SpaceX, a private space company interested primarily on Mars Colonization, announced recently that it will be creating a transportation system to move people and supplies to Mars in the future. This conceptual design that Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, shared with the International Astronautical Congress this year, is a design for the new Interplanetary Transportation System (ITS).
I.T.S. is a plan to cheaply transport people and materials from Earth to Mars through the use of reusable Falcon 9 Heavy/Dragon rockets. Within the past two years, SpaceX has proven that the use of Carbon Fiber technology within their spacecraft has become an efficient and durable way to keep their rockets in good condition. SpaceX was also able to develop technology, which enables the fuel carrier, and the initial rocket system, which would usually detach and break up in the atmosphere, to be guided back to Earth and land on a landing pad. This allows SpaceX to reuse their rockets, which brings the cost of sending anything up to space to drop significantly.
So, how will the I.T.S. work? SpaceX has devised a plan to build a rocket which would provide room for 100 passengers to travel into space via the Falcon 9 Heavy rocket and Dragon shuttle variant. After the heavy rocket, which has over 30 of the most powerful and fuel efficient rocket engines in the world, lifts the dragon shuttle into Low Earth Orbit (LEO), the rocket will begin its decent back down to Earth. There it will refuel, and another Dragon shuttle will be attached to carry fuel for the shuttle in L.E.O. that is carrying the passengers. Once the shuttle refuels, the passenger shuttle and it will begin its journey to the red planet. This process can be repeated multiple times; the goal is to eventually send multiple shuttles, carrying hundreds of people and supplies to Mars.
So, how much will this cost? In the grand scheme of things, not that much; only about $10 billion. SpaceX plans to get funded publicly through NASA for the ITS project. This would mean that we, as citizens of the United States, would be paying for this project. This may seem terrible, but when looking at the amount of money our government gives NASA annually, which is about $19 billion, if NASA gave SpaceX $1 billion per year, the project would be done in a decade; right in time for the growth of a Mars colony to boom.
This means that most of us will be alive through the next age of exploration, the final frontier will finally be within the average person's reach. I guess this will mark the end of the saying "The sky is the limit."
