Mars Vision

There is something about this day, I was writing about October 4. It holds true, even if this time something happened one week earlier. On September 27, 2016 Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, unveiled his plan of colonizing Mars at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico.

The plan calls for flying 10,000 spaceships to create a one million people colony on Mars. Fascinating concept no doubt. Each spaceship should carry 100 passengers. To launch such a spaceship the size of the rocket which would be needed exceeds anything that has been built so far. To demonstrate the scale a comparison of rockets was shown.

Wonder why there is no Space Shuttle in the table? Perhaps to somebody's surprise, the answer is because the Space Shuttle is not actually a rocket. However, the table is missing one rocket which deserves inclusion at least because it would be the closest by performance to the proposed Mars rocket. Energia launch rocket which was a vehicle to carry to orbit Soviet space shuttle Buran. Unlike the US space shuttle however, Energia was a true rocket capable of delivering any payload to orbit, and not only a shuttle.

Among many other things in the presentation, particularly interesting to me was the concept of a cluster of engines which are controlled in such a fashion that they could counteract a failure of any separate engine. It reminded me of something which I was working on for a number of years. This concept was implemented on Energia launch rocket and successfully tested in flight. Unlike it, the US space shuttle was designed with only three main engines fed from the huge fuel tank, and two solid fuel boosters, with practically zero ability to react in case of a failure. Intentionally or not, SpaceX seems learned the lesson. Their jumbo rocket is planned to be equipped with 42 engines.  

Musk has long said that he founded SpaceX in 2002 chiefly to help humanity colonize Mars. Becoming a multiplanet species would serve as an insurance policy, minimizing the risk of humanity's extinction should something terrible happen on Earth, he has said.

Musk reiterated that argument during the IAC presentation Tuesday. But he also put forth another reason why settling Mars is worth the trouble and the risk.

 "It would be an incredible adventure; it would be the most inspiring thing that I can possibly imagine," he said. "Life needs to be more than just solving problems every day. You need to wake up and be excited about the future, and be inspired and want to live."

Can't say better!

Orion

On December 5, 2014, after a long hiatus NASA performed successful launch of its new spacecraft intended for human flight. After the two-orbit unmanned test flight the Orion capsule returned in the Apollo-style splashdown.

As a matter of fact, the Orion spacecraft is designed on the same concept and looks very much like the somewhat enlarged Apollo.

The principal difference is that while Apollo carried three astronauts to the Moon, the bigger Orion is supposed to carry four astronauts to Mars.

This first launch was performed on board of the Delta IV Heavy rocket. In the future, Orion will launch on NASA’s new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System. It is expected to be more powerful than any rocket ever built, at least in its final configuration.

It is worth noting the Elon Musk's statement about his SpaceX new rocket expected to be launched in 2015: “Falcon Heavy will carry more payload to orbit or escape velocity than any vehicle in history, apart from the Saturn V moon rocket, which was decommissioned after the Apollo program". Mr. Musk has to study history of space flight better. While his Falcon Heavy should be able to carry 53 ton to low Earth orbit, Energia heavy lift launcher was able to carry up to 100 ton.