Get Ready Martians, Musk is Coming
Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and CEO of Tesla Motors, outlined his plan on Tuesday for his biggest project yet: colonizing Mars. He spoke at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, captivating his audience with his impressive vision for the future of humanity and interplanetary travel. Musk believes that this is the only plausible way to save humanity from an inevitable mass-extinction event and said, “I really have no other purpose than to make life interplanetary.” As such, he has dedicated immense resources to his pet project. SpaceX has already conducted successful tests concerning reusable rocket boosters, as used on their Falcon 9. Elon’s plan is to build a massive rocket with a passenger capacity of 100 that would be launched every 26 months when Mars and Earth are closest together. Tickets would begin at 500,000 dollars but are expected to drop to a third of that as missions continue. Musk believes that he can land the first manned mission on Mars by as early as 2024.
If he is to maintain that deadline, SpaceX has to tackle some big problems. One of these is funding. SpaceX have hinted at the possibility of a public-private sector partnership. Musk has said he will use profits from his other companies, Tesla and SolarCity among them, to further his noble endeavor. Another is the difficulty of lifting off from Mars and having fuel for the return journey to Earth. Musk has made progress in using the water and carbon dioxide on Mars to synthesize fuel but many tests have to be conducted before this idea becomes plausible. One major problem that Elon skirted around in his declaration in Guadalajara is the immense radiation humans face in space. Cosmic rays that give off immense amounts of radiation put passengers in considerable danger. He has not specified any plan to shield against this type of radiation and the medical conditions it causes. Musk even said there was a large risk of death or severe harm to the first groups of people who attempt the journey. Nonetheless, he is not deterred from continuing his mission. Also, landing the immense rocket provides a legitimate problem due to Mars’ incredibly thin atmosphere. The rocket boosters would have to be able to keep the rocket facing upwards and slow it enough not to damage it for the return trip. Finally, he hasn’t said much about the effects of zero-gravity on the human body. NASA conducted its first test on this topic when they sent astronaut Scott Kelly to live on the ISS for an entire year.
But if there’s one thing we should know about Elon Musk by now, it’s that he has the determination to accomplish anything he deeply cares about.
This plan, in effect a railroad system to Mars, has been christened ITS for Interplanetary Transport System. This name, changed from MCT (Mars Colonial Transporter), suggests that Musk and SpaceX are thinking beyond the Red Planet. The major advantage of this system is that it will be reusable, able to travel back and forth from Mars to Earth. This is especially important to Musk’s plan, considering it plans for over ten thousand rockets blasting off every 26 months, in just a few decades. His frankly optimistic expectations of establishing an independent Mars colony of a million people in 40 to 100 years, may seem improbable, or even impossible. But if there’s one thing we should know about Elon Musk by now, it’s that he has the determination to accomplish anything he deeply cares about. He revolutionized the electric car industry with Tesla, made green energy popular with SolarCity and pioneered online payment with his company PayPal, sold to eBay for 1.5 billion dollars. If he says this project is his sole purpose, there is no limit to how far humanity will travel.