SpaceX shows off how we might get to Mars

https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/27/spacex-shows-off-its-interplanetary-transport-system-in-new-video/?sr_share=facebook

by reacharavindh • 10 years ago

45 19 10 years ago

vishnuks• 10 years ago

Duplicate https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12591517

Pfhreak4• 10 years ago

I like the way that this is set up to be iterable. Being able to stick the landing on the BFR isn't actually necessary. No reason you couldn't use two rockets to launch the fuel and ship separately.

Beautiful, here's hoping they can pull this off. Best of luck to SpaceX.

iblaine• 10 years ago

One way trip to Mars. Rightfully so, the first trip to Mars should be one way.

[edit] Presentation is ongoing and there is a return trip. Cool.

reacharavindh2• 10 years ago

While we are already trying a hard thing of getting to Mars, why not make an attempt to get back instead of "doing nothing"?

undersuit• 10 years ago

Fuel. We have two options to to get back from Mars. Bring the fuel with us or harvest the fuel there. Bringing the fuel is unrealistic, "The bottom line of all these calculations is that you can get about eight times as much stuff to Mars for the same amount of fuel if you send it one-way instead of trying to bring it back!"[1] So let's mine the fuel there. We've never done that. We don't know how long it takes. We have to bring all the equipment in one go, it might even increase the weight of the mission by 8x!

The whole one-way thing is just the easiest. It's no guarantee you're stuck on Mars forever(future flights might be better equipped for return), and it's far simpler than making a guarantee that you won't get stuck on Mars forever.

[1] http://www.polaris.iastate.edu/EveningStar/Unit7/unit7_sub2....

dogma1138• 10 years ago

The people who would be OK with a one-way trip are not the people you want to be sending to space.

pbreit• 10 years ago

What I don't quite get is that if we feel like we could figure out how to live on Mars, couldn't we relatively easily figure out how to live on a hot Earth?

chris012543• 10 years ago

The idea is to be a multiplanetary species. Not leave Earth for Mars. Plus, it's just really fucking awesome. That alone is enough reason for it to be pursued imo. Exploring and doing cool new things is part of what makes life worth living.

s3arch2• 10 years ago

We have made our earth worse for habitat, in the name of doing "cool things" and "make life worth living". But still we can live here and find happiness, unlike Mars. Living in Mars and building cities there is wonderful. The project might even succeed completely. But people will find more "emptiness" in space than on earth.

reacharavindh2• 10 years ago

Mars will be our Earth's active backup, in case shit goes really bad here(or, quite possibly we make it really bad here).

dv_dt• 10 years ago

That's a different and more uncertain reliability model for continued existence of the human species - at least for the probabilities I'd personally assign for the events required for getting to mars vs a serious effort at fighting climate change. (Especially given how weakly fighting climate change is supported among the two mainstream presidential candidates.)

Pfhreak4• 10 years ago

I'm sure learning to sustainably live on a hostile planet will result in technology we can also use at home. And vice versa -- pushing for sustainability at home will lead to technologies we can use elsewhere.

_rpd• 10 years ago

Having multiple independent biospheres reduces a lot of extinction level risks, not just catastrophic climate change risk.

dudus• 10 years ago

going live now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1YxNYiyALg

s3arch2• 10 years ago

Thanks for the link... I was just right on time when Elon came in :)

wiredfool• 10 years ago

Notice the progression of Red, Green, and Blue Mars at the end.

xutopia• 10 years ago

Aren't we sorely missing water on mars though?

Pfhreak4• 10 years ago

Mars has lots of water. It happens to be locked up as ice, but there's plenty of water on the planet.

SpaceX shows off how we might get to Mars

Related Stories