Interplanetary travel has been a long dream of mankind. Ever since the early 1950s, humankind has envisioned to explore or even to build a colonial settlement on Mars. The realization of this dream, however, is not easy considering the obstacles of space journey including funding and the health of the crew themselves.
Elon Musk, with his rocket company SpaceX, plans to revolutionize the current technologies for the journey to Mars in order to enable colonization of the Red Planet.
Time has once again proven itself golden, especially for space flight where travel span can significantly affect the health of the crew. As per The Conversation, the prolonged exposure to micro-gravity while outside the Earth's surface could expose the crew to the risks of muscle and bone loss and other health conditions. The most important and pressing concern, however, is the radiation exposure upon leaving Earth's magnetic field. Hence, the whole crew is at risk of dying even before reaching Mars.
The current technologies do not offer shield protection for the crew. On the other hand, with the help of in-orbit refuelling, Musk can offer solution to this space travel obstacle. The same media outlet reported that Musk is currently designing a fully reusable system that will be "refueled in orbit with a new kind of propellant that can also be produced on Mars."
With the said in-orbit refuelling, Musk also estimated that the travel time to Mars could be reduced to 80 days in the initial operations but could evetually take just up to 30 days which will be a major breakthrough from the usual six months journey to Mars.
As if that is already the treat, Musk also envision that this phenomenal journey to Mars could be affordable to anyone by cutting the cost to US$200,000 per person in comparison to NASA's Apollo program which costs US$1,000,000,000. Just imagine how many zeros are reduced!
Likewise, Musk plans to offer a return option for the people who will join the jouney to Mars. Unlike the rival mission Mars One which offers just a one-way ticket, Musk envision a two-way travel in order to fully realize mankind's dream of multiplanetarity. For those who do not know, Mars One was a mission created to build a permanent settlement on Mars by 2020s.
Furthermore, Musk's vision of in-orbit refuelling can allow larger spaceships to be sent on the Red Planet which means that more people and cargo can go to Mars in one stride.
You might be wondering, what's the catch? The vision of Elon Musk might seem far-fetched for some but Musk is a man who have proven himself in gettings done. The media outlet further noted that Mush has proven himself in this industry and has too much business acumen to be dismissed as a dreamer.
The source material for this article was originally published at The Conversation. Stay tuned for more exciting updates about mankind's journey to Mars!
