Elon Musk put forward a plan to ensure the long-term survival of mankind-we must become an interstellar species with space civilization. When the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX was a guest on the podcast "Sway", he revealed the details of the next-generation launch vehicle "Starship" and some "dim prospects" for the future of mankind.
Elon Musk also pointed out that SpaceX's reusable "Starship" rocket will be the key to making his plan a reality. He believes that humans can fly on rockets within two years.
There are many other players in the current space game, including Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, who owns the private space company Blue Origin. At present, Blue Origin and SpaceX are competing with each other, trying to use their spacecraft to send the next human to the moon and become the first company to send tourists into space.
SpaceX's "starship" will be partially reused and has the ability to fly directly from Earth to Mars
Musk pointed out that "the sun will eventually expand and engulf the earth", so humans need to go to Mars. He said that this will definitely happen, but it will not happen soon. The billionaire also pointed out that SpaceX's reusable "starship" will be the key to turning his plan into reality. One of its design uses is to perform missions to Mars, including as a cargo ship and manned spacecraft. He believes that humans will be able to fly on rockets within the next two years.
A study by the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom shows that the situation where the sun expands and swallows the earth does happen, but at least 6 billion years, the life of the sun will not come to an end.
For many years, Musk has been hoping to conquer Mars, and he has never been shy to reveal his plans. The key to turning this dream into reality is SpaceX's large rocket-"Starship". The rocket has been tested and built at the company's Boca Chica base in Texas.
"I think we will launch the starship sometime next year, which should be around August. We will operate in unmanned automatic mode," Musk said. "I think it should be safe to fly manned in two years. Yes, it will definitely be possible after three years."
When asked whether he planned to travel on the rocket, Musk said he had not considered it, but did not rule out this possibility. Earlier, Musk proposed that SpaceX needs to produce 1,000 starships within 9 years to send 1 million people to Mars. He said his company is achieving this goal.
"We can reduce the cost of space and save taxpayers a lot of money," Musk said. "We are advancing reusable rocket launch technology. Reusability is very important for entering space. Using rockets as consumables is actually a bit stupid. You built an incredible machine, but it crashed into the ocean in the end, leaving only debris on the bottom of the ocean. This is crazy."
On the other hand, both Musk and Bezos also focus on the long-term survival of humans, although they have different ideas on how to ensure the continuation of humans. Musk made moving to a different planet his top priority, and Bezos envisioned humans entering a large space station. "But anyway, if you have an advanced rocket, you can decide whether you want to live on the space station or on Mars," Musk said. "Now we still have a long way to go because we can't even Back to the moon."
"I think it's a bit sad. We were able to land on the moon in 1969, but now it is 2020 and we can't even return to the moon. We certainly want to make sure that civilization can get better over time," he Continue to say, "I am a little worried, we are slowing down the rate of progress, we are slowing down the rate of change, we are getting old."
Musk announced the prototype of the first "starship" in 2019, and its main goal is to send humans to Mars. He originally planned to fly the rocket in low orbit in March this year, and achieve manned lift-off by the end of 2020. However, since 2019, the "Starship" project has experienced some twists and turns, and Musk also mentioned this in another interview earlier this month.
"I hope we can do many flights," Musk said. "The initial model may not work. This is uncharted territory. No one has made an orbital rocket that can be completely reused. So just do this It is of great significance."
What is Elon Musk's "BFR"?
As early as 2005, SpaceX used "BFR" as the name of the planned super heavy rocket. In 2016, SpaceX announced a 12-meter diameter design and referred to the entire system as the "Interplanetary Transportation System" (ITS). In 2017, SpaceX announced a new design with a 9-meter diameter. The rocket was changed back to "BFR". SpaceX President Gwen Shortwell stated that its full name is "Big Falcon Rocket". But Elon Musk once explained that he was inspired by the BFG weapon in the game "Doom", and the name of the weapon is "Big Fucking Gun", so BFR is occasionally called "Big Fucking Rocket" by the media. .
The CEO of SpaceX said that the rocket will go to Mars for the first time in 2022, carry only cargo, and then make a manned flight in 2024. He also pointed out that other SpaceX products will be "disassembled" to cover launch costs.
SpaceX's "starship" will be partially reused and has the ability to fly directly from Earth to Mars. Musk believes that once the rocket is built, it can also be used for travel on the earth, and passengers can reach anywhere on the earth within an hour.