The future of SpaceX and Elon Musk's space-faring ambitions were outlined in a nearly 2-hour live stream, detailing their new Starship.
The event was focused on SpaceX's ambitious flagship spacecraft called Starship, which they hope one day will help build a human colony on Mars. This massive ship will be powered by a Super Heavy Booster and something called a Raptor 2 engine, which they also showed off.
In the presentation, Musk nailed home the point of the need for humanity to become multi-planetary. The Starship is designed so that one can be built every three days, allowing 10 Starships to be launched, three times a day. Musk stressed that to sustain a human colony on Mars, a launch schedule like this would be critical for carrying supplies and people to the red planet.
"Our goal is to be making at least one stack per month, and then ultimately, potentially, a ship every three days," Musk says. "There'll be more ships than our boosters because the booster actually, even though it's gigantic, will come back in about six minutes."
Starship is currently awaiting approval from the Federal Aviation Administration which is conducting an environmental assessment. This assessment is scheduled to be completed by the end of February (or March, at the latest). If approval is given, the next step is to plan an orbital launch for the Starship which SpaceX says could be done before the end of the year.
Further down the line, SpaceX will be working with NASA to complete human spaceflight missions and a planned "dearMoon" mission, which will complete a loop around the moon in 2023.
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So, what do you think? Terraforming Mars into a second home for our species sounds pretty ambitious, but SpaceX seems up to the task.
Featured image: SpaceX via Youtube.com
