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SpaceX says it will fly a spacecraft to Mars as soon as 2018
By Christian Davenport April 27 at 12:10 PM
In its first launch to resupply the International Space Station since its rocket exploded last year, Elon Musk's SpaceX landed its unmanned rocket on a floating 'drone barge' in the Atlantic Ocean. The landing, the first ever of a rocket's first stage at sea, is seen as a breakthrough for commercial spaceflight. (Jorge Ribas/The Washington Post)
Recently it pulled off feats once thought impossible—the vertical landings of its Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage, one on a helicopter-like pad at Cape Canaveral and another on a ship in the ocean. The accomplishments of recovering and reusing rockets that were normally discarded after each flight could help lower the cost of spaceflight. And the successes have reignited interest in space, which has seemed dormant since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011.
SpaceX landed the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a droneship April 8, 2016 in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast. (Photo courtesy of SpaceX)
SpaceX is currently developing a new Dragon spacecraft that would be able to fly humans—and not just cargo—to the space station. It’s also working on a more powerful rocket, the Falcon Heavy, which SpaceX says would become the world’s most powerful rocket with thrust at liftoff equivalent to 18 747 jetliners.
On twitter, Musk said that the Dragon "is designed to be able to land anywhere in the solar system." But he said he wouldn't recommend using it for missions beyond the moon because the inside is tight -- about the size of a SUV. "Wouldn't be fun for longer journeys," he wrote.
On its website, SpaceX says that the Falcon Heavy rocket "was designed from the outset to carry humans into space and restores the possibility of flying missions with crew to the moon or Mars."
The rocket is slated to launch for the first time later this year from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. SpaceX is leasing the historic launch pad 39A, which launched many of the Apollo and space shuttle missions.
John Logsdon, a noted space historian and a professor emeritus at George Washington University, said that SpaceX "likes to do bravado things."
He noted that the company has yet to launch its Falcon Heavy, and it has yet to land its Dragon using its own engine thrust, a key component in landing in the Martian atmosphere.
SpaceX pushes "the limits of feasibility," he said. "To think that you can get this all together in two years since two of the key steps have not been demonstrated." But he praised the company's engineering prowess and said it was smart to partner with NASA.
"NASA has more expertise in getting to and landing on Mars than any other organization in the world," he said. "So if a U.S. company wants to try it on a no-exchange-of-funds basis, why not?"
In a blog post, NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman said that collaboration with industry and international partners is key to getting to Mars, and that the agency is reaching out to “partners in boardrooms, classrooms, laboratories, space agencies and even garages across our country and the world.”
While the Cold War competition between the U.S. and Soviet Union propelled NASA to the moon in the 1960s, there is a different tone today, she said.
“In the international space community, gone are the days of the ‘space race’ when the dominant theme was that of various nations racing against each other,” she wrote. “Instead, we’re increasingly running together.”
For Musk, Mars has long been something of an obsession. Before he founded SpaceX, he was curious to know when NASA planned to send humans there, so he checked the agency’s website, he said at a conference a few years ago.
“Because, of course, there had to be a schedule,” he said at the time. “And I couldn't find it. I thought the problem was me. Because, of course, it must be here somewhere on this website, but just well hidden. And it turned out it wasn't on the website at all. Which was shocking.”
In an effort to drum up support for NASA and galvanize the public, he decided to buy a rocket and send a greenhouse to Mars, which would be the furthest life had traveled and the first living thing on Mars. But buying a rocket proved to be too difficult and expensive, and Musk decided he’d build them on his own. Musk, the co-founder of PayPal, invested $100 million of his own money into SpaceX.
Later this year, he is expected to lay out how SpaceX plans to fly humans to Mars. He has said he wants to colonize Mars so that humanity has a back-up plan in case anything should happen to Earth, such as an asteroid hitting it.
At a recent conference he said he wants to go to Mars for “the defensive reason of protecting the future of humanity, ensuring that the light of consciousness is not extinguished should some calamity befall Earth.”
But what drives him most is what has drove generations of explorers before him, what NASA long stood for, which was, simply, “that this would be an incredible adventure.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ill-fly-a-spacecraft-to-mars-as-soon-as-2018/
By Christian Davenport April 27 at 12:10 PM
In its first launch to resupply the International Space Station since its rocket exploded last year, Elon Musk's SpaceX landed its unmanned rocket on a floating 'drone barge' in the Atlantic Ocean. The landing, the first ever of a rocket's first stage at sea, is seen as a breakthrough for commercial spaceflight. (Jorge Ribas/The Washington Post)
Recently it pulled off feats once thought impossible—the vertical landings of its Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage, one on a helicopter-like pad at Cape Canaveral and another on a ship in the ocean. The accomplishments of recovering and reusing rockets that were normally discarded after each flight could help lower the cost of spaceflight. And the successes have reignited interest in space, which has seemed dormant since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011.
SpaceX landed the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a droneship April 8, 2016 in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast. (Photo courtesy of SpaceX)
SpaceX is currently developing a new Dragon spacecraft that would be able to fly humans—and not just cargo—to the space station. It’s also working on a more powerful rocket, the Falcon Heavy, which SpaceX says would become the world’s most powerful rocket with thrust at liftoff equivalent to 18 747 jetliners.
On twitter, Musk said that the Dragon "is designed to be able to land anywhere in the solar system." But he said he wouldn't recommend using it for missions beyond the moon because the inside is tight -- about the size of a SUV. "Wouldn't be fun for longer journeys," he wrote.
On its website, SpaceX says that the Falcon Heavy rocket "was designed from the outset to carry humans into space and restores the possibility of flying missions with crew to the moon or Mars."
The rocket is slated to launch for the first time later this year from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. SpaceX is leasing the historic launch pad 39A, which launched many of the Apollo and space shuttle missions.
John Logsdon, a noted space historian and a professor emeritus at George Washington University, said that SpaceX "likes to do bravado things."
He noted that the company has yet to launch its Falcon Heavy, and it has yet to land its Dragon using its own engine thrust, a key component in landing in the Martian atmosphere.
SpaceX pushes "the limits of feasibility," he said. "To think that you can get this all together in two years since two of the key steps have not been demonstrated." But he praised the company's engineering prowess and said it was smart to partner with NASA.
"NASA has more expertise in getting to and landing on Mars than any other organization in the world," he said. "So if a U.S. company wants to try it on a no-exchange-of-funds basis, why not?"
In a blog post, NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman said that collaboration with industry and international partners is key to getting to Mars, and that the agency is reaching out to “partners in boardrooms, classrooms, laboratories, space agencies and even garages across our country and the world.”
While the Cold War competition between the U.S. and Soviet Union propelled NASA to the moon in the 1960s, there is a different tone today, she said.
“In the international space community, gone are the days of the ‘space race’ when the dominant theme was that of various nations racing against each other,” she wrote. “Instead, we’re increasingly running together.”
For Musk, Mars has long been something of an obsession. Before he founded SpaceX, he was curious to know when NASA planned to send humans there, so he checked the agency’s website, he said at a conference a few years ago.
“Because, of course, there had to be a schedule,” he said at the time. “And I couldn't find it. I thought the problem was me. Because, of course, it must be here somewhere on this website, but just well hidden. And it turned out it wasn't on the website at all. Which was shocking.”
In an effort to drum up support for NASA and galvanize the public, he decided to buy a rocket and send a greenhouse to Mars, which would be the furthest life had traveled and the first living thing on Mars. But buying a rocket proved to be too difficult and expensive, and Musk decided he’d build them on his own. Musk, the co-founder of PayPal, invested $100 million of his own money into SpaceX.
Later this year, he is expected to lay out how SpaceX plans to fly humans to Mars. He has said he wants to colonize Mars so that humanity has a back-up plan in case anything should happen to Earth, such as an asteroid hitting it.
At a recent conference he said he wants to go to Mars for “the defensive reason of protecting the future of humanity, ensuring that the light of consciousness is not extinguished should some calamity befall Earth.”
But what drives him most is what has drove generations of explorers before him, what NASA long stood for, which was, simply, “that this would be an incredible adventure.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ill-fly-a-spacecraft-to-mars-as-soon-as-2018/
