Elon Musk recently unveiled a series of drawings that he says depict the Martian base Alpha. The pictures show the recently modified Falcon Heavy launch vehicle, with a bubble-like dome next to the missiles and several smaller buildings in the neighborhood. According to Musk, it is likely that the base will be built as early as 2028.
Elon Musk has demonstrated what his planned base on Mars will look like. The illustrations were posted on his Twitter page. In the foreground of "Alpha Martian Base," as Musk calls it, stand the Big Falcon Rocket currently being developed for interplanetary transport, with a brightly lit dome and several smaller structures next to them. Apparently, rows of solar panels are located nearby.
Asked when the Mars base will be built, Musk said, "It may be built in 2028."
Recently, SpaceX President, 54-year-old Gwynne Shotwell, spoke on the same topic, who confirmed that the first rocket will be launched in 2020, and missions to the Moon and Mars are planned for 2022 and 2024, respectively. “We want to get a large cargo to the surface of the moon by 2022,” she said at a symposium of the Military Aviation Association in Maryland. "And we're going to send humans to Mars in 2024." As Shotwell said, these plans "may sound crazy, but people once thought everything we had done so far was crazy."
The Big Falcon Rocket, designed to deliver people to the Moon and Mars, has 40 cabins with 6 passengers each. A powerful rocket will be able to lift 150 tons of cargo into space. Both steps are reusable. “We hope that next year there will be tests of a rocket with a second stage, that is, in fact, a spacecraft,” says Gwynne Shotwell, “and in 2020 the rocket will be able to make an orbital flight.”
Promotional video:
Earlier, in early September, Musk announced that Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese billionaire and online business entrepreneur, would become the first space tourist to fly a seven-day flight around the Moon on a Big Falcon Rocket in 2023. In addition, 6-8 art workers will fly with him. Maezawa will be the first traveler to the moon since the 1972 Apolo mission. How much he paid for this privilege is not reported.
“I loved the moon since childhood,” Maezawa admits, speaking at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. "I've dreamed about it all my life."
Maezawa is the CEO of Japan's largest online store. According to Forbes, he is ranked 18th among the richest people in Japan and has a fortune of $ 3 billion. Maezawa is the founder of ZOZO, an international online clothing company.
Meanwhile, Gwynn Shotwell, speaking at a symposium in front of military pilots, said that the BFR rocket can be used not only to deliver people to the Moon and Mars, but also in military operations. During a speech in Maryland, she revealed SpaceX's close ties with the military. In particular, the company is already developing top-secret spy satellites for the Navy, Air Force, CIA and the US National Security Agency. When asked if the company could in the future engage in launching weapons into space, Gwynn replied: "I was never asked about this, but if it comes to the security of our country, then yes, we will." In addition, Shotwell mentioned that SpaceX "spends a lot of time building relationships with the Air Force."
“We're in a good position right now,” Shotwell said. - We compete. Somewhere we lose, somewhere we win."
According to Shotwell, the second stage of the BFR rocket will be able to orbit Earth in less than 30 minutes. “You can imagine how much we can do to protect the United States,” she said.
Last year, SpaceX carried out 18 space missions using the Falcon 9 rocket - more than any country in the world except Russia, where 19 space launches took place.
SpaceX is going to conduct 24 space launches this year. To date, 16 of them have been completed, including the world-impressive February flight of the Falcon Heavy. However, Musk's company this year appears to be pushed aside by the Chinese: they plan to make 40 launches this year, of which 24 have already taken place. Still, Shotwell said the company plans to one day "overtake the Chinese."
“What worries me is that Chinese spacecraft fly into space up to 40 times a year,” Shotwell says. “And not for the sake of commercial clients - the Chinese have very few of them. What they do is worrying. And the fact that we have not yet overtaken them is a shame."
In the meantime, Musk found himself again at the center of a scandal after taking a drag on a cigarette (and apparently not with tobacco) while speaking live. Some particularly cautious skeptics are now wondering if the plan to launch humans to Mars is just drunken fantasies.
Varvara Lyutova