SpaceX ambition of colonizing Mars
Elon Musk, who founded SpaceX, first presented his goal of enabling Mars colonization in 2001 as a member of the Mars Society's board of directors. In the 2000s and early 2010s, SpaceX made many vehicle concepts for delivering payloads and crews to Mars, including space tugs, heavy-lift launch vehicles, and Red Dragon capsules. The company's current Mars plan was first formally proposed at the 2016 International Astronautical Congress alongside a fully-reusable launch vehicle, the Interplanetary Transport System. Since then, the launch vehicle proposal was altered and renamed to "Starship", and has been in development since, reaching orbit for the first time on March 14, 2024 on its third test flight. The company has given many estimates of dates of the first human landing on Mars.
SpaceX's early missions to Mars will involve small fleets of Starship spacecraft, funded by public–private partnerships. The company hopes that once infrastructure is established on Mars and the launch cost is reduced further, colonization can begin. The Mars program has been criticized by some as far-fetched, partially because of uncertainties regarding its financing[1] and because it primarily addresses transportation to Mars and not the steps that follow. George Dvorsky writing for Gizmodo characterized Musk's timeline for Martian colonization as "stupendously unreasonable".[2] For reference, Musk's timeline for the colonization of Mars involves a crewed mission as early as 2029 and sustainability by 2050.[3]
Some experts, like Robert Zubrin, support the concept due to the prevalence of water ice in the form of permafrost on Mars, as well as other resources like carbon dioxide and nitrogen;[4] some are opposed to the concept, believing the planet's lack of both breathable air and protective magnetosphere to be unacceptable problems.[5] A common sentiment among those opposed to Mars colonization is that humans should focus on solving problems on Earth before moving on to extraplanetary colonization.[6]
Background
Growth of private spaceflight
Before founding SpaceX, Musk joined the Mars Society's board of directors for a short time. He was offered a plenary talk at their convention where he announced Mars Oasis, a project to land a miniature experimental greenhouse and grow plants on Mars, to revive public interest in space exploration.[7] Musk initially attempted to acquire a Dnepr ICBM for the project through Russian contacts from Jim Cantrell.[8] Russian officials were unreceptive to Musk's approach and on the flight back from Moscow, Musk worked on a spreadsheet and concluded that they could build their own rockets.[9] Over time, Musk's goal evolved from a small publicity mission to generate interest in going to Mars, to a full-scale effort to create an architecture that would enable a self-sustaining human settlement on Mars.[10] This led to the formation of SpaceX.[11](pp30–31)
![[icon]](/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (July 2022) |
Reusable launch system
Tenets
As early as 2007, Elon Musk stated a personal goal of eventually enabling human exploration and settlement of Mars,[12] although his personal public interest in Mars goes back at least to 2001 at the Mars Society.[11](pp30–31) SpaceX has stated its goal is to colonize Mars to ensure the long-term survival of the human species.[1]
Starship's reusability is expected to reduce launch costs, expanding space access to more payloads and entities.[13] According to Robert Zubrin, aerospace engineer and advocate for human exploration of Mars, Starship's planned lower launch cost could make space-based economy, colonization, and mining practical.[11](pp25, 26) According to Robert Zubrin, lower cost to space may potentially make space research profitable, allowing major advancements in medicine, computers, material science, and more.[11](pp47,48) Musk has stated that a Starship orbital launch could eventually cost $2 million, starting at $10 million within 2-3 years and dropping with time.[14] Pierre Lionnet, director of research at Eurospace, claimed otherwise, citing the rocket's multi-billion-dollar development cost and its current lack of external demand.[15]
Launch vehicle
Starship is designed to be a fully reusable and orbital rocket, aiming to drastically reduce launch costs and maintenance between flights.[16](p2) The rocket consists of a Super Heavy first stage booster and a Starship second stage spacecraft,[17] powered by Raptor and Raptor Vacuum engines.[18] Both the rocket stages' body are made from stainless steel.[19]
Methane was chosen for the Raptor engines because it is relatively cheap, produces low amount of soot as compared to other hydrocarbons,[20] and can be created on Mars from carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and hydrogen via the Sabatier reaction.[21] The engine family uses a new alloy for the main combustion chamber, allowing it to contain 300 bar (4,400 psi) of pressure, the highest of all current engines.[20] In the future, it may be mass-produced[20] and cost about $230,000 per engine or $100 per kilonewton.[22]
Starship is the launch vehicle's second stage and will serve as a long-duration spacecraft on some missions.[23] The spacecraft is 50 m (160 ft) tall[24] and has a dry mass of approximately 100 t (220,000 lb).[22] Starship's payload volume is planned to be about 1,000 m3 (35,000 cu ft),[25] larger than the International Space Station's pressurized volume by 80 m3 (2,800 cu ft),[26] and could be larger with an extended 22 m (72 ft)-tall payload bay.[27](p2) By refueling the Starship spacecraft in orbit using tanker spacecraft, Starship may be able to transport larger payloads and more astronauts to other Earth orbits, to the Moon (Starship HLS), and Mars.[27](p5)
Program manifest
SpaceX plans to build a crewed base on Mars for an extended surface presence, which it hopes will grow into a self-sufficient colony.[28][29] A successful colonization, meaning an established human presence on Mars growing over many decades, would ultimately involve many more economic actors than SpaceX.[30][31][32] Musk has made many tentative predictions about the date of Starship's first Mars landing,[19] including 2029.[33]
Exploration
Musk plans for the first crewed Mars missions to have approximately 12 people, with goals to "build out and troubleshoot the propellant plant and Mars Base Alpha power system" and establish a "rudimentary base." The company plans to process resources on Mars into fuel for return journeys,[34] and use similar technologies on Earth to create carbon-neutral propellant.[35]
Colonization and terraforming
The program aims to send a million people to Mars, using a thousand Starships sent during a Mars launch window.[36] Proposed journeys would require 80 to 150 days of transit time,[32] averaging approximately 115 days (for the nine synodic periods occurring between 2020 and 2037).[37] This plan has been described as 'pure delusion' by George Dvorsky, writing for Gizmodo,[2] and as a 'dangerous delusion' by Lord Martin Rees, a British cosmologist/astrophysicist and the Astronomer Royal of the United Kingdom.[38] Serkan Saydam, a mining engineering professor from the University of New South Wales said that we will likely still lack the technology needed to create and maintain a martian colony of a million people by 2050. [2]
Red Dragon capsule
Mars Colonial Transporter
Reception and feasibility
As of December 2023, SpaceX has not publicly detailed plans for the spacecraft's life-support systems, radiation protection, and in situ resource utilization, which are essential for space colonization.[39]
Notes
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chang, Kenneth (27 September 2016). "Elon Musk's Plan: Get Humans to Mars, and Beyond". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 29 September 2016. Retrieved 27 September 2016. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Elon Musk's Plan to Send a Million Colonists to Mars by 2050 Is Pure Delusion". Gizmodo. 2022-06-03. Archived from the original on December 23, 2023. Retrieved 2023-12-26. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Torchinsky, Rina (17 March 2022). "Elon Musk hints at a crewed mission to Mars in 2029". NPR. Archived from the original on June 8, 2022. Retrieved 25 January 2024. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Zubrin, Robert (January 2024). "The Case for Colonizing Mars, by Robert Zubrin". NSS. Archived from the original on January 26, 2024. Retrieved 25 January 2024. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Wattles, Jackie (2020-09-08). "Colonizing Mars could be dangerous and ridiculously expensive. Elon Musk wants to do it anyway | CNN Business". CNN. Archived from the original on January 26, 2024. Retrieved 2024-02-14. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Dorminey, Bruce. "Why We Should Save Earth Before Colonizing Mars". Forbes. Archived from the original on February 14, 2024. Retrieved 2024-02-14. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Elon Musk (30 May 2009). "Risky Business". IEEE Spectrum. Archived from the original on 23 February 2017. Retrieved 1 March 2017. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Keith Cowing (30 August 2001). "Millionaires and billionaires: the secret to sending humans to Mars?". SPACEREF. Archived from the original on 19 June 2022. Retrieved 1 March 2022. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Ball, Molly; Kluger, Jeffrey; de la Garza, Alejandro (13 December 2021). "Elon Musk: Person of the Year 2021". Time. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2022. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Bierend, Doug (17 July 2014). "SpaceX Was Born Because Elon Musk Wanted to Grow Plants on Mars". Vice. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved 4 November 2022. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Zubrin, Robert (14 May 2019). The Case for Space: How the Revolution in Spaceflight Opens Up a Future of Limitless Possibility. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-1-63388-534-9. OCLC 1053572666. Search this book on
- ↑ Hoffman, Carl (2007-05-22). "Elon Musk Is Betting His Fortune on a Mission Beyond Earth's Orbit". Wired Magazine. Archived from the original on November 14, 2012. Retrieved 2014-03-14. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Mann, Adam (20 May 2020). "SpaceX now dominates rocket flight, bringing big benefits—and risks—to NASA". Science. doi:10.1126/science.abc9093. Archived from the original on 7 November 2021. Retrieved 28 November 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|s2cid=ignored (help) - ↑ Duffy, Kate. "Elon Musk says he's 'highly confident' that SpaceX's Starship rocket launches will cost less than $10 million within 2-3 years". Business Insider. Archived from the original on January 19, 2024. Retrieved 2024-01-12. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Bender, Maddie (16 September 2021). "SpaceX's Starship Could Rocket-Boost Research in Space". Scientific American. Archived from the original on 26 October 2021. Retrieved 22 November 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Inman, Jennifer Ann; Horvath, Thomas J.; Scott, Carey Fulton (24 August 2021). SCIFLI Starship Reentry Observation (SSRO) ACO (SpaceX Starship). Game Changing Development Annual Program Review 2021. NASA. Archived from the original on 11 October 2021. Retrieved 12 October 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Amos, Jonathan (6 August 2021). "Biggest ever rocket is assembled briefly in Texas". BBC News. Archived from the original on 11 August 2021. Retrieved 30 May 2022. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Ryan, Jackson (21 October 2021). "SpaceX Starship Raptor vacuum engine fired for the first time". CNET. Archived from the original on 9 June 2022. Retrieved 9 June 2022. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 19.0 19.1 Chang, Kenneth (Sep 28, 2019). "Elon Musk Sets Out SpaceX Starship's Ambitious Launch Timeline". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 7, 2020. Retrieved 8 July 2022. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 O'Callaghan, Jonathan (31 July 2019). "The wild physics of Elon Musk's methane-guzzling super-rocket". Wired UK. Archived from the original on 22 February 2021. Retrieved 9 December 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Sommerlad, Joe (28 May 2021). "Elon Musk reveals Starship progress ahead of first orbital flight of Mars-bound craft". The Independent. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 4 December 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 22.0 22.1 Sesnic, Trevor (11 August 2021). "Starbase Tour and Interview with Elon Musk". The Everyday Astronaut (Interview). Archived from the original on 12 August 2021. Retrieved 12 October 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Petrova, Magdalena (13 March 2022). "Why Starship is the holy grail for SpaceX". CNBC. Archived from the original on 28 May 2022. Retrieved 9 June 2022. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Dvorsky, George (6 August 2021). "SpaceX Starship Stacking Produces the Tallest Rocket Ever Built". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved 11 January 2022. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ O'Callaghan, Jonathan (7 December 2021). "How SpaceX's massive Starship rocket might unlock the solar system—and beyond". MIT Technology Review. Archived from the original on 8 December 2021. Retrieved 30 December 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Garcia, Mark (5 November 2021). "International Space Station Facts and Figures". NASA. Archived from the original on 6 June 2022. Retrieved 10 June 2022. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 27.0 27.1 "Starship Users Guide" (PDF). SpaceX. March 2020. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 August 2021. Retrieved 6 October 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "SpaceX wants to use the first Mars-bound BFR spaceships as Martian habitats" Archived November 9, 2018, at the Wayback Machine. Eric Ralph, TeslaRati. August 27, 2018.
- ↑ "We're going to Mars by 2024 if Elon Musk has anything to say about it" Archived February 3, 2019, at the Wayback Machine. Elizabeth Rayne, SyFy Wire. August 15, 2018.
- ↑ Berger, Eric (2016-09-28). "Musk's Mars moment: Audacity, madness, brilliance—or maybe all three". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on October 13, 2016. Retrieved 2016-10-13. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Foust, Jeff (2016-10-10). "Can Elon Musk get to Mars?". SpaceNews. Archived from the original on October 13, 2016. Retrieved 2016-10-12. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 32.0 32.1 Boyle, Alan (September 27, 2016). "SpaceX's Elon Musk makes the big pitch for his decades-long plan to colonize Mars". GeekWire. Archived from the original on October 3, 2016. Retrieved October 3, 2016. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Torchinsky, Rina (17 March 2022). "Elon Musk hints at a crewed mission to Mars in 2029". NPR. Archived from the original on 8 June 2022. Retrieved 16 June 2022. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Sommerlad, Joe (28 May 2021). "Elon Musk reveals Starship progress ahead of first orbital flight of Mars-bound craft". The Independent. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 4 December 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Killelea, Eric (16 December 2021). "Musk looks to Earth's atmosphere as source of rocket fuel". San Antonio Express-News. Archived from the original on 20 December 2021. Retrieved 31 March 2022. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Kooser, Amanda (16 January 2020). "Elon Musk breaks down the Starship numbers for a million-person SpaceX Mars colony". CNET. Archived from the original on 7 February 2022. Retrieved 7 February 2022. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species" (PDF). SpaceX. 2016-09-27. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-09-28. Retrieved 2016-09-29.
- ↑ "Elon Musk's plans for life on Mars are a 'dangerous delusion', says British chief astronomer". Sky News. Archived from the original on January 11, 2024. Retrieved 2024-01-11. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Grush, Loren (4 October 2019). "Elon Musk's future Starship updates could use more details on human health and survival". The Verge. Archived from the original on 8 October 2019. Retrieved 24 January 2022. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help)
External links
| Vehicles |
|  | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engines |
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| Missions | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Launch sites |
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| Landing sites |
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| Other facilities |
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| Contracts | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| R&D programs | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Key people |
| |||||||||||||||||||||
Italics indicate unflown vehicles or engines and future missions or sites. † denotes failed missions, destroyed vehicles and abandoned sites. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Template:Proposed spacecraft missions to the Solar System
This article "SpaceX ambition of colonizing Mars" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:SpaceX ambition of colonizing Mars. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
