Elon Musk’s new rocket to colonize Mars and travel across the planet in minutes
Getting to New York in 30 minutes or Hong Kong in just 22 minutes is not an impossible task for Elon Musk and his company SpaceX. The man who also created the superson train project that is capable of traveling at a speed of 1,200 km/hr just showed the world his latest project to reach Mars. The plan includes a preliminary phase that involves traveling across the planet in rockets.
SpaceX and Elon Musk remain willing to revolutionize the world of transportation. Without giving up on the goal of reaching Mars, Musk made a change to the roadmap. Initially they were going to use Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and the Dragon capsule to go to Mars. Now these three elements will merge into one: the BFR (Big F*cking Rocket).
"I feel fairly confident that we can complete the ship and be ready for a launch in five years,” the businessman said at the project’s presentation at the International Astronautical Congress, which was held in Adelaide, Australia.
A rocket as a means of transportation?
A fundamental goal hiding behind this change is to combine all the resources in the same vehicle - in this case a rocket - to lower the cost and make the trips feasible. This means that the dream of colonizing Mars will involve traveling around the Earth in a rocket. A premium airline-style service.
Musk indicated that the rocket will take off from somewhere in the ocean. Passengers will reach the rocket by boat. After take-off the rocket will reach an altitude that is high enough to avoid atmospheric pressure and then travel to its destination at a speeds up to 27,000 km/hr. Once it has arrived, the shuttle will land vertically, just like the Falcon 9.
BFR will take you anywhere on Earth in less than 60 mins https://t.co/HWt9BZ1FI9
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 29 de septiembre de 2017
The rocket created by Musk will be 48 meters long, with a diameter of 9 meters. The idea is that is will able to be reused up to 12 times with room for 100 people distributed throughout 40 cabin on the shuttle. This “BFR” will also have fairly spacious common areas and an entertainment system for the astronauts.
At the moment there is no specific date for when these trips will become a reality, but the plan is to start building this “BFR” in six or nine months. We will have to wait to see if Musk’s dream of traveling across the world in just minutes comes true.