3 replies to this topic

[Stevphfeniey]

Whether you work in the space program or are just a fan, this is the place for those who prefer their flight to be a little faster than Mach .8 (at least 21 times faster to be exact).

Sit back, discuss the goings on in the space flight world, or ask questions about what's going on and how it all works.

[Med.]

Can Elon Musk actually do it??? (colonize Mars)

 

[Zacca]

Can Elon Musk actually do it??? (colonize Mars)
 

if you have money you can do whatever you want

[Stevphfeniey]

Back of the napkin math tells you that broadly speaking the concepts behind the ITS are solid and it could work. Given SpaceX provided performance data for its Raptor engine, their provided masses for the systems involved, and proposed travel times to Mars.

 

The devil is in the details.

 

I mean the dude wants to land a skyscraper sized bomb onto the launch pad, slap a new payload on the top, fuel it up and launch again within a day. Just the pure logistics of a rocket launch tell you that's impractical bordering on impossible. So his idea to use the same booster over and over and over fast enough to get a Mars mission launched and fueled in orbit within say a month, well I seriously doubt that. Plus having 42 engines on one stage of a rocket just screams risk to me. I mean think about it, 42 terribly complicated engines with the highest combustion chamber pressures of any engine, something's bound to go wrong. 

 

And that's just to get to orbit and on the way to Mars, let alone the flight there, the questionable Mars Entry-Descent-Landing sequence, then the actual business of surviving and thriving on another planet.