Musk, CEO of the U.S. Space Exploration Technology Company (SpaceX), announced in a high-profile manner on the 7th that he will launch a new generation of unmanned heavy-lift launch vehicle "Starship" to Mars for the first time in 2026. If all goes well, he plans to launch "Stars

Musk, CEO of the U.S. Space Exploration Technology Company (SpaceX), announced in a high-profile manner on the 7th that he will launch an unmanned new-generation heavy-duty launch vehicle "Starship" to Mars for the first time in 2026. If all goes well, it is planned to be carried out within four years. Starship's first manned mission to Mars. SpaceX's radical Mars plan has attracted global attention, with supporters praising its "epoch-making significance in exploring the universe", while opponents criticized the related technology as being too risky.

spacex imagines a simulation of a city on Mars. (Source: spacex) Text | Chenyang

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“Technology needs to be improved 10,000 times”

Musk posted on social media Mars mission. This mission will verify the reliability of the spacecraft's complete landing on Mars. If the landing goes smoothly, the Starship's first manned Mars exploration mission is planned to be carried out within four years. He also said that once the manned mission to Mars is successful, space travel to Mars will increase "exponentially", with the goal of building a self-sufficient city on Mars within 20 years.

As the core equipment of SpaceX to explore Mars, Musk said that the fully reusable "starship" makes large-scale Mars trips economically feasible. "SpaceX creates the first fully reusable rocket stage and, more importantly, makes reuse economically viable. Fundamentally, enabling life on other planets is a mean to delivering cargo to Mars. Cost issue. "With existing technology, the cost of transporting a payload from Earth to the surface of Mars is approximately US$1 billion. It needs to be reduced to US$100,000 per ton before it is possible to establish a self-sufficient system on Mars." City, so the technology needs to be improved by 10,000 times. Although this is very difficult, it is not impossible.”

The “Starship” that Musk has high hopes for is a recyclable and reusable space transportation system. The rocket has a total length of about 120 meters and a diameter of about 9 meters. It is composed of two parts. The first stage is a "super heavy" booster about 70 meters long, and the second stage is a reusable "star" about 50 meters long. "Ship" spaceship. Its design goal is to send people and cargo to Earth orbit, the moon and Mars, etc., and can send more than 100 tons of payload into Earth orbit. CNN stated that SpaceX successfully completed the fourth test flight of the "Starship" in June this year, basically achieving the key goals of the test flight plan and demonstrating its reusability.

The US "Space" website describes that "Starship" is the largest and most powerful rocket ever built. It generates 16.7 million pounds of thrust at launch, almost as much as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (nasa) " Al The Themis manned lunar landing program used twice as many Space Launch System (SLS) rockets. Moreover, SLS is a disposable rocket, and the design of "Starship" is completely reusable. SpaceX plans to recycle the two parts of "Starship" after each launch, and start re-launching after quick inspection and refurbishment, thus ensuring high Density emission. spacex claims that the powerful carrying capacity and efficient launch frequency of the "Starship" will eventually make Musk's long-standing dream of colonizing Mars a reality.

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Going to Mars can be described as "difficult"

Spacex's official website details why the company chooses to colonize Mars. "Mars is 140 million miles away from Earth on average and is one of Earth's nearest habitable neighbors. Although the temperature is a bit cold, we can warm it up. The main component of the Martian atmosphere is carbon dioxide, in addition to nitrogen, argon and others Trace elements, which means we can grow plants on Mars. The gravity of Mars is about 38% of that of Earth, so people can easily lift heavy objects and move around. In addition, the day on Mars is very close to that of Earth, which helps humans. Adapt to the Martian environment. "

However, NASA mentioned that the distance between the Earth and Mars changes complexly at all times. The shortest distance is about 55.7 million kilometers and the longest distance is more than 400 million kilometers. Therefore, the launch window of the Mars probe is about every Once every 26 months.And even if you use a "starship" with powerful thrust, it is difficult to guarantee that you can fly directly from the earth to Mars. The solution proposed by

spacex for this is "Space Refueling". According to the official website of spacex, a refueled "Starship" spacecraft fully loaded with fuel (about 100 tons) will be launched to low-Earth orbit for standby, and then the "Starship" heading to Mars will take off from the ground and dock in orbit to replenish fuel. Then set off to Mars. Since the "Starship" is fully reusable, the main cost of on-orbit "space refueling" is the oxygen and methane that make up the fuel, which is not high. The current "Artemis" manned lunar landing program will also use the same "space refueling" solution to ensure that the manned lunar module and the "Orion" spacecraft fly to the lunar orbit after being refueled in low-Earth orbit. As for how to return from Mars, SpaceX is considering using water and carbon dioxide from Mars, artificially synthesized oxygen and methane as return fuel for the "Starship" spacecraft. Considering that the gravity of Mars is much lower than that of the Earth, the demand for fuel does not originate from the Earth. So big when it takes off.

spacex official website also stated that after arriving at Mars, the "Starship" spacecraft is expected to enter the Martian atmosphere at a speed of 7.5 kilometers per second and undergo aerodynamic deceleration. For this reason, the heat shield of the spacecraft is designed to withstand multiple entries. . However, some analysts believe that the current "Starship" spacecraft is testing the deceleration effect of the Earth's atmosphere during its fourth test flight, and the atmosphere of Mars is much thinner than that of the Earth. Therefore, whether the current design of the "Starship" spacecraft is suitable for the Martian atmospheric environment More experiments are needed.

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Musk’s multi-pronged approach

Currently, SpaceX has revealed very few technical details on how to colonize Mars. Musk recently said on social media: "We need to focus on how to get there first."

The New York Times broke the news in July that people familiar with the matter revealed that Musk is instructing SpaceX researchers to conduct in-depth research on a Mars city The designs and details include one team developing plans for a small dome-enclosed city, another team working on space suits to withstand the harsh environment of Mars, and a medical team studying whether humans can give birth on Mars. The

report also mentioned that most of Musk’s six companies are related to Mars colonization, and “each company may contribute to the establishment of extraterrestrial colonization.” For example, the private tunneling company "Boring Company" founded by Musk is famous for its sensational "vacuum tunnel" project. In fact, one of the company's purposes also includes the development of equipment for digging holes under the surface of Mars. According to Musk, part of the reason for acquiring social media platform In addition, the stainless steel Cybertruck produced by Musk’s electric car company Tesla is also prepared for exploring Mars.

As for the energy supply issue in the Mars colony, the "New York Times" stated that Musk is preparing to deploy hundreds of solar panels to provide energy for home heating and power generation in the Mars settlement. The report also mentioned that Musk said in an interview in 2022 that he was considering dropping multiple nuclear bombs on the poles of Mars. This would release the carbon dioxide and water stored in the ice caps of the poles of Mars and significantly improve the surface of Mars in a short period of time. temperature, thereby creating an environment suitable for human survival similar to that of the Earth.

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"Dangerous fantasy"?

spacex’s radical plan for Mars colonization is too crude, which is in sharp contrast to the cautious attitude of US officials. NASA officials have previously said that the agency does not expect to send humans to Mars before the 2040s. "If people reach Mars, they will be greeted by barren terrain, freezing temperatures, sandstorms, and unbreathable air."

According to Musk's previously announced plan, 1,000 rockets will be launched in a Mars launch window every 26 months. A "Starship" spacecraft can send 100,000 people to Mars each time, and it is expected to send 1 million people to Mars before 2050.Musk also recently said that utilizing Martian resources on-site is crucial to establishing a self-sufficient Mars colony, and that SpaceX plans to begin promoting efforts in this field "within seven to nine years."

But critics believe that SpaceX’s proposal is more about demonstrating the theoretical performance of existing rockets and does not seriously consider the real feasibility of colonizing Mars. For example, a normal journey to Mars will take 80 to 150 days. During such a long space journey, harm to the human body from cosmic radiation is inevitable - in comparison, astronauts currently living on the International Space Station for a long time can still Protected by the earth's magnetic field.

Robert Zubrin, author of "The Case for Mars" and aerospace engineer, made it clear that "it is impossible to land 1 million people on Mars." In the future, there may be some human explorers on Mars, just like scientific researchers living in Antarctica, but most The idea of ​​large-scale immigration to Mars to escape problems on Earth is just a "dangerous fantasy."

's original title is "Musk's high-profile announcement, is it reliable?" 》