There are a lot people looking at space now than there ever has before, but one that is attempting to break new grounds in space is SpaceX. Join me as I reveal who they are, and what they're doing to push humanity to the stars. 9. What Is SpaceX?
If you want the simple answer, here you go:
"SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. The company was founded in 2002 to revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets."
While that may sound very basic, it's actually quite a complex thing. You see, for all the advances that humanity has made in regards to going into space, the fact of the matter is that it costs a LOT to do that. So much so that the United States main space agency, NASA, was hit with major budget cuts because the attempts they were making to revolutionize space travel just wasn't working.
Enter Elon Musk, one of the richest men in the world, and a man who truly believes in trying to make space travel not just the future, but the present. He founded SpaceX in 2002 to try and make space travel better, cheaper, more accessible, and beyond, and as the Space X website loves to boast, since 2002, they've had quite a few successes:
"SpaceX has gained worldwide attention for a series of historic milestones. It is the only private company capable of returning a spacecraft from low Earth orbit, which it first accomplished in 2010. The company made history again in 2012 when its Dragon spacecraft became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to and from the International Space Station.
SpaceX successfully achieved the historic first reflight of an orbital class rocket in 2017, and the company now regularly launches flight-proven rockets. In 2018, SpaceX began launching Falcon Heavy, the world’s most powerful operational rocket by a factor of two."
So as you can see, this is more than just a company, it's a place with a mission, though how it officially came to be is a bit more ironic than you might guess.
8. Musk's Idea
7. How SpaceX Changed The Game
6. To Mars
As noted earlier on the list, the main goal of SpaceX right now is to get humanity to Mars in the VERY near future. In fact, the first missions (depending on setbacks, conditions, etc) could start happening in the next few years, maybe even before 2022, and 2024 at the latest, only time will tell.
But why Mars? Because as of right now it's the closest place that we could go to colonize that is actually feasible to colonize at all. Sure, the Moon in our sky is closer, but it doesn't have its own natural water source that we can find. Whereas Mars has polar ice caps that can be used to make water and beyond. Plus, while not perfect, Mars has an atmosphere.
5. The Plan Part 1
So SpaceX wants to colonize Mars, that's great, but how are they going to do that? Especially since right now there's nothing on Mars that we can live in? SpaceX is working on that as well. their plan is to have a singular massive base to start the colonization with. The base itself will be 41 feet tall, 16 feet wide, and have three different air locks that will allows the colonists to go from the inside to the outside with minimal change in air pressure.
If you're thinking about the dimensions, yeah, it ain't the biggest place to live in, but that's not the point at first. The point is to see how humanity will react on Mars first, then we can work on building big cities.
Space X intends to launch the colony with a series of reactors and generators. Some of them will be meant to specifically power the station itself. While others will be used to test making power based on the elements that are naturally and readily available on Mars. Thorium for example is one element they believe they can harness a great amount of power from.
Believe it or not, this is actually a key element of truly colonizing an area. For it's easy to just go to a new place and bring along everything you think you need to survive. But to truly "live" there you need to use the natural elements and resources around you. That way you're not just "living" there, you're living there. Which is another goal of SpaceX as a whole.
4. The Plan Part 2
Ok, so we send the colony, the generators, supplies, and more to Mars, and then it's time to send the people, right? Correct. Though the process of picking the first Martian astronauts has not been disclosed, it's likely going to be experts in their fields who have been trained to survive on Mars, and for the first trip and quest, they'll need their skills to set everything up, make sure everything can work, prepare for eventualities and potential failures, and survive until they return home.
3. The Plan Part 3
2. The Hopeful Results
If everything should go well, by the time we get into the 2030's it'll be likely that we won't just have colonized Mars, we likely will have made multiple trips to the planet.
1. The Future of SpaceX
![Minecraft - Silly Survival : Brewing Room [10]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uKYmjgkwFLgQSRmQobOjHwfO7YiVOpVsxgLcew9KspVrW4TCpZKX34rO6Re5547-NvpGm34hGx4k9TxGmIl09oyM2XhwZzfIOFPiKHGRHEJZHT=w680)
0 Comments