They will have different sizes and different engines. u/everydayastronaut said that we will probably only have about 6 orbital refueling launches for Artemis because they should use V3 ships to fuel the depot and (hopefully) the lander will be a V1 ship, as the smaller size would be an advantage. But the V3 ship has so many significant differences that I'm afraid that the current flight data is not very valid and they will have to fly several times again, leading to the lunar landing not happening before 2028 😭

Firstly, I apologize for the bad drawings haha.

https://preview.redd.it/q06aqxujk54e1.jpg?width=1557&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d0ca14f93228be64e037cbe62c108598fe65f16e

With SpaceX likely completing a successful prop transfer demo in the next few upcoming missions I started to imagine the possibilities that ship to ship docking on starship could bring.
My main thought being that if we wanted to speed up the ETA to mars/allow for launches out of the optimal mars transfer window, why would it not be possible to launch a fully fueled Crew/Cargo ship with a fully fueled tanker to mars/the moon while attached. This would essentially double or possibly triple starship's fuel load allowing for more propellant or cargo to fly in one go. And while it would increase starship's mass initially, all 6 R-Vac engines (on both ships now conjoined) could in theory be linked to communicate together to essentially double Starship's thrust.

Would it extend the time in LEO before departure and require more launches? Sure, but if your goal is to get to Mars ASAP and with heavy equipment, I don't really see why taking an extra week or so to get a tanker fully fueled wouldn't make sense.

I'd love to hear you opinions on this as I'm sure there is someone who could run the numbers to see if this proposal even makes any sense or not. Thanks for reading! :)

He has updated his shirt.

I was thinking they could greatly increase their solar panels's output for refueling starship.

You might be able to lit the area all day and night and maybe even only reflect the wavelength the solar panels can use which would probably increase the efficiency of their panels.

And since the mirrors stay in orbit and could use their great surface area to aerobreak, it would take relatively less energy to deply them and the starship could return to earth immediately.

Over the Thanksgiving (US Holiday) table, a discussion came up about cherry pickers/lift booms/whatever you call them. I had mentioned that SpaceX employees use these devices while Starship is stacked on the launch pad. I was quickly shot down indicating that these types of lifts don’t go that high. So I pulled up an online photo showing one of these lifts working on the top portion of stage 1. Given stage 1 is 230 ft tall and I don’t really know how high the launch base is from the ground…but it looks to be at least 70 feet (if not more)…this would have the lift bucket nearly 300 feet off the ground.

Ok, so I’m looking to be educated on this. First, the devices they use to lift workers up that high…what are they called? Clearly cherry picker has a specific meaning, so is it a lift boom?

Do these lifts go higher than stage 1 when the full Starship is stacked on the launch pad? If so, how high will this type of equipment extend?

Bottom line, that’s got to be scary stuff being that high. I would imagine the bucket would be swaying about a fair bit when that far up. Thanks, in advance, for educating me on this topic.