A few days ago, Elon Musk spoke again about the colonization of Mars and his new Starship rocket. Only one objective crosses his mind: in at least 20 years, humanity must have already colonized Mars, for that, he has been executing a plan in which special flights play a fundamental role. On repeated occasions, Musk has mentioned that humanity’s next big step, and perhaps the only way out to avoid extinction, is to become a multi-planetary species, in this way, he showed the key elements that will make it possible.
Elon Musk Calculates What Is Necessary to Build on Mars
In a recent meeting with experts on the subject and journalists at the SpaceX development facilities, in the remote town of Boca Chica, Texas, the businessman spoke about his plans to reach the Moon and Mars in the future. The first of its plans is the Raptor rocket engine, a methane-fed technology, already proven, that produces a thrust force more than 3 times greater than that used in its star rocket, the Falcon 9. The rocket destined for Mars will integrate between 50 to 60 of these powerful engines.
All that thrust will be needed to raise the Interplanetary Transportation System, the ship itself will have a capacity of 450 tons and would be in charge of housing the passengers and carrying everything necessary to survive on the Martian surface. The ship, with about 100 passengers, takes off from a launch pad, currently under construction, at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and is placed in a temporary orbit waiting to be recharged. There the spacecraft’s accelerator detaches (its “tail”) and returns to Earth on a 20-minute guided trip.
This accelerator lands on a specially prepared platform, and a propellant tank is mounted on it. The accelerator returns to orbit again with the ship and refueling. This would be repeated several times until the Interplanetary Transportation System is full. At this point the day began; First, the ship would expand two solar panels, which would provide 200 kW of energy to the ship, and we went to Mars.
Elon Musk estimates that it would take between 80 days to 150 days to travel the 75 million kilometers that separate us from Mars (approximate distance, because the distance is always varying). The adventure will be enlivened, he adds, by zero-gravity rooms, movies, games, a restaurant, and more.
Once on the red planet, the ship will land and passengers will be able to use all the cargo the ship carries to settle on Mars. On the first trip, the possibility of return will not be immediate, but Musk hopes to create a source of methane there that will allow the same starting process to be carried out on Mars with the final destination on Earth, and thus begin the colonization and establishment process that he hopes to see consolidated in about 40 to 100 years.
A Plan That He Has Already Been Advancing Little by Little
The path toward Martian colonization has already begun to be laid out little by little. SpaceX has conducted two launch tests with Starship in 2023, both with mixed results. The first attempt in April ended with a controlled explosion four minutes into the trip. The second, in November, showed progress with the successful separation of the first stage but ended in a collision 8 minutes after takeoff.
Musk announced that the third launch is scheduled for February 2024, hoping to overcome previous obstacles. In addition, the businessman is already preparing an improved version of the ship, to increase its current height, which is 122 meters, to 150 meters.
The Challenges Musk Faces to Colonize Mars
Beyond the technical issues involved in creating a safe travel route from Earth to Mars. Several political, ethical, and financial challenges would make Musk’s plans take at least 20 years.
Another reason is the lack of profitable resources on Mars, which hinders the stability and viability of colonization. The atmosphere of the Red Planet, composed mostly of carbon dioxide, presents challenges such as the need to intervene on the planet to create a sustainable environment, a process called terraforming. To solve this, Musk proposes warming the planet for many years. This process would melt the frozen CO2, densifying the atmosphere and bringing it closer to Earth’s conditions.
This story was written in Spanish by Perla Vallejo in Ecoosfera.