Inhabiting the most earth-like planet in the solar system has been one of mankind's biggest ambitions, and no other high-profile person knows this better than Space X founder and CEO Elon Musk.
The billionaire entrepreneur who's most noted for his ambitious and futuristic ideas is convinced that when earth becomes uninhabitable for humans, getting to the red planet is the only way out for the survival of the human race.
Inhabiting the most earth-like planet in the solar system has been one of mankind's biggest ambitions, and no other high-profile person knows this better than Space X founder and CEO Elon Musk.
The billionaire entrepreneur who's most noted for his ambitious and futuristic ideas is convinced that when earth becomes uninhabitable for humans, getting to the red planet is the only way out for the survival of the human race. Musk's Space X is even reportedly building a giant spaceship known as Starship, which according to him will be used to take humans to Mars.
Need 1,000 Starships for building a sustainable city on Mars
The ever-optimistic 48-year-old has now detailed the timeline and vehicle requirements to get to Marks and to build a sustainable city in Mars. Musk who's known to miss deadlines, to the point of one shareholder labelling his concept of time "Elon Time", seems pleasantly optimistic that his new foresight will work.
According to him, his multi-million dollar company Space X will require some 1,000 Starships in order to ferry the necessary cargo, infrastructure, and workers to Mars to build what he calls a "sustainable Mars city."
Another 20 years and we could call Mars home?
Musk revealed this information in a tweet replying to a question by Tesla Owners Silicon Valley which asked him "How many starships you wanna build?" for which Musk replies "A thousand ships will be needed to create a sustainable Mars city."
By Musk's estimate building the said "Mars city" would take around 20 years if not less. And this timeframe is mostly because of the planetary alignment which only allows for a Mars flight once every two years, meaning that each flight to Mars will be two years apart.
Travel to Mars could be an expensive affair
And as for how much a Starship ticket to Mars would cost, well only millionaires can afford that, as each Starship flight is said to have a launch cost of around $2 million or around S$2.7 million. Meanwhile, other than taking people and cargo to Mars, a Starship can also be used for earth orbital transportation too, according to Musk.
And since the Starship is intended to be reused, it can be used to fly outside of Earth's atmosphere up to three times a day. If Musk had his way, it won't be long that we see Starship stations in the orbital space which he believes will be a lot busier in the future. Having such stations would be crucial for things like cargo transfer and unloading and refueling for spacecrafts bound for Mars.
According to a Hardware Zone report, if Musk and Space X end up building around 100 Starships which is just as many as it has Falcons right now, the company may be able to deliver roughly about 10 million tons of cargo to orbit in a year if we calculate at the rate of 100 tons per vehicle. However, building a permanent and self-sustaining city on Mars seems like stuff of sci-fi movies, but Musk is as optimistic as ever.
The challenges of building Mars city
Buildingg a city in the relatively harsh atmosphere on Mars will be tough and a lot of things need to be considered before we even get there, like how to protect the crew from deep-space radiation and cosmic rays. And before we could think of landing on Mars we need to put astronauts back in the Moon, which will not be possible until at least 2024 according to NASA.
Meanwhile, Musk yesterday revealed further details on Space X's progress on it's latest Starship and flight timelines. According to earlier reports, Space X Is building the latest prototype called Starship SN1 at Boca Chica, Texas. Musk even shared a video of the Space X team working in the Starship tank done that will sit on top of the SN1.
SN1 Starship
According to Musk, each SN version of the rocket will have minor improvements over the other for at least the first 20 ships, and he intends to ramp up the production and testing of these.
Musk is hopeful that the SN1 will take off in about 2 to 3 months from now, which is still within the original timeline he had set earlier this year for a high-altitude flight by the Starship Mk1 prototype. The Mk1 wasn't as successful as expected since it blew its too in November and Musk had then said that Space X would be testing a new design instead of repairing the damaged Mk1.
Whether the SN1 will really take off successfully or not remains to be seen, but Musk is adamant that he will one day make Space travel a reality and Mars could possibly initially be a vacation for the super rich and maybe eventually our next home.
