Elon Musk, founder of Spacex really wants
to build a Mars city, and it could arrive
in the next 30 years.
The SpaceX CEO is currently working on the
Starship to send the first humans to the red
planet, a breakthrough that could pave the
way for the creation of an extraterrestrial
colony.
“It’s possible to make a self-sustaining
city on Mars by 2050, if we start in 5 years
& take 10 orbital synchronizations,” Musk
told his 25 million Twitter followers 25th
March, Monday evening.
SpaceX Starship is critical to these plans.
This is a prototype of the reusable vehicle
that SpaceX hopes to one-day use to transport
up to 100 people to destinations including
the Moon and Mars, with a Raptor engine instead
of the rocket propellant used for the Falcon
9’s Merlin engines.
That’s important because, SpaceX Raptor
engines burn methane and oxygen - both chemicals
Musk believes humans will be able to establish
propellant plants and create fuel to power
a return voyage to Earth.
In this Video Engineering Today will discuss
Mars orbital synchronizations.
What is it?
Why Elon musk thinks self-sustaining city
on Mars could possible taking this orbital
synchronizations?
So, Let’s get into details.
The orbital synchronizations Musk is referring
to is the point when the Earth and Mars are
in closest alignment.
Close Approach is when Mars and Earth come
nearest to each other in their orbits around
the sun.
Close is a relative term.
The minimum distance from the Earth to Mars
is about 33.9 million miles.
However, that doesn't happen very often.
If Earth and Mars had perfectly circular orbits,
their minimum distance would always be the
same.
However, they have elliptical egg-shaped paths.
In addition, gravitational tugging by planets
constantly changes the shape of their orbits
a little bit.
Giant Jupiter especially influences the orbit
of Mars.
The orbits of Mars and Earth are also slightly
tilted with respect to each other.
All of these factors mean that not all close
encounters are equal.
NASA explains that the 2003 approach was the
closest in 60,000 years, and it’s not expected
to come that close again until 2287.
When Mars and Earth are close to each other,
Mars appears very bright in our sky.
It also makes it easier to see with telescopes
or the naked eye.
The Red Planet comes close enough for exceptional
viewing only once or twice every 15 or 17 years
Mars Close Approach happens about every 26
months.
It is closely related to Mars Opposition and
Mars Retrograde.
Since Mars and Earth are at their closest,
it's generally the best time to go to Mars.
Many Mars missions have taken advantage of
the close distance to visit the red planet.
That's why, depending on budgets, you'll often
see that Mars missions launch about every
two years:
These synchronizations have dictated the rhythm
of NASA’s launches for nearly 20 years:
Mars Odyssey is part of NASA's Mars Exploration
Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration
of the red planet.
The spacecraft launched on April 7, 2001,
and arrived at Mars on October 24, 2001.
Its mission includes making the first global
map of the amount and distribution of many
chemical elements and minerals that make up
the Martian surface.
It successfully completed its primary science
mission from February 2002 through August
2004.
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission was
a robotic space mission involving two Mars
rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, exploring
the planet Mars.
It began in 2003 with the launch of the two
rovers: MER-A Spirit and MER-B Opportunity—to
explore the Martian surface and geology; both
landed on Mars at separate locations in January
2004.
Both rovers far outlived their planned missions
of 90 Martian solar days: MER-A Spirit was
active until March 22, 2010, while MER-B Opportunity
was active until June 10, 2018 and holds the
record for the longest distance driven by
any off-Earth wheeled vehicle.
The mission's scientific objective was to
search for and characterize a wide range of
rocks and soils that hold clues to past water
activity on Mars.
The mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration
Program.
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched
in August, 2005, carries the most powerful
camera ever flown on a planetary exploration
mission for homing in on details of Martian
terrain with extraordinary clarity.
While previous cameras on other Mars orbiters
were able to identify objects no smaller than
a dinner table, this camera is able to spot
something as small as a dinner plate.
This capability provides not only an astoundingly
detailed view of the geology and structure
of Mars, but helps identify obstacles that
could jeopardize the safety of future landers
and rovers.
Phoenix was a robotic spacecraft on a space
exploration mission on Mars under the Mars
Scout Program.
The Phoenix lander landed on Mars on May 25,
2008.
Mission scientists used instruments aboard
the lander to assess the local habitability
and to research the history of water there.
Mars Science Laboratory is a robotic space
probe mission to Mars launched by NASA on
November 26, 2011, which successfully landed
Curiosity, a Mars rover, in Gale Crater on
August 6, 2012.
The overall objectives include investigating
Mars' habitability, studying its climate and
geology, and collecting data for a manned
mission to Mars.
Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission
was developed by NASA to study the Martian
atmosphere while orbiting Mars.
Mission goals include determining how the
planet's atmosphere and water, presumed to
have once been substantial, were lost over
time.
It was launched aboard an Atlas V launch vehicle
at the beginning of the first launch window
on November 18, 2013.
The InSight mission is a robotic lander designed
to study the deep interior of the planet Mars.
It was manufactured by Lockheed Martin, is
managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
and most payload instruments it carries were
built by European agencies.
The mission launched on 5 May 2018 aboard
an Atlas V rocket and successfully landed
at Elysium Planitia on Mars on 26 November
2018.
InSight's objectives are to place a seismometer,
on the surface of Mars to measure seismic
activity and provide accurate 3D models of
the planet's interior; and measure internal
heat flow using a heat probe to study Mars'
early geological evolution.
NASA skipped the opportunity to complete a
launch during the 2009 and 2016 alignment,
and have plan for 2020.
SpaceX could take advantage of the coming
synchronizations, due in 2022 and 2024.
Indeed, that was Musk’s “aspirational”
plan as outlined at the International Astronautical
Congress in September 2017.
SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said the
company hopes to start doing uncrewed launch
tests of the new rocket in late 2019.
If all goes well, SpaceX would send two unmanned
Starships to Mars in 2022, with each one capable
of taking up to 100 tons of cargo ready for
the first humans.
The first SpaceX manned mission would take
place in the second synchronization on 2024,
sending two manned ships alongside two further
unmanned ships.
The six ships in total would carry around
double the mass of the International Space
Station.
Each orbital synchronization would likely
be dedicated to building out the base, initially
focused on life support and fuel production,
to gradually add more habitats and experiments.
Musk reportedly reiterated that he wants to
populate Mars and he wants SpaceX to be the
company at the core of that project.
"We're aspiring to send people to Mars," Musk
said.
"If humanity is on more than one planet – if
we're a multi-planet species… then civilization
as we know it -- the light of consciousness
-- will likely propagate much further than
if we're a single-planet species.
And although I'm quite optimistic about life
on Earth, at some point there's likely to
be some calamity, either natural or man made.
I'm not a doomsdayer but that preserves the
future of humanity.
It's like life insurance, collectively."
If all goes well, Musk claims a colony could
take shape in seven to 10 years from now.
From there, SpaceX plan would be to set up
necessary amenities like a recycling system
and surface mobility.
The first cities could then start researching
bigger questions, studying the planet and
trying to understand whether there was ever
life on Mars.
The architecture would be aimed at supporting
these experiments.
Professor Lewis Dartnell, an astrobiologist
at the University of Westminster, and interior
specialists at Hillarys, designed visions
for how habitats may look to cope with the
harsh terrain of Mars.
He designed the so-called “Home on Mars”.
The surface of Mars might seem similar to
Earth in that is it rocky and rugged, but
the planet is an inhospitable world with a
barely present atmosphere.
Because of this, any Martian habitat will
have to be an air-tight structure with airlocks
keeping the internal pressure and oxygen at
manageable levels.
This would include a sealable front door,
a greenhouse, solar panels, a gym for retaining
muscle mass with a third of the gravity, and
specially-designed bathrooms to recycle waste.
Astronauts will only be able to leave the
habitat while wearing a pressurised spacesuit.
The Mars structure would be covered in a thick
layer of dirt to fend off radiation, sub-zero
temperatures and storms.
Mars astronauts will have to be resourceful
when it comes to food and water as nothing
can grow on the Red Planet.
Their most likely source of nutrition would
come from insects and a vegan-based diet – all
grown in a connected greenhouse farm.
Another major problem would come in the form
of boredom.
All signals to and from Mars take approximately
40 minutes to travel through space, making
real-time communication with loved ones back
on Earth impossible.
Professor Dartnell said: “Humanity will
venture out through the solar system probably
sooner rather than later, and Mars is the
most enticing location to move house.
NASA and SpaceX are racing to Mars while astrobiologists
and architects face the challenge of keeping
astronauts safe when they reach the Red Planet.
Spacex’s next step is to test the Starship.
SpaceX has built a miniaturized version, dubbed
the “hopper,” at its test facility in
Boca Chica, Texas.
Following several months of construction and
outfitting at SpaceX’s South Texas launch
facility near Brownsville, the prototype for
the Spacex’s Starship, which is intended
to be the reusable upper stage for the company’s
next-generation launch system, with a separate
booster called Super Heavy servicing as the
reusable first stage, looks to be ready for
its first firing and short test hops, likely
only to be several feet.
SpaceX Tintin-inspired stainless steel construction
looks decidedly futuristic, but it lacks many
of the final version’s features like windows:
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recently tweeted that
the first short hops would only be done with
one raptor engine to complete minor jumps
off the ground, before moving to more ambitious
suborbital flights using all three raptor
engine.
The first launch could take place any day
now:
From there, SpaceX goal is to build an orbital
Starship prototype, which could arrive as
early as next year.
The final version SpaceX Starship Super Heavy
rocket is planned to be 387 feet tall and
30 feet wide.
SpaceX Starship is the upper portion of the
vehicle and is expected to be about 180 feet
tall in its final orbital form.
SpaceX Super Heavy is the booster stage and
expected to be powered by 31 Raptor engines
to produce nearly 14 million pounds of thrust.
With work well underway on perfecting the
Raptors Engine, the full ship could fly very
soon.
