Mars Colonial Transporter

Mars Colonial Transporter
Mission type Interplanetary technology, reconnaissance, settlement
Operator SpaceX
Spacecraft properties
Manufacturer SpaceX
Payload mass 100 tonnes (planned) [1]
Start of mission
Launch date TBD
Contractor SpaceX
Payload
Manned lander

Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT) is the name of the privately funded development project by U.S. company SpaceX to design and build a spaceflight system[2] of reusable rocket engines, launch vehicles and space capsules to transport humans to Mars and return to Earth.

As of 2014, SpaceX has begun development of the large Raptor rocket engine for the Mars Colonial Transporter, but the MCT will not be operational earlier than the mid-2020s.[3][4]

History

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has stated at least since 2007[5] the personal goal of eventually enabling human exploration and settlement of Mars.[6] He stated in a 2011 interview that he hoped to send humans to Mars' surface within 10–20 years.[6] By late 2012, Musk stated that he envisions a Mars colony of tens of thousands[7][8] with the first colonists arriving no earlier than the middle of the 2020s.[9]

In November 2012, Musk made public, company plans to build a second reusable rocket system with capabilities substantially beyond the Falcon 9/Falcon Heavy launch vehicles on which SpaceX had by then spent several billion US dollars. This new vehicle will be "an evolution of SpaceX's Falcon 9 booster ... much bigger [than Falcon 9]." But Musk indicated that SpaceX would not be speaking publicly about it until 2013.[10][7] In June 2013, Musk stated that he intends to hold off any potential IPO of SpaceX shares on the stock market until after the "Mars Colonial Transporter is flying regularly."[11][12]

In February 2014, Musk stated that Mars Colonial Transporter will be "100 times the size of an SUV", and capable of taking 100 people at a time to Mars.[13] Also, SpaceX engine development head Tom Mueller said SpaceX would use nine Raptor engines on a single rocket, similar to the use of nine Merlin engines on each Falcon 9 booster core. He said "It's going to put over 100 tons of cargo on Mars."[13] The large rocket core that will be used for the booster to be used with MCT will be 10 meters (33 ft) in diameter, nearly three times the diameter and over seven times the cross-sectional area of the Falcon 9 booster cores.[2]

In August 2014, media sources speculated that the initial flight test of the Raptor-driven super-heavy launch vehicle could occur as early as 2020, in order to fully test the engines under orbital spaceflight conditions; however, any colonization effort would be "deep into the future".[14]

In January 2015, Musk said that he hoped to release details of the "completely new architecture" for the Mars transport system in late 2015.[15]

Description

Mars injection orbit spacecraft

Mars Colonial Transporter has been notionally described as a large interplanetary spacecraft capable of taking 100 people at a time to Mars,[13] although early flights are expected to carry fewer people and more equipment.[7] It may use a large water store to help shield occupants from space radiation and have a cabin oxygen content that is up to two times that which is found in Earth's atmosphere.[7]

The Mars colony envisioned by Musk would start small, with an initial group of fewer than ten people. With time, Musk sees that such an outpost could grow into something much larger and become self-sustaining, perhaps up to as large as 80,000 people once it is established. Musk has stated that an aspirational price goal for such a trip might be on the order of US$500,000, something that "most people in advanced countries, in their mid-forties or something like that, could put together [to make the trip]."[7]

Before any people are transported to Mars, a number of cargo missions would be undertaken first in order to transport the requisite equipment, habitats and supplies.[16] Equipment that would accompany the early groups would include "machines to produce fertilizer, methane and oxygen from Mars' atmospheric nitrogen and carbon dioxide and the planet's subsurface water ice" as well as construction materials to build transparent domes for crop growth.[7]

Super-heavy lift launch vehicle

Comparison of rocket cores for SpaceX launch vehicles: (from left) Falcon 9 v1.0 (2010), Falcon 9 v1.1 (2013), and the proposed 10-meter diameter, 9-Raptor, first-stage booster for the Mars Colonial Transporter.

The super-heavy lift launch vehicle for MCT will lift the 100 tonnes (220,000 lb)+ payload of the MCT into orbit. Initial plans for the MCT launch vehicle consisted of one or three cores with a 10-meter (33 ft) diameter which is comparable to the one of the Saturn V. It uses nine Raptor LOX/methane engines to power each core.[13][2] The possibility of eliminating any tri-core version design, and modifying the MCT launch vehicle design to a single-core but larger-diameter vehicle—12.5 to 15 meters (41 to 49 ft) core diameter—was raised in late 2014.[14]

The rocket has not yet been named by SpaceX.[17]

The MCT launch vehicle is intended to be reusable—making use of the SpaceX reusable technology that is currently being developed for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy[2]—and producing approximately 62 or 190 MN (6,300 or 19,000 tonnes-force)[18] (formerly roughly sized at greater than 40 or 120 meganewtons (9,000,000 or 27,000,000 lbf)[13]) of thrust at liftoff.[2] There may be more than one design in a family of SpaceX super-heavy lift launch vehicles.[14]

Competition for the American heavy-lift market

In August 2014, media sources noted that the US launch market may have two competitive launch vehicles available in the 2020s to launch payloads of 100 metric tons (220,000 lb) or more to low-Earth orbit. The US government is currently developing the Space Launch System, a heavy-lift launch vehicle for lifting very large payloads of 70 to 130 tonnes (150,000 to 290,000 lb) from Earth. While SpaceX has played down the competitive aspect with SLS, if SpaceX makes progress on its super-heavy launch vehicle in "the coming years, it is almost unavoidable that America’s two HLVs will attract comparisons and a healthy debate, potentially at the political level."[14]

Launch facility

As of March 2014, no launch site has been selected for the super-heavy lift rocket and Mars Colonial Transporter, but SpaceX has indicated that their leased facility in Florida at Launch Pad 39A is not large enough to accommodate the vehicle, and that a new site would be built in order to launch the >10-meter diameter rocket.[17]

In September 2014, Elon Musk indicated that the first person to go to another planet could launch from the SpaceX South Texas spaceport,[19] but did not indicate what launch vehicle might be used to carry humans to orbit.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Musk, Elon. "I am Elon Musk, CEO/CTO of a rocket company, AMA!". Retrieved 2015-01-07.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Belluscio, Alejandro G. (2014-03-07). "SpaceX advances drive for Mars rocket via Raptor power". NASAspaceflight.com. Retrieved 2014-03-07.
  3. ↑ Pittman, Bruce; Rasky, Dan; Harper, Lynn (2012). "Infrastructure Based Exploration – An Affordable Path To Sustainable Space Development" (PDF). IAC - 12, D3, 2, 4 , x14203: IAC. p. 9. Retrieved 2014-10-14.
  4. ↑ "Elon Musk: Just watch me – I'll put HUMAN BOOTS on Mars by 2026". Theregister.co.uk. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
  5. ↑ Hoffman, Carl (2007-05-22). "Elon Musk Is Betting His Fortune on a Mission Beyond Earth's Orbit". Wired Magazine. Retrieved 2014-03-14.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Elon Musk: I'll Put a Man on Mars in 10 Years". Market Watch (New York: The Wall Street Journal). 2011-04-22. Archived from the original on 2011-12-01. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 "Huge Mars Colony Eyed by SpaceX Founder". Discovery News. 2012-12-13. Retrieved 2014-03-14.
  8. ↑ Carroll, Rory (2013-07-17). "Elon Musk's mission to Mars". TheGuardian. Retrieved 2014-02-05.
  9. ↑ Messier, Doug (2014-02-05). "Elon Musk Talks ISS Flights, Vladimir Putin and Mars". Parabolic Arc.
  10. ↑ Coppinger, Rod (2012-11-23). "Huge Mars Colony Eyed by SpaceX Founder Elon Musk". Space.com. Retrieved 2013-06-10. an evolution of SpaceX's Falcon 9 booster ... much bigger [than Falcon 9], but I don’t think we’re quite ready to state the payload. We’ll speak about that next year. ... Vertical landing is an extremely important breakthrough — extreme, rapid reusability.
  11. ↑ Schaefer, Steve (2013-06-06). "SpaceX IPO Cleared For Launch? Elon Musk Says Hold Your Horses". Forbes. Retrieved 2013-06-10.
  12. ↑ Ciaccia, Chris (2013-06-06). "SpaceX IPO: 'Possible in the Very Long Term'". The Street. Retrieved 2013-06-10.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 Nellis, Stephen (2014-02-19). "SpaceX's propulsion chief elevates crowd in Santa Barbara". Pacific Coast Business Times. Retrieved 2014-02-20.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 Bergin, Chris (2014-08-29). "Battle of the Heavyweight Rockets -- SLS could face Exploration Class rival". NASAspaceflight.com. Retrieved 2014-08-30.
  15. ↑ Boyle, Alan (5 January 2015). "Coming Soon From SpaceX's Elon Musk: How to Move to Mars". NBC News. Retrieved 8 January 2015. The Mars transport system will be a completely new architecture. Am hoping to present that towards the end of this year. Good thing we didn't do it sooner, as we have learned a huge amount from Falcon and Dragon.
  16. ↑ Gwynne Shotwell (2014-03-21). Broadcast 2212: Special Edition, interview with Gwynne Shotwell (audio file). The Space Show. Event occurs at 29:45–30:40. 2212. Archived from the original (MP3) on 2014-03-22. Retrieved 2014-03-22. would have to throw a bunch of stuff before you start putting people there. ... It is a transportation system between Earth and Mars.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Gwynne Shotwell (2014-03-21). Broadcast 2212: Special Edition, interview with Gwynne Shotwell (audio file). The Space Show. Event occurs at 20:00–21:10 and 22:15–22:35. 2212. Archived from the original (MP3) on 2014-03-22. Retrieved 2014-03-22.
  18. ↑ Butler, Amy; Svitak, Amy. "AR1 vs. Raptor: New rocket program will likely pit kerosene against methane" (2014-06-09). Aviation Week & Space Technology. SpaceX is developing the Raptor as a reusable engine for a heavy-lift Mars vehicle, the first stage of which will feature 705 metric tons of thrust, making it 'slightly larger than the Apollo F-1 engine,' Tom Mueller, SpaceX vice president of propulsion development, said during a space propulsion conference last month in Cologne, Germany. The vacuum version is targeting 840 metric tons of thrust with 380 sec. of specific impulse. The company is testing subscale components using the E-2 test stand at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, says Stennis spokeswoman Rebecca Strecker. ... Mueller said many people ask why the company switch to methane for its Mars rocket. With reusability in mind, SpaceX's cost studies revealed that 'by far the most cost-effective propellant to use is methane,' he said, which would be easier than hydrogen to manufacture on Mars.
  19. ↑ Solomon, Dan (2014-09-23). "SpaceX Plans To Send People From Brownsville To Mars In Order To Save Mankind". TexasMonthly. Retrieved 2014-09-24.