Elon Musk’s Reddit AMA Threw Up Some Cool Insights On His Mars Colonisation Plans
I am Elon Musk, ask me anything about becoming a spacefaring civ!
That was the title of SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk’s ‘Ask Me Anything’ (AMA) session on Reddit. The AMA, he wrote, was meant to be supplemental to the talk he gave at the International Astronautical Conference in Guadalajara, Mexico, titled ‘Making Humans A Multiplanetary Species’.
He shed light on a host of interesting things about his Mars colonisation plans in his Reddit AMA session. Here’s a brief highlight of a handful of things:
On the technology
On being asked about the specifications of the Interplanetary Transit System (ITS) vehicle, Musk said the ITS was designed for a maximum acceleration of 20 g’s, but “the spaceship would be limited to around 5 g’s nominal, but able to take peak loads 2 to 3 times higher without breaking up.”
He also responded in the affirmative to a note by a user that said the ITS would be powerful enough to travel back to Earth after landing on Mars. This is crucial for any manned mission since in the event of an emergency, an immediate mission to or from Mars could become an absolute necessity for survival.
On being asked which technology or material still required the most development for ITS to be a success, Musk said it was initially “developing a new metal alloy that is extremely resistant to oxidation for the hot oxygen-rich turbopump, which is operating at insane pressure to feed a 300 bar main chamber”. He said this was now under control, but there still was room for optimisation.
However, on the current challenge with respect to the ITC, he said:
Biggest question right now is sealing the carbon fiber tanks against cryo propellant with hot autogenous pressurization. The oxygen tank also has an oxidation risk problem as it is pressurized with pure, hot oxygen. Will almost certainly need to apply an inert layer of some kind. Hopefully, something that can be sprayed. If need be, will use thin sheets of invar welded together on the inside.
His plan for refuelling on Mars
Musk was asked, “What equipment and procedures will be required for refueling operations on Mars?”
He said SpaceX was “still far from figuring this out in detail” but presented his current plan, which involved sending Dragon scouting missions, “initially just to make sure we know how to land without adding a crater and then to figure out the best way to get water for the CH4/O2 Sabatier Reaction” and then flying a spaceship, which goes by the excellent name of Heart of Gold, with the necessary equipment to build a fuel plant and a manned mission to set it up.
In an interesting revelation, Musk also revealed that he plans to double the number of flights every 26 months, which is the period it takes for Earth and Mars to come closest to each other.
On living on Mars
When asked about habitation, he said:
Initially, glass panes with carbon fiber frames to build geodesic domes on the surface, plus a lot of miner/tunneling droids. With the latter, you can build out a huge amount of pressurized space for industrial operations and leave the glass domes for green living space.
This means that Musk’s vision for a permanent colony involves plenty of “miner/tunneling droids”, essentially robots which would build up space for industrial activity while the geodesic domes would be used for everyday living.
For the full Reddit Q&A, check the thread.