Elon
Musk presented plans for SpaceX to begin colonizing Mars using a fleet
of BFRs, a codename for Big F*****g Rocket, to transport humans and
supplies from Earth.
His plan is to lead mankind into becoming an interplanetary species
by establishing a sustainable city on Mars in hopes to preserve humanity
in the event of an extinction scale scenario on Earth.
“It’s probably somewhere between 40 to 100 years to achieve a fully
self-sustaining civilization on Mars,” said Musk. This civilization will
consist of one million people.
Musk wants the move to Mars to be affordable for most people at
$200,000 per person. Though this is still a lot of money, the estimated
cost now to transport a person to Mars is estimated at over $10 billion.
His methods to reduce costs rely heavily on the BFR being a reusable
spacecraft, in-orbit refueling, and fuel production on Mars. Work has
already begun on the development of the rocket, which will be able to
fly people around the globe in under an hour as well as carry massive
amounts of cargo through space.
Musk goes in-depth on the rocket design stating features like a
carbon fiber structure, giant solar panels, 100 to 200 seats, zero
gravity games, a restaurant and many other details.
The Mars fleet plans to be comprised of thousands of ships. Musk compared it to being “kind of like Battlestar Galactica.”
The largest challenge so far is the funding. SpaceX plans to fulfill
cost requirements by using their resources to launch satellites, repair
and send cargo to the International Space Station, as well as accepting
support from private parties and the government. SpaceX already has
support from NASA.
Musk compares the colonizing of Mars to the colonizing of the United States.
“The number of people who will be willing to move to Mars is much
greater if they know they have the option of returning,” said Musk.
“Most of the people that went to the original English colonies in North
America, they never returned to Europe even once.”
Musk reasons that increasing the number of people who will want to go
is not as challenging as increasing the number of people who can afford
to go.
He hopes that by creating the dream of Mars in people’s minds and
instilling the spirit of exploration, SpaceX can get the public behind
their efforts and they can achieve necessary funding.
As of now SpaceX has under five percent of the company invested in
the interplanetary transport system. They are currently finishing up two
other space crafts focusing mainly on re-usability.
These rockets are on schedule to be completed within a year. Once
finished, SpaceX will gradually begin investing more and more of their
resources into the Mars transport plans. SpaceX already has rockets
capable of transporting cargo to the International Space Station with
some re-usability features that will be considered in the designing of
the BFR.
In two years, Musk states that they will have the majority of the
engineering team, as well as around $300 million, invested in the
interplanetary transport system. He also estimates that the entire
program will cost a total investment of around $10 billion.
His biggest fear is seeing investors swallow up the company and make it too expensive for average people to go to Mars.
Towards the end of Musk’s presentation, he states that BFR is perhaps
not the best acronym for the spacecraft. It is just the temporary name.
When ready for interplanetary travel, the first ship will be named
Heart of Gold from the movie Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
from : http://coyotechronicle.net/spacex-plans-for-colonizing-mars/