Shutterstock
Elon Musk has a grand plan for Mars, including the recent moon missions and lunar operations at “Moon Base Alpha” that Musk first revealed at the International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia.
The goal is to enable missions to the International Space Station (ISS), the moon, Mars and travel between spaceports on Earth. During his big reveal, Musk laid out a plan to build a rocket, dubbed a “Big Frickin’ Rocket” (BFR). He said he’d like to send thousands upon thousands of settlers to Mars as early as 2024.
Musk claims the monster rocket could be scaled down to be not so monstrous. This could enable the missions envisioned for the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule to be taken on by the rocket.
“If we can do that, all the resources… can be applied to this system,” said Musk.
Because of the reusability factor, Musk said the overall cost could be cheaper than expendable orbital-class rockets, which include the now-retired SpaceX Falcon 1.
Musk said that he hopes to build up a stockpile of Dragon capsules and Falcon rockets so that he could focus more exclusively on developing the BFR.
“I can’t emphasize how profound this is and how important it is,” he said.
Musk said he believes that the BFR rocket could be a “huge enabler for new satellites,” and that it could be so cost-efficient that travelers could go from one point of the Earth to another, such as New York to Los Angeles in under 25 minutes.
“Most of what people consider to be long-distance trips would be completed in less than half an hour,” he said. He followed that up on Instagram, saying, “Cost per seat should be about the same as full fare economy in an aircraft. Forgot to mention that.”
He also though that the BFR could be suitable for missions to the moon, including landings on the lunar surface for cargo and also people.
“It’s 2017. We should have a lunar base by now. What the h-ll is going on?” said Musk.
His long-term objective was very clear: Musk wants to send settlers to Mars so that humans can become a multi-planetary species.
Musk also has plans to see settlers “terraforming Mars and making it a really nice place to be.”
He said his view of turning humanity into a multi-planetary species was a goal worth having since not only would it provide a cosmic insurance policy against catastrophes on Earth, but it would also make life more interesting.
