We all have innumerable questions pertaining to how SpaceX CEO Elon Musk envisions sending humans to Mars. During a recent Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) session, Musk revealed his grand and extensive plan on how exactly he plans to make this a reality.
No arguments here that the common man had too many questions and doubts for this inventor. It started with the most obvious one – Rockets. How exactly, does SpaceX intend to send us to Mars? Musk cleared the air and stated that the first few trips to the red planet will not carry humans. These missions will instead aim to extract minerals, fuels and water from the planet. Later, the company will follow up with an ITS (Interplanetary Transit System,) with the first space ship interestingly being nicknamed the ‘Heart of Gold’ (after the famous spacecraft from the sci-fi fiction series ‘The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy’.) The bulk of the payload in this mission will consist of equipment and raw material aimed to build a propellant plant that will enable the rocket to make its return journey to Earth.
Elon Musk noted that the company is probably a year or two away from revealing how the ITS would be configured. “We will aim to release details of the habitation section when we have actual live mockups,” said Musk.
He also mentioned something new: Droids. Musk explained that SpaceX could put ‘miner/tunneling droids’ on Mars. He imagines, “Initially, glass panes with carbon fiber frames to build geodesic domes on the surface, plus a lot of miner/tunneling droids. With the latter, you can build out a huge amount of pressurized space for industrial operations and leave the glass domes for green living space.”
On being asked about the equipment and procedures that will be required for refueling operations on Mars, Musk said that he will send Dragon (the SpaceX craft) scouting missions initially just to “make sure we know how to land without adding a crater and then to figure out the best way to get water for the CH4/O2 Sabatier Reaction.” He also hopes to double the number of flights with each Earth-Mars orbital rendezvous, which is every 26 months, until the city can grow by itself.
Another user asked how the Falcon 9 would actually line up. He replied, “The big booster will have an easier time of things than Falcon, as the mass ratio of the stages is lower and it will have lower density. Net result is that it won't come in quite as hot and fast as Falcon, so Falcon should be a bounding case on the big booster.”
The Reddit session attracted more than 5,000 comments and indulged in topics ranging from the underlying technology that will enable humans to make the first leap to the red planet, to actually living and surviving there!
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