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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: 4, Insightful) by forkazoo on Wednesday September 28 2016, @10:36PM
Living with some gravity, with some atmosphere, further from solar radiation, with ready access to resources to build with, is both easier in many way and also a longer term investment. A jumbo ISS is never going to be permanently self sustaining, or capable of handling a growing population. As soon as one mechanical problem means you spring a leak, a space station has permanently lost mass and needs resupply. Pop a leak in your Mars habitat? Well, mine some ice and crack it to get some more Oxygen from the environment around you. Or walk on foot to a neighbor habitat if it's a bad leak.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @04:16AM
Do you and the people who modded you up even know what you're talking about?
1) "Some gravity". And where is the scientific evidence showing that Mars gravity is enough? We have near _zero_ scientific data on this (even for mice). We've got data for "zero" and data for around 1G (and maybe above 1G), but very little in between. Somehow NASA etc have money to talk about Mars but no money for boring stuff like this module: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrifuge_Accommodations_Module [wikipedia.org]
The fact is if Mars gravity isn't enough it's far far harder to adjust it there than to adjust the acceleration in a suitable space station (which can be built - you don't need a huge one - just tethers and counterweight(s) ).
2) "Some atmosphere" Do you realize how thin Mars atmosphere is? It's 0.6% the pressure of the Earth. You will still need spacesuits to go "outside" since it is below the Armstrong limit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armstrong_limit [wikipedia.org]
You can't just walk about wearing a face mask with oxygen.
So on Mars you, your livestock and plants will all effectively be living in a "jumbo space station" too. So it's not going to be much cheaper than a space station in space. If you want to talk about resources, water and O2, many asteroids have similar resources to Mars with the benefit of lower G so it is far less expensive to get on and off them.
Lots of people are biased by their experience on Earth or by the bullshit spouted by NASA and Musk so they assume a planet like Mars has got to be more suitable than a spacestation in space. But that's not true based on actual scientific evidence. The atmosphere is wrong, the gravity is wrong, and in many areas on Mars there is a night so you don't get solar energy, and it's a gravity well. All for what real benefit? Lots of land that you can't use without covering with "space station stuff"?
Seems to me Musk and NASA are in the business of getting suckers to fund them to play with their toys.
(Score: 2) by Absolutely.Geek on Sunday October 02 2016, @08:38PM
A jumbo ISS is never going to be permanently self sustaining, or capable of handling a growing population
Why not? Asteroid capture would bring in all the raw materials for orbital manufacturing and repair of existing facilities.
I don't think this would happen in the short term; for the first decade or two the new habitats would be very reliant on resupply from Earth.
However as we got better and better at 0g manufacturing; the habitats would become self sustaining and even self multiplying. Once you start manufacturing habs in orbit; the only limit is mechanical strength; 200m diameter, 1km, 100km???? Redesign your hab to also be a ship; 6 x 200m diameter x 100m length (4 floors takes this to over 1km^2 or 2500 acres) counter rotating habs on a central axis with extra radiation shielding and attach whatever the most advanced propulsion system of the day is and start touring the solar system; population 10,000 + crops and life support.
Don't trust the police or the government - Shihad: My mind's sedate.