ELON MUSK HAS GRAND PLANS FORMARS, MOON
SpaceX CEO says his new rocket can also fly you to Shanghai
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took the stage during a conference in Australia on Friday to expand on his vision of humanity as a “multiplanetary species,” introducing a new, multirole rocket in the process.
Musk’s speech at the International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide built on his presentation last year in Guadalajara, Mexico, where he detailed plans that envisioned a self- sustaining civilization on Mars in the not- too- distant future.
With those plans spearheaded by amassive new rocket system, Musk admitted Friday that cost was a concern, prompting him to scale back its physical size — but not his ambitions — in favor of a new system known as the “BFR.”
NEW ROCKET During the 2016 IAC conference, Musk introduced the Interplanetary Transport System, a proposed 400- foot- tall rocket and attached vehicle that would take up to 100 people to the red planet. Citing cost concerns, Musk said Friday that SpaceX is working on the development of BFR, a new two- stage rocket with a smaller diameter — 9 meters, or about 30 feet — and a height of nearly 350 feet.
The Saturn V rocket of the Apollo era stood about 360 feet tall, but SpaceX’s BFR would be more powerful, allowing it to take more to orbit and beyond.
“It’s really quite a big vehicle,” Musk said. “The booster is lifted by 31 Raptor engines.”
Atop BFR would be a second spacecraft capable of being crewed by up to 100 people or filled with cargo. Much like first stages of the company’s existing Falcon 9 rocket, the BFR would be fully reusable.
Musk said the first iteration could be ready as soon as 2022, when Earth and Mars are closest.
BFR: A MULTIROLE SYSTEM The BFR is a massive vehicle — but Musk thinks using it for all of SpaceX’s needs will help reduce costs and eventually transport humans to Mars.
The BFR system would play a role in and monetarily bolster SpaceX’s ambitions in four ways: the launching of satellites, trips to the space station under NASA contracts, missions to the moon and, finally, the transportation of people to Mars.
MARS PLANS STILL AMBITIOUS Ideally, Musk said 2024 would be the year to fly four BFR ships to the red planet: two crewed, two loaded with cargo.
This mission would enable the construction of a propellant depot to fuel return trips to Earth, as well as the establishment of a base that could see further expansion.
If the BFR is ready, an earlier, uncrewed mission in 2022 would help set the stage for travelers by identifying hazards and delivering some infrastructure.
MOON NOWA DESTINATION The billionaire CEO described how cargo would be handled on the moon but didn’t detail many other operations that would happen there, such as the size of the base or what its primary function would be.
IT’S FOR EARTH- BASED TRAVEL, TOO Finally, Musk teased using spacecraft to significantly reduce travel times around the globe.
SpaceX could, for example, transport passengers to any destination on Earth in less than an hour using the BFR.
An animation released by the company shows passengers in New York City taking a boat to an offshore barge topped with a BFR and flying at 17,000 mph before landing vertically in Shanghai 39 minutes later.