HOW TO GET TO MARS 1: A Look At Elon Musk's Plan

 

Wikipedia 

It was the year 3026 when the Musk colony dimmed it fit to send someone to the red planet, a planet that use to be known as Earth.

Around the year 2025 when the first musk ship landed on Mars, so many people called them mad, the media said they were never going to survive;

Little did they know that Mr Musk, the madman that spearheaded this exploration had his own survival plan, not just for him but for the 250 crew members with him.

Now centuries later, that madness; that single act of innovation stemming from the need to safe the human race is now the only thing saving the human race.

The North Koreans attacked first, heralding the start of world war three. The Russians retaliated with a secret Nano-weapon they had been building all along, the United states not one to be over done, launched a counter strike;

And before we knew it, earth and its inhabitants were swimming in radiations so high no one was even alive to record it.

The people on Mars, watched in agony as their home planet was been destroyed by the same people entrusted to save her. A speech of hope was given by Mr Musk and now centuries later, even after his death, that hope is about to come alive.

Mars Station: Musk One, Musk One Come In, What do you see on the red planet? Over

Musk one: Musk one here, I see mountains, i see forests, and wait, there is something moving, its a monkey, its a goddamn monkey. Over

Mars Station: Musk one, we are as excited as you. Maybe finally we can all go back home!!!
Musk one, are you there? Musk one come in over, Musk one!! Musk one!!!, Musk one come in over! Musk one, Are you there?!!!!

MUSK 1 IS AWAKE IN 2018 AND ASKS, HOW POSSIBLE IS IT TO LIVE ON MARS?

Or why go anywhere in the first place?

History as we know it would always repeat itself, we can either sit our ass down and wait for that destruction of earth that would happen in a nearest future or become a multi planetary specie conquering worlds and planets.

That seem far fetched right? I bet it was the same thing people thought when Airplanes and telephones where first made.

BUT WHY MARS

There are several options in our solar system and i'll take a look at some of them.

VENUS

Wikipedia commons: Venus Globe

Venus is one of the brightest objects in the sky. It rises and sets each day and also rotates backwards.

That been said;

Unless you want to get your butt roasted like an easter turkey cooked by a first class drunk, Venus is not a planet you want to be. This is because its surface is covered with Craters, volcanoes and large larva plains. 

Its temperature is so hot it can melt lead and lets say you live long enough to breath, the atmosphere is filled with clouds of sulfuric acid that smells like rotten egg. Trust me you wont be able to survive that.

MERCURY

Nasa: Computer Photomosaic of the Southern Hemisphere

Mercury is the smallest of the planets and closest to the sun. 

Mercury orbits the sun once every 88 Earth days, what this is means is one year on mercury is 88 days on earth however one day on mercury is 59 earth days. 

How can a planet be so drunk and confusing? This implies, you could spend Christmas and a new year 2 times in 3 days on mercury. That would have been a lot of fun and partying for the musk colonies but;

Mercury has almost no atmosphere and on its sunny side, it can reach a scorching 800 degrees Fahrenheit! Thats like swimming naked in hot lava. Joke apart, you wont live to tell the tale. And on the dark side, the temperature is -300 degrees Fahrenheit. 

You really don't want to see the dark or hot side of Mercury.

We could go and on really, i mean, the universe is endless; However everything would still come down to going to Mars.

SO WHY MARS?

Nasa: Mars Exploration Program

First, Mars is filled with resources. One of which includes ore deposits. 

Ore deposits are produced when molten rock moving underground form crater impacts. Magma which are liquid rocks under the ground cool down slowly over thousand of years until they form elements which include copper, chromium, iron and nickel.

These resources would be essential for the survival of colonists.In addition, Mars is about half as far from the sun as earth is. Its a little cold but can be warmed up using;

Orbittal Mirrors

By placing large mylar disks with a diameter of 155 miles and a weight of 200, 000 tones, sunlight can be reflected into the surface of Mars to heat it up. The plan is to create a rise in temperature by releasing greenhouse gases over a long period of time.

GreenHouse Gas Factories

Wikipedia: Smoking Chimneys

Trust science to look for a better way to do things. 

Instead of waiting years for Mars to warm up, why not just build large gas factories that generate large quantities of chlorofluorocarbons, methane, and carbon dioxide. These gases would then trap solar radiation and help build a thicker Martian atmosphere.

In addition, with the presence of C02, Nitrogen and argon, Plants can be grown by compressing the atmosphere. 

You can read this post for more information on growing food on Mars. 

Now that we have got it all straightened out and are sure Mars is the perfect place to be, the home away from home;

How Does Elon Musk Intend To Pull This Off.

Musk plan to colonize Mars revolves round a large rocket called BFR. The BFR would blast a spaceship capable of carrying about 100 people into orbit before returning to the launch pad on earth, then it blasts off again carrying fuel for the transport ship.

Wikipedia: SpaceX Rendering of the BFR

An Overview

The BFR is 106 meters tall, while body mass is between 75 to 85 tons. The ship will contain 1 100 tons of propellants, an ascent design of 150 tons and a return mass of 50 tons.

SpaceX: BFR Main Body

The image above contains the BFR main body. You have the engine section in the rear, the propellant tank in the middle and a large payload bay in front.

Just so you know, the payload bay is about 8 stories tall, and thats how you know this man means business.

From the image, you can see something like a small delta wing, the reason for this is to increase the functionality of the spaceship, whether you are landing or entering a planet with little to no atmosphere and/or with or without a heavy payload, the delta wing makes it easy and possible to balance the rocket.

The delta wing also contains a split flap like a fin for pitch and roll control. (I'll leave this for our engineering heads to explain) 

However what this simply means is that with this functionality, the BFR can land anywhere in the solar system. 

THE BFR ENGINE

SpaceX: BFR Engine

The four big circles you see are the four vacuum raptor engines while the 2 small circles are the sea level engines.

All 6 engines are capable of gimbaling. What this simply means is that the rockets can be easily controlled and stabilized when in flight. So a gimbaled thrust is a system to maneuver the rocket in flight, this is highly effective for rockets planing to exit the earths atmosphere. 

With the ability of the engines to gimbal, you can land the rocket even when one of the engine fails. Within each engine there is a great deal of redundancy;  you know, you really don't want to fly through space only to have your guts fed to you cos the space ship you used didn't land correctly.

Side Note: I wish i could put everything in one post, but would just have to break them up if i really want to do justice to this. I'll be posting a follow up soon enough. Thank You for reading.

REFERENCES

1. Venus And Mars Properties
2. Making Life Multiplanetary
3. Warm Up Mars