SpaceX’s Big [bleep] Rocket - The Full Story

Wait But Why ^ | September 28, 2016 | Tim Urban

[PIF]

This is a mutipart post with links to:

Part 1: The Story of Humans and Space

Part 2: Musk’s Mission

Part 3: How to Colonize Mars

  Phase 1: Figure out how to put things into space

  Phase 2: Revolutionize the cost of space travel

  Phase 3: Colonize Mars

The Big [bleep] Rocket is [bleep] big. At 400 feet tall, it’s the height of a 40-story skyscraper. At 40 feet in diameter, a school bus could fit entirely underneath its footprint. It’s more than three times the mass and generates over three times the thrust of the gargantuan Saturn V-the rocket used in the Apollo mission-which currently stands as by far the biggest rocket humanity has made.

The Plan in short:
Upcoming Mars Oppositions - and what SpaceX is planning for each

July, 2018: Send a Dragon spacecraft (the Falcon 9’s SUV-size spacecraft) to Mars with cargo

October, 2020: Send multiple Dragons with more cargo

December, 2022: Maiden BFS voyage to Mars. Carrying only cargo. This is the spaceship Elon wants to call Heart of Gold. (with 100 people, the first installment on 1,000,000 people)

January, 2025: First people-carrying BFS voyage to Mars.

Let’s all go back and read that last line again.

January, 2025: First people-carrying BFS voyage to Mars.

SpaceX Interplanetary Transport System (summary video short)

[logi_cal869]

I’ll concede a bit of classic explorer emotion to those that wish to conquer visiting Mars as if it were a mountain (because it’s there). But it comes with a virtual death sentence for all that stay for extended periods. We dont need to visit to find out how deadly it is.

There are much better avenues for pure science in space research than this BS of colonizing a planet that is totally-inhospitable to life for reasons we cannot change...despite those that think we can change our own biosphere...