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This is the SpaceX spacecraft with which the human being will reach Mars

Due to its close composition, similarities to Earth, potential resources to establish a colony with the proper artificial adjustments and the immediate need to have a plan B for when this planet can no longer cope – and here even natural disasters at the level of extinction are included. -, the next destination for human civilization is Mars, in fact, is to become a multiplanetary species.

This is the vision, and even more importantly, the plan of various companies, starting with those of SpaceX which, commanded by Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla -among other companies and projects-, already has more than advanced prototypes, details and dates to make the issue a reality, and in less than two decades, the first part of the intended goal being to get reusable vehicles as well as affordable trips.

Outline and general costs of the mission

Of course, the latter is as vital as the construction of Martian cities because with the usual methods, it is estimated that a trip to Mars costs about 10 billion dollars per person, but SpaceX specifically aims to be able to equate the price of maintaining an average home. in North American territory The keys? Fully reusable equipment and resources as well as rechargeable in orbit that can be generated on the surface of Mars or with the help of the sun.

Round trip mission outline

Thus, SpaceX's idea is to put into practice everything it has developed in terms of reusable rockets to send the first ships, specifically, bringing the rockets and tanks back and in a controlled way as soon as the ships can be brought into space in a Two-phase process (first the spacecraft is put into orbit and then a team is sent to fill the fuel tank), making it possible to use this impulse system and immediately recharge with other ships.

Each rocket or booster will support up to 1,000 uses, each tankeror refill tank 100 uses and each ship 12 uses including round trips. There's already a brand-new video simulation showing the complete path of a common mission:

The ship and its rocket

Interplanetary Transportation System It is as reference the rocket / tank combination developed by SpaceX. Said Martian vehicle would have a carbon fiber structure, powered by CH4 / 02, autogenous pressurization, almost twice the height of a Falcon 9 -another rocket that SpaceX has used in reuse tests- and 24 times greater load capacity.

Ship Solar Panels

The monsters in charge of generating and loading fuel would be theRaptor Enginewhile the rocket had about 28,000,000 pounds of thrust at takeoff -500,000 for each raptor engine-. For its part, the ship, about 17 meters in diameter and 49.5 in length in addition to a design inspired by the SpaceX Dragon ships, would seek to carry up to 100 passengers per trip and could withstand up to more than 1,650 degrees Celsius, which it would face when entering the atmospheres from both planets.

The rest would have to do with the propellant chemical generation plant built from the first trip to Mars and presented in the following scheme – the magic would be in the ice and carbon dioxide:

The chemistry behind the power plant

Costs, dates and next destinations

The cost per mission is estimated to be around 62 million dollars (11 million for the rocket, 8 million for the reload trip and 43 million for the ship) with a cost per ton of less than 140,000 dollars. From the dates, as we commented in a previous article and it is confirmed now, they will begin their explorations in 2018 and the first trips with humans after 2023.

The next steps on the way to Mars from SpaceX

As for upcoming destinations, Jupiter, Enclado (Saturn's moon), Europa (Jupiter's moon) and Saturn will be next on the list that the new interplanetary human species should cover.

For more information, it is worth checking the site spacex.com/mars where Elon Musk's full lecture has been shared on video along with the PDF presentation that said character occupied, in addition, in @spacex and @elonmusk, updates and details are published occasional of great interest.

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