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Here it is, the grand plan for the Interplanetary Transport System (ITS) as presented yesterday at the the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Guadalajara, Mexico:
On Tuesday (Sept. 27), Musk unveiled SpaceX's planned Interplanetary Transport System (ITS), a rocket-spaceship combo that the billionaire entrepreneur hopes will allow humanity to establish a permanent, self-sustaining, million-person settlement on the Red Planet. Mars is the first planned stop for ITS, but it may not be the last. "This system really gives you freedom to go anywhere you want in the greater solar system," Musk said Tuesday at the International Astronautical Congress meeting in Guadalajara, Mexico. With the aid of strategically placed refueling depots, "you could actually travel out to the Kuiper Belt [and] the Oort Cloud," Musk added. The Kuiper Belt is Pluto's neck of the woods, while the Oort Cloud, the realm of comets, is even more distant; it begins about 2,000 astronomical units (AU) from the sun.
[...] The ITS booster will be the most powerful rocket ever built, capable of lofting 300 tons to low-Earth orbit (LEO) in its reusable version and 550 tons in its expendable variant, Musk said. This rocket will blast the spaceship, which will carry at least 100 people, to LEO, where further launches will fuel the smaller vehicle. When the time is right — Earth and Mars align favorably for interplanetary missions just once every 26 months — a fleet of these spaceships will depart from LEO, arriving at the Red Planet in as little as 80 days, Musk said. The ITS — both the rocket and spaceship — will be powered by SpaceX's Raptor engines, which run on a combination of methane and oxygen. Both of these ingredients can be manufactured on Mars and other places in the solar system, Musk said, meaning that the spaceship can and will be refueled far from Earth.
[...] The ITS spaceship could therefore go very far afield, provided it could access refueling stations along the way. "By establishing a propellant depot in the asteroid belt or one of the moons of Jupiter, you can make flights from Mars to Jupiter no problem," Musk said. "It'd be really great to do a mission to Europa, particularly," he added, referring to the ocean-harboring Jovian moon, which many astrobiologists regard as one of the solar system's best bets to host alien life. Building additional depots farther from the sun — perhaps on Saturn's moon Titan and Pluto, for example — could theoretically extend the ITS spaceship's reach all the way out to the Oort Cloud, Musk said. "This basic system, provided we have filling stations along the way, means full access to the entire greater solar system," he said.
The first Mars ferry will be named "Heart of Gold". Unfortunately, these bold settlers will have to be kept away from potential microbial life.
Additional Coverage:
Making Humans an Interplanetary Species - Video of Musk Presentation at IAC [1h4m46s]
Same, but with Q&A session [1h58m22s]
Making Humans an Interplanetary Species - Slides of Presentation at IAC (pdf)
SpaceX Interplanetary Transport System - Video mockup presented at IAC [4m21s]
SpaceX - Mars
Musk’s Mars moment: Audacity, madness, brilliance—or maybe all three story at Ars Technica
Elon Musk envisions 'fun' but dangerous trips to Mars (Update 4) at phys.org
Previous coverage:
SpaceX's Mars Colonial Transporter Becomes the "Interplanetary Transport System"
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28 2016, @10:28PM
Honestly, how can you look at live on !Earth and maintain this attitude of a glorious infinite Universe full of possibility? What the fuck do you want to go there for? Let's just give you the "how" for free - since that is basically all you are going ga-ga about. Congrats - Mr. Enron Mush Jr III in the year 2056 has made it possible for free and you get a blow job on the journey. Why the FUCK would you want to go there and live in a plastic bag? You earthlings are so weird.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28 2016, @10:47PM
That sounds familiar, I believe the tea sipping english POMs said a similar thing to those waiting for the next sail to the new continent, why for the love of her majesty's tits would you want to go to a place where you get your scalp handed to you by red savages?
(Score: 3, Touché) by bob_super on Wednesday September 28 2016, @11:57PM
Because when they got there, there was sun, chocolate, spices, and girls!
Oh, and they could get out of the tin can and breathe.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by martyb on Thursday September 29 2016, @01:30AM
I may be feeding a troll, but I'll bite.
Answer me this: Why do people still climb Mount Everest [wikipedia.org] — it was first summited way back on May 29, 1953! Yet, several hundred people make the attempt annually. In 2012, alone, there were 12 fatalities. People die each year making the attempt to get to the very place that many other people have already been!
Now, to go to Mars? To be the very first person, ever who has seen what you are seeing? To tread on land that nobody ever has before? To explore and seek and search and learn! (Now, would be a good time to reread that Mark Twain quote above.) To face a challenge. To advance the technology so that humanity may not only survive, but eventually thrive on another planet... that is the dream, the motivation, the aspiration. To be more than just the sum total of my life's experiences.
There are far better qualified people than I who would volunteer to go. But if, by some stroke of luck it were possible for me to go to Mars on the first ITS, you can bet I'd agree to go in a heartbeat. And if disaster should come and I die along the way, or upon Mars... what of it? At least I LIVED! I'd rather risk my life living — I'm going to die anyway!
Wit is intellect, dancing. I'm too old to act my age. Life is too important to take myself seriously.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @12:11PM
And yet people are committing suicide on this rock.