But if SpaceX can manage to get this thing started, Elon thinks it could be not just a big deal in itself, it could jumpstart a slew of new possibilities for humanity. He explains:The big picture isn’t just to back up the hard drive but to really change humanity into a multi-planetary species. Essentially what we’re saying is we’re establishing a regular cargo route to Mars. With the economic forcing function of interplanetary commerce, there will be the resources and the incentive to massively improve space transport technology, and I think then things really go to a whole new level.What I’m describing may sound really crazy, but it actually will be a small fraction of what is ultimately done, as long as we become a two-planet civilization. Look at shipping technology in Europe. When all you had to do was cross the Mediterranean, the ships were pretty lame—they couldn’t cross the Atlantic. So commerce basically had short-range vessels. Without the forcing function, shipping technology didn’t improve that much—you could do the same things with ships, pretty much, around the time of Julius Caesar as you could around the time of Columbus. 1,500 years later, you could still just cross the Mediterranean. But as soon as there was a reason to cross the Atlantic, shipping technology improved dramatically. There needed to be the American colonies in order for that to happen.The people at SpaceX believe that once we’re on Mars, the rest of the Solar System becomes accessible as well. That’s why they didn’t just create images of their Big frakking Rocket standing proudly on Mars. They showed it flying by Jupiter.And Saturn.And bringing human explorers to faraway moons.They’re planning for a time when any person can go anywhere they want in our vast Solar System—a new golden age for exploration, with uncharted physical frontiers in every direction.
@BArtusio:@elonmusk How will occupants descend from the spacecraft?At 162 ft., appears too tall to utilize ladder w/ spacesuit. Especially repeatedly@elonmusk:@BArtusio Three cable elevator on a crane. Wind force on Mars is low, so don't need to worry about being blown around.
Question: Why launch the spaceship first, then the tankers.I think that launching the spaceship first allows more time to fettle the most important launch, the one with the humans on it, so it can be as perfect as possible. It's also going to take more time to load cargo and people than fuel. Given the long launch windows possible with this thing there is time to fix any problems with the spaceship, if there is a problem with a tanker just switch it for another one. Thoughts?
Quote from: nacnud on 09/29/2016 06:25 pmQuestion: Why launch the spaceship first, then the tankers.I think that launching the spaceship first allows more time to fettle the most important launch, the one with the humans on it, so it can be as perfect as possible. It's also going to take more time to load cargo and people than fuel. Given the long launch windows possible with this thing there is time to fix any problems with the spaceship, if there is a problem with a tanker just switch it for another one. Thoughts?Launching the spacecraft first requires the least number of vehicles; booster, spacecraft, and tanker.If there was a fuel depot, then the tanker flights could fill up the depot first and the spacecraft could be the last launch, but that would require a depot or second tanker. With these vehicles costing hundreds of millions of dollars, that's a big jump in cost.
Quote from: RonM on 09/29/2016 06:37 pmQuote from: nacnud on 09/29/2016 06:25 pmQuestion: Why launch the spaceship first, then the tankers.I think that launching the spaceship first allows more time to fettle the most important launch, the one with the humans on it, so it can be as perfect as possible. It's also going to take more time to load cargo and people than fuel. Given the long launch windows possible with this thing there is time to fix any problems with the spaceship, if there is a problem with a tanker just switch it for another one. Thoughts?Launching the spacecraft first requires the least number of vehicles; booster, spacecraft, and tanker.If there was a fuel depot, then the tanker flights could fill up the depot first and the spacecraft could be the last launch, but that would require a depot or second tanker. With these vehicles costing hundreds of millions of dollars, that's a big jump in cost.Yep... I you launch the tankers first, you need to have them up there waiting. All 5(?) of them. Whereas in the other approach you could do it with 1 tanker.I also think that having the spacecraft in LEO for a couple of weeks of outfitting and testing (while tankers are launched) is a good thing. But that would probably mean that passengers should be brought up later, closer to departure by other means. (which might be safer anyway, if other vehicles have abort capability)
So I guess people on Mars would have to embark/disembark in a basket held by the crane? Is that the fastest, safest, most efficient form of ingress/egress? What if someone has a leak in their spacesuit? Hopefully the winch won't break down. For frequent ingress/egress it might be nicer to have one of those scissor-lift things:
2.) The number of windows might be reduced substantially for cost/quality reasons -- it's one thing to qualify a window in Dragon 2 for a 30 day on orbit period; another to qualify a window for a period approaching a year in space before it can return to Earth for inspection.
I loved the From the Earth To The Moon episode dealing with the LEM so this post is in the vein of that episode.
... I'm just wondering what changes we'll see in the ITS between Phase 0 that we have now in September 2016 and the final flight article sometime in 202x.