Speaking at the International Astronautical Congress meeting in Guadalajara, Mexico, billionaire visionary and SpaceX founder Elon Musk outlined how his company plans to send humanity to Mars in an effort to build a self-sustaining city and save the human race. “I really think there are two fundamental paths [for humans]: One path is we stay on Earth forever, and some eventual extinction event wipes us out. The alternative is, become a spacefaring and multi-planetary species.”
Why Mars?
- Situated beyond Earth, Mars provides the ideal location to help humanity establish its space-faring training wheels; the planet contains lots of water frozen beneath the surface and holds carbon dioxide and nitrogen in its atmosphere — vital nutrients for agriculture.
- SpaceX has always had its eyes on Mars. The many ISS resupply contracts and communication satellite launches are a means to an end; build capital and develop the necessary technology.
- Musk ultimately foresees a Martian city of millions of people. Such an effort requires tens of thousands of trips across 40 to 100 years.
The Spacecraft
- The entire operation relies on the SpaceX Interplanetary Transport Systems (ITS) new reusable rocket with a carbon fiber fuel tank and “ultra-powered engines.”
- Fully operational, the ITS houses 100 passengers aboard a massive spacecraft perched atop an equally large rocket; together, the union measures as tall as a 40-story building, dwarfing even the Falcon Heavy, the world’s current tallest rocket.
- Forty-two Raptor engines propel the pioneer’s at 19,014 mph, reaching Mars in just over three months. Raptor engines are three times as powerful as the Merlins used in the Falcon 9.
- Once the rocket breaks into orbit, the first stage booster returns to Earth and flies itself to the Launchpad at Cape Canaveral just like the Falcon 9 rockets.
- Unlike Falcon 9 rockets, the ITS rocket is refurbished and attached to a refueling spaceship.
- Rocket re-launches and releases the fuel-carrying spaceship, which rendezvous with the passenger ship already in space and transfers its fuel load into the other ship’s tank. The process repeats itself until the passenger ship is topped off.
- Once it reaches Mars, heat shields on the ship’s belly create a mild friction with Mars’ scant atmosphere to slow the descent. Supersonic retropropulsion activates, further slowing acceleration by firing engines at the planet, similar to how SpaceX lands its Falcon 9 rockets.
Cost
- Initial tickets cost approximately $10 billion per person.
- Price will drop to an estimated $200,000 once the ITS is fully operational.
- Transportation costs are offset through improved material design, reusable rockets, refueling the spaceship in space, and replacing traditional rocket fuel with methane fuel.
- ITS is not a one-way system; methane fuel natively harvested and refined from Martian regolith permits the spaceship to return home. Musk states that methane provides enough thrust to break free from Mars' weaker gravity (37% that of Earth).
- SpaceX plans to transport two to three tons of equipment to the Martian surface every 27 months.
Progress so far
- SpaceX completed a test-fire of the Raptor engine.
- The carbon fiber fuel tanks have had progress, but constructing a large enough mold without cracks remains elusive.
- Musk hopes the first developmental spacecraft will be ready within the next three years.
Best case scenario
- The first departure could be ready in as little as 10 years if all goes as planned.
- The probability of success depends on whether SpaceX can stir enough interest to acquire outside investment.
- SpaceX cannot obviously fund the enterprise. “The whole point of the speech is to pique the interest of other monied space fanatics,” said Musk.
Source: SpaceX
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