Although in recent times, the image of a visionary that he knew how to build through innovation has been diluted by his shameless public statements, Elon Musk's most ambitious projects still retain a spark of glory.
A few days ago, the magnate spoke again about
the colonization
of Mars and his new
Starship
rocket .
A crowd of planetary
geeks
and specialized journalists gathered at the SpaceX development facilities, in the remote town of Boca Chica (Texas), to learn about the plans.
to descend on the Moon and Mars.
"The critical advance we need to become a galactic civilization is
to make space travel as common as air travel
," the magnate said.
As a preview, Musk noted that
his first orbital flight could arrive in the next six months
.
While space trials
with humans on board
will begin next year.
A second Earth
Musk's idea in terraforming the Red Planet.
Photo The Martian.
NASA is most interested in the Starship, which is beginning to generate some doubts, to pass all the tests without a scratch.
The vehicle was chosen as the first crewed lander for the Artemis lunar exploration program by
2026
.
The pillars of this sidereal adventure are Artemis III (first human landing on the moon since Apollo 17), Artemis IV (first lunar walks and exploration of the lunar south pole) and, as confirmed by NASA, several refueling services.
The aerospace firm assembled the Starship with the intention of helping humanity set foot on the neighboring planet and converting its ship into a kind of
interplanetary Noah's Ark
, in case the Earth suffers any mishap.
Musk's intention is for the ship to go to and from Mars to create "a flourishing civilization and little by little,
terraform the planet
to make it look like Earth and thus extend life as we know it today."
Meanwhile, he considers that the first settlers will have to implement a life support system to create a sustainable environment and even resolve how to mitigate the effects of its
sepia-colored
atmosphere .
Its dusty atmosphere is 1% of Earth's and is mostly composed of carbon dioxide (CO2).
To correct this gap, Musk suggests
"warming the planet"
for many years, which will melt a lot of frozen CO2 that will evaporate and densify the environment.
The truth is that there are still many obstacles that must be overcome before humans can consider the variable of terraforming.
One of which is being studied by Musk and is the
method of transportation
to and from the Red Planet.
Two attempts and many doubts
The different prototypes of the Starship ship.
Reuters
The golden key that will open the sidereal lock is the Starship.
This vehicle consists of a first stage booster called Super Heavy and an upper stage about 50 meters high.
Both items are designed to
be reusable
.
So far, SpaceX has launched
two tests
of the Starship rocket from Starbase.
The first took place on April 20 of last year, ending
four minutes
into the trip with a controlled explosion.
The second attempt was in November.
And while the separation of the first stage was a success and all Raptor engines ignited as planned, it collapsed
8 minutes
after takeoff.
At the meeting, Musk declared that the ship's third launch will be in February and anticipated that it has "many chances" of reaching orbit after his teams discovered what ruined the second attempt.
"Flight two actually almost reached orbit. The reason it didn't complete it is because we vented the liquid oxygen and this led to a fire and explosion," he said.
Meanwhile, he continues to work on "an improved version of the ship that will be more reliable, with better performance and resistance. In turn, version 3 will be even higher and could reach
150 meters
in height," Musk declared.
In any case, this is a long-term goal that is probably related to how to harness Starship's power to carry a volume of payload.
At the moment, with its
122 meters
, Starship is already the largest and most powerful rocket ever built.
At takeoff, it generates 16.7 million tons of thrust, almost double that of the Space Launch System megarocket developed by NASA.
A great challenge for humanity
The difficulties that plagued the first settlers.
Unsplash
Beyond the technological, establishing a settlement on the Red Planet includes a series of political, ethical and financial challenges, which will delay the arrival of man to the inner planet furthest from the embrace of the Sun by at least two decades.
From an economic point of view, the cost of a mission is so onerous that it has not yet been accurately estimated.
For context, NASA's Apollo program cost more than
$280 billion
in today's dollars and this operation alone cost our satellite.
Regarding profitability, experts point out that there are no resources, as is the case with the Moon, that could be extracted and sold on Earth with sufficient value to justify the company.
Furthermore, it raises many questions for
human survival
.
Its thin atmosphere, composed of CO2, offers little protection against solar radiation.
Surface temperatures during summer days reach 20 degrees, but drop to -73 at night.
One of the limitations of this space outpost is that the trip cannot be simply a
round trip
.
Due to the movement of the planets, the colonizers will have to settle for a few months on the rusty soil before having a launch window that allows them to return.
It is clear that the key to survival, due to the complexity of transportation, will be the use of resources
in situ
.
Not only for building shelters but also how to manage oxygen, energy, water and food.
Since they cannot be extracted from the planet.
For this reason, scientists and engineers are contemplating operational solutions such as sending, a few months before the arrival of man, an
army of robots
to excavate the ground and settle underground homes.
These solar-powered androids, through sensors, will be able to determine the best location for the colony.
To generate oxygen, NASA's Perseverance probe carried on board an experiment called MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment) successfully produced oxygen from the carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere of Mars.
SL