Elon Musk's SpaceX is almost ready to begin its construction of a Martian city as it will soon launch its first Starship mission to Mars by 2024.
The CEO made his claims on Friday, October 16, during the International Mars Society Convention. Musk said the company remains on schedule to launch the maiden unmanned SpaceX Starship Mars Mission within four years.
CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA - MAY 30: In this SpaceX handout image, a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft launches on the Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard at Launch Complex 39A May 30, 2020, at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The Demo-2 mission is the first launch of a manned SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. It was the first launch of an American crew from U.S. soil since the conclusion of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.
"I think we have a fighting chance of making that second Mars transfer window," Musk told Mars Society founder Robert Zubrin in an interview. Musk was referring to an opportunity to Mars mission that only happens every 26 months. Earlier in July, NASA, the United Arab Emirates, and China all launched their respective missions to Mars. Although there will be an earlier launch opportunity in 2022, Musk was referring to the Mars launch window in 2024.
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SpaceX's Mars mission timeline
Musk has long planned to establish a permanent and self-sustaining community on Mars just in case Earth becomes uninhabitable after being struck by an asteroid strike or a nuclear war.
Mars Society founder Robert Zubrin said during the convention that SpaceX is taking on the biggest single challenge, which is the transportation system. Other systems are going to be needed. However, as a space transportation company, its only goal is to carry cargo and humans to and from the Red Planet, facilitating the development of someone else's Mars base.
CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA - MAY 30: U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledges SpaceX founder Elon Musk (R) after the successful launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the manned Crew Dragon spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center on May 30, 2020 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Earlier in the day NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley lifted off on the inaugural flight and will be the first people since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011 to be launched into space from the United States.
While Musk is known to have too stringent timelines, if he is correct, then SpaceX can proceed with its first Mars mission in the same year when NASA launches its Artemis program to bring astronauts to return to the moon. SpaceX will also fly space tourists to the moon in 2023 via another Starship mission while Musk's company was also picked up by NASA as among the three commercial teams to develop moon landers for its Artemis program.
Musk also said that if not for the orbital mechanics, SpaceX could be sending a mission to Mars in three years," although Mars and the Earth will not be aligned in their best position. Thus, the company is taking the window in 2024.
SpaceX Starship Mars Launch Date
SpaceX will launch its Martian mission using its reusable Starship rocket, which is a combination of a rocket and spacecraft. It is currently being developed by the company at its facility in South Texas. SpaceX will also use Starship for its future point-to-point journeys around the Earth as well as its missions to the moon that will begin in 2022.
The billionaire unveiled his SpaceX's Starship plans back in 2016 with a project that aims to launch deep-space missions to Mars and the moon using a 50-meter spacecraft on top of a huge booster. The Starship rocket and Super Heavy booster will be both reusable.
Meanwhile, to prepare further for SpaceX Starship Mars Mission, the company is currently preparing SN8, another Starship prototype, for a 20-kilometers test flight soon after launching two test flights for Starship prototypes SN5 and SN6 from its Boca Chica test site in Texas, which reached an altitude of 150 meters.
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Written by CJ Robles
