. The Conex group's Arcanum concept—over 20 tons, four times heavier than Cassini-Huygens—targets this ice giant, visited only briefly by Voyager 2 in 1989, and its moon Triton. No current rocket can launch it, but Starship could, even with an onboard telescope for exoplanet hunting.
Other ideas: orbiting Jupiter's volcano moon Io with ample fuel and radiation shielding. Or, as UC Santa Barbara's Philip Lubin calculates, deflecting Earth-threatening asteroids by delivering massive explosives to shatter them, with fragments burning up in the atmosphere.
Caution is warranted. Starship has conducted few test flights, with only one fully successful. Super Heavy remains untested, and their combined scale poses risks. Mars or Moon trips will require unproven orbital refueling.
Yet the excitement is justified. From the inner planets to the outer Solar System and beyond, Starship could herald a new era of space science.
