The Space Truck: Unloading Challenges of the SpaceX Starship

As the SpaceX Starship test program progresses, several missions to utilize its capabilities are being proposed and developed. This paper discusses the challenges in utilizing the full capability of landing, focusing on the general stability of the vehicle, issues with the landing surface, structural problems with deploying large payloads, the design challenges of a heavy-lift crane, and the potential solutions for utilizing the large volume. Potential design solutions for the crane and payload packing are presented, in part to highlight potential issues that more detailed designs will encounter. The paper is to serve as an overview of the issues that may not have been addressed yet in the current design, and to suggest paths of development for mission planners to go down.