Are you ready to die?

Elon Musk has presented a plan for the colonization of Mars

The founder of the SpaceX space company, Ilon Musk, presented a plan for the manned flight and settlement of Mars on Tuesday, September 27. Musk claims that the first people can be sent to Mars already in 2024, but so far his plan is far from implementation-SpaceX has no rocket or spaceship, capable of delivering 100-200 people to the fourth planet from the sun in 80 days. "Medusa" says what is known about the mask plan - and what problems SpaceX will have to face.

On Mars in 80 days

A journey to Mars, according to the plan of SpaceX engineers and the founder of Ilon Mask, will look like this. The reusable missile will first deliver a spaceship with people and baggage to the earth's orbit, but without fuel. Then the same missile will land on the SpaceX site at Cape Canveral in the United States, refuel and with a load of fuel will fly back to the Martian ship in orbit; And so several times - until the fuel on board the ship is enough to travel. Such a scheme will significantly reduce the cost of traveling to Mars: raise a spacecraft with people and with fuel for a multi -month flight if it turns out in the near future, then at other capacities and costs. It is assumed that SpaceX will be able to use the rocket up to a thousand times. She, like a spacecraft for traveling to Mars, will be equipped with Raptor engines (work on methane) - SpaceX spent the first tests of Raptor the other day.

In a spaceship (Musk wants to call it “Heart of Gold”, also called the space yacht of the President of the Universe of Zafoda Bilbrox from the Hitchhiking Galaxy) will fit to a hundred extra people. The height of the ship will be about 50 meters, the diameter is 17 meters, the flight on it will take from 80 to 150 days. Musk claims that a trip to Mars will be pleasant: in flight you can eat in a restaurant and enjoy zero gravity. The spaceship, like the rocket, should be reusable; That is, after arriving at Mars and refueling on it, you can return to Earth. The first fuel production station on Mars should arrive there together with the first spacecraft. Return - a key moment in the idea of ​​a mask; Otherwise, Mars will turn into a missile cemetery.

To create a sustainable colony on Mars, about a million people will be required-this is about ten thousand flights by one by a minute in at least 40 years. At the same time, the first conquerors of Mars clearly will not be able to quickly (and possibly, in general) return to Earth. Musk admits that the first trips to Mars can be extremely dangerous for colonists. “Are you ready to die? If there are no problems with this, you are an excellent candidate [for the first travel], ”he said, presenting the Martian plan in Mexico City.

How exactly the settlers will live on Mars to live - and what SpaceX proposes to do to improve difficult life conditions on a planet whose atmosphere is not suitable for breathing, Musk did not tell - not counting theoretical talk about heating the celestial explosions.

Is it possible?

Theoretically - yes. The ideas of Ilon Mask by the laws of physics do not contradict and are quite feasible in theory. According to Igor Lisov, the editor of the News of Cosmonautics magazine, the editor of the Cosmonautics News, the SpaceX project resembles the N-1 launch vehicle, which was developed in the USSR and planned to use to create a Martian station collected in orbit. N-1 never flew-it was not possible to create a reliable first step of the rocket. But the fact that SpaceX ideas can be theoretically implemented does not mean that in the coming decades the company will be able to carry out something from the plan.

SpaceX became the first space company to learn how to return the first step of the rocket after orbital launches, but has never been re -starting the step. The last incident with the fire of the Falcon 9 rocket and damage to the launch pad forced SpaceX to transfer commercial launches; The company called the loss of missiles the largest failure in the history of SpaceX. The Mask company only leads the development of a rocket of the Falcon Heavy increased carrying capacity and constantly breaks the test terms (this, by the way, applies to all Ilona Mask projects), while the Martian program will require a completely new launch vehicle. The piloted launches into space on the Dragon spacecraft were never carried out, which is supposed to be used to deliver astronauts to the ISS, namely, it should become the basis for the Martian ship.

Another important problem of the SpaceX plan is money. Now Musk estimates the cost of traveling to Mars of 10 billion dollars per person; Real colonization is possible only with a decrease in the cost of the flight to 200 thousand dollars - otherwise, obviously, there will be no demand. It is also unclear where Musk is going to get money for the development of a spacecraft and a new launch vehicle. In his presentation among sources of financing, in addition to commercial launches, the theft of Palson was indicated.