Musk’s next step should be a private space platform for rocket assembly in space. Once this becomes a reality, he can simply boost things to the platform, assemble there, and then shoot things out with minimal effort.
I was thinking the same thing
His next step will be a night job in the Office of Government Efficiency in the Trump administration.
I don’t know if he ever sleeps or not.
Pretty d4mn good work for a machine.
Remember, a baseball outfielder can calculate to a very close degree where a batted ball will land just by watching the swing of the bat,the “crack” of the bat, and the direction (in the first foot of travel) off the bat. Knows almost exactly where to run to, to get the ball.
My ass.
Musk’s next step should be a private space platform for rocket assembly in space
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No. Musk’s next step is to land the StarShip on a pad, then do an in-orbit refueling. The current version of Starship can only lift 50 tons to LEO.
Von Braun's plan was to use 12 Saturn V launches to put all the components and fuel into orbit, assemble ONE Mars mission, and send it. It would have been pretty cost effective, because the entire Apollo program ran about $20 billion back then, and the included all the R&D needed for the Mars launches, plus 13 Saturn V launches (that includes the uncrewed and the later Skylab launch).
My view is, the colonization would work better if the craft that cycle back and forth don't have to land on either Earth (because there's no one aboard) or Mars (because a habitat module would be needed anyway, and would descend to Mars with colonists aboard). Due to the relative positions of the two planets, most flights would be more or less simultaneous, with the "empties" returning in whatever length of time it takes (no life support would be needed).
The other way, and probably the second way after initial colonization, would be to have an infrastructure to support refueling in orbit, plus one or more shuttles to pick up the colonists from Martian orbit. That's probably a necessity, since they'd be arriving in large groups.
I'd guess that the apparently simpler method of using one ship to do the whole job (launch, cross to Mars, land, get refueled on the surface, return to Earth, reenter) looks better up front because it'll be easier to do maintenance and turnaround on the surfaces of the two planets.
As pif has pointed out in the past, most of the launches from Earth will be done just to lug up fuel. Having a cycling shuttle approach would merely require a little more fuel to be parked up there, for the return trip. The nice part of that is, during the years when the planets aren't in the proper position, launches can be all about putting up fuel stocks.