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I'll Put Millions of People on Mars, says Elon Musk.
posted Dec 22, 2011 9:10 PM by Michael Stoltz [ updated Dec 22, 2011
9:29 PM ] By Greg Klerkx, New Scientist, 12.22.11
http://www.marssociety.org/home/press/n … yselonmusk
In the article Elon says that if SpaceX succeeds at reusable rockets
at the price of $100 to $200 per kg range, then he can get the mission
to Mars at $5 billion:
Musk is eventually hoping to build this kind of reusability into
SpaceX's newest launch vehicle, the Falcon Heavy. Scheduled for
testing in early 2013, Falcon Heavy will be the largest rocket flown
since NASA's Saturn V launched astronauts to the moon. Musk says that
a reusable version of the rocket could deliver a payload of up to 15
tonnes to Mars at a cost of $100 to $200 per kilogram. That makes his
$5 billion humans-to-Mars price tag seem realistic. Even so, the
Falcon Heavy would need to be "heavier" still to carry the minimum 50-
tonne payload needed for a Mars mission. But Musk, whose title at
SpaceX is CEO and chief technology officer, is working on that too.
Elon also reiterates his stance, that I agree with, about the
importance of achieving reusability in spaceflight:
At no point in our discussions does he withdraw or alter his 10 to 20
year time-frame for Mars. Even at the far end of that range, Musk
would be only 60 when the first Martian expedition launched. Would he
consider going on that first trip? "If someone had solved the rapidly
reusable launch system problem, then yes, I'd definitely go," he says.
"But if it were simply a one-time flight, then no, because I'd need to
stay and keep at the challenge with SpaceX. It is too important. This
is something that I'm in for the long haul."
Bob Clark
Old Space rule of acquisition (with a nod to Star Trek - the Next Generation):
“Anything worth doing is worth doing for a billion dollars.”
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Bob, the obvious question is do you think it will work? Their next goal after human rating is reusability, and during the newmars downtime the grasshopper video came out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSF81yjVbJE
Of the rocket engineers here, do you think it will work, reliably and economically?
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Bob, the obvious question is do you think it will work? Their next goal after human rating is reusability, and during the newmars downtime the grasshopper video came out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSF81yjVbJE
Of the rocket engineers here, do you think it will work, reliably and economically?
Yes, because I think reusability is doable at reasonable cost. The main requirement that Elon does have
is the actual dedication to doing it, which is lacking in the "Old Space" companies.
Bob Clark
Old Space rule of acquisition (with a nod to Star Trek - the Next Generation):
“Anything worth doing is worth doing for a billion dollars.”
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Now THAT is what a space entrepreneur should look and sound like. It is marvellous - what a stroke of good fortune - that we have Musk in the vanguard of space development. If it were left to the other dullards the prospects for us reaching Mars would be ever-receding.
I think 10,000 is an excellent first big target for human settlement. With 10,000 I think you could have a fully self-sufficient community that might even be able to reproduce on Mars.
Let's Go to Mars...Google on: Fast Track to Mars blogspot.com
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