SpaceX Interplanetary Transport System  

SpaceX's Mars Colony Plan: By the Numbers

Here's a look at SpaceX's proposed interplanetary spaceship and Mars-colonizing plans, by the numbers.

What would it really take to colonize a planet? Especially one that’s less habitable than Skellium… 

Terraforming Mars

If at first you don’t succeed…

SpaceX lands its “reusable” rocket on an ocean barge FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER.

Who’s coming to Mars 🚀

One of 7 ways a trip to Mars could kill you

1) Your rocket could blow up before leaving Earth

Elon Musk’s plan to go to Mars involves strapping a giant spaceship atop the biggest rocket that humanity has ever built. Because any rocket launch basically involves a long, controlled explosion, it’s inherently precarious — no matter how many safety tests are done beforehand. If anything goes wrong, if the explosion gets out of control, the people strapped to that big container of fuel don’t stand a chance.

For context, NASA’s space shuttle program carried 833 passengers between 1981 and 2011. Of those, 14 people died in explosions on two high-profile accidents (Challenger and Columbia), a fatality rate of 1.6 percent. That’s vastly more dangerous than driving and a bit riskier than climbing Mount Everest. (The fatality rate for the Apollo program to the moon was even higher, at 9 percent.)

But, of course, SpaceX would be using newer, more complex, and yet-untested rockets to get to Mars. So it’s tough to say what the actual odds of death would be. Possibly much higher! Note that a couple of SpaceX’s smaller Falcon 9 rockets have either exploded on the launchpad or blown up mid-flight. Engineers and rocket scientists can improve that, but it’s unlikely that the risk will be zero.

New view of the Pillars of Creation

js

Hat’s off to SpaceX for releasing footage of their attempt to safely land their first stage on a barge so they could reuse it.  The fact that they hit a barge in the middle of the ocean at all is pretty incredible.  Their ultimate goal is to soft land it so they can reuse their rocket engines.  Of course, the engines would have to be refurbished between every shot, but this could end up being an incredible cost savings for low earth orbit resupply missions.  When you watch this video, don’t think about how much money this cost to not work…. but how much future savings something like this could represent!

https://vine.co/v/OjqeYWWpVWK

When the bass drops

Gimme fuel

I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact.

Elon Musk