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The ITS's reusability could eventually bring the price of a Mars trip down enough to make it affordable for large numbers of people, Musk said. That will happen organically as more and more people arrive on Mars, he said, comparing the ITS to the transcontinental railroad that helped open the American West to settlement from the East and Midwest in the 19th century.Īnd these pioneers won't just be the super-rich, if all goes according to plan. Musk did not lay out plans for building this city. (Earth and Mars align favorably for interplanetary missions just once every 26 months.) The ultimate plan involves sending 1,000 or more people-packed spaceships to Mars every 26 months, helping to establish a million-person city on the Red Planet within 50 to 100 years, Musk said. Related: See Stunning Photos of SpaceX Falcon Heavy's First Night LaunchĪnd there won't just be one ITS ship and booster. (For comparison, the Falcon 9 has nine first-stage engines and the Falcon Heavy has 27.) The ITS ship will sport nine Raptors and the 40-foot-wide (12 m) booster will boast a whopping 42, allowing the rocket to produce 13,033 tons of thrust at liftoff - 3.6 times more than NASA's Saturn V moon rocket was able to generate, Musk said. There will be some overlap of the two vehicles during stacking, which explains why the total height isn't 416 feet.īoth vehicles will be powered by SpaceX's next-generation Raptor engine, which is more powerful than the Merlin that propels the company's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. The rocket will contribute most of that height, measuring 254 feet (77 m) tall to the ship's 162 feet (49 m). The ITS will stand 400 feet (122 meters) tall when stacked, Musk said back then. The ITS architecture isn’t supposed to be Mars-specific the system could help establish a base on the moon, Musk said. The name was new, as the billionaire had previously referred to his envisioned concept (though much more vaguely) as the Mars Colonial Transporter. In 2016, Musk called this architecture the Interplanetary Transport System (ITS). For example, spacecraft coming home from Mars or the moon will need to be topped up on those worlds, using locally produced propellant. Off-Earth refueling of the ship is therefore key to Musk's vision. (The separate rocket is needed just to get out of Earth's substantial gravity well.) The craft will touch down on such alien worlds and take off from them as well, without the need for any additional landing craft or ascent vehicles. The spaceship, meanwhile, will make its own way from Earth orbit to Mars (or the moon, or any other desired destination). The rocket will launch the spacecraft into Earth orbit, then come back down to Earth for a vertical, propulsive landing. These updates have become a highly anticipated annual tradition Musk has given one every September since 2016.ĭuring that first presentation, he laid out the basic idea: A large spacecraft and a huge rocket, both of which will be completely and rapidly reusable.
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