In America, Mt. Rushmore immortalizes some of America’s most influential figures and founding fathers. One can’t help but think, will we someday see a rocky, red sculpture of the first pioneers on Mars too? It certainly looks that way. Elon Musk is gearing up to lead Earth to the red planet, the SpaceX way.
ELON MUSK LAYS OUT PLAN FOR MARS
On September 26, Elon Musk, the man behind such legendary companies as SpaceX and Tesla Motors, shared his plans for colonizing Mars. In this plan, Musk wants to send thousand of people to the Red Planet. It sounds like a moon shot, but hear him out. Musk’s plans involved building a series of ICT spaceships. Each of these will carry 450 tons of people and cargo up to the planet.
This is just the second stage, though. The first would involve a series of scouting missions to research the planet and also drop off necessary supplies for construction.
HOW ELON MUSK PLANS TO FLY TO MARS
Elon Musk makes it sound so easy but it’s not like flying to Mars is that simple. We’re not loading up the station wagon and heading to Wally World here. With both Earth and the Red Planet orbiting around the sun, traveling there involves careful planning.
If the ICT even makes it there, it needs to land on the surface, refuel with a unique propellant made from the Martian atmosphere and head back to Earth for another round of passengers and cargo. Musk failed to mention major issues like radiation risks on the flight. Furthermore, he left out a small detail about how these space colonists will survive the harsh conditions of the Red Planet.
THE ISSUE WITH ELON MUSK AND MARS
As you probably figured out by now, Musk has some issues to work about. According to Dr. Robert Zubrin, he thinks the real problem here is the vision. It’s not that Musk lacks vision per say, it’s just that he has too much of it. His approach is not mission driven. Hence, the major lack of intricate details. There’s far more research needed for this wild dream to be a reality. However, if Musk succeeds, his legacy will certainly be implanted in Martian history forever.
