Ambitious is the best word to describe Elon Musk’s plans for SpaceX, a startup company that focuses on sending rockets into space.
Upon revealing the latest plans for SpaceX, Elon Musk and his company deserve a place in the Merriam-Webster unabridged dictionary, and they should be placed next to the word ambitious. We write this because Mr. Musk wants to send one million people to Mars, and he has shown us how he intends to do that.
SpaceX called it the Interplanetary Transport System, and it comes with the most powerful rocket ever built with a spaceship that is designed to carry at least 100 people to the maiden flight on the Red Planet. That means that Musk wants to put the biggest ever rocket in a craft that can carry as many people as on a city bus, and those people will be sent to Mars.
Elon Musk feels that his plan will help humanity to establish a self-sustaining colony on Mars in the next 50 to 100 years. The trick would be SpaceX’ Interplanetary Transport System, which will be reusable, thus lowering costs.
The booster rocket will return to Earth and land itself after each launch, while the main craft will be refueled once it gets to Space by using the same booster unit.
It will come with 42 engines for its booster, and all of the units are “Raptor” engines, which are up to three times more powerful than the current “Merlin” units employed by SpaceX’ Falcon rockets. The spacecraft will have nine engines of its own, and it will sit on top of the booster rocket.
To maximize cargo capacity on liftoff, SpaceX has decided to launch the craft with little fuel, so that it can be refueled once it reaches Earth’s Low Orbit. The trip would take a minimum of 80 days, which would make it up to three times faster than the slowest transit of existing solutions.
Sebastian's love for cars began at a young age. Little did he know that a career would emerge from this passion (and that it would not, sadly, involve being a professional racecar driver). In over fourteen years, he got behind the wheel of several hundred vehicles and in the offices of the most important car publications in his homeland. Full profile
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