Here's Elon Musk's Vision for Cost-Effective Space Travel to Mars Dana Hull - Bloomberg
go to original September 28, 2016

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk unveiled his plan for colonizing Mars Tuesday at the 67th International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico. (Bloomberg)

Elon Musk laid out his long-promised vision for building a self-sustaining city on Mars, saying the next giant leap for humanity will require full rocket reusability, refueling the spacecraft in orbit and propellant production on the Red Planet.

“Refueling in orbit is one of the essential elements,” Musk told scientists, engineers and government officials gathered Tuesday at the 67th International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, in a presentation called “Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species.” Musk went on to say that producing propellant on Mars was key to driving down the cost, which he estimated one day could cost roughly $200,000 per ticket.

The gathering, which included Apollo-era astronaut Buzz Aldrin, drew men and women who have spent lifetimes studying our solar system, the galaxies beyond, and how to get there one day. Musk’s comments hold sway because of his rocket-launch company’s success and the steps he’s already taking toward the goal of helping humans move beyond Earth.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., the company he founded in 2002 with that intent, is already flying satellites into orbit and scheduling “Red Dragon” missions to explore the planet. Those missions will inform the design of the SpaceX Interplanetary Transport System, a larger craft to ferry people to Mars and beyond.

Read the rest at Bloomberg

Related: Here Are the Top 5 Takeaways from Elon Musk's Big Mars Speech (Mashable)

Related: Mexico Unit of Elon Musk’s SolarCity Eyes $1 Billion Investment Over Five Years (Tech IE)

Related: Elon Musk: Are You Prepared to Die? If That’s Okay, Then You’re a Candidate for Mars (Interesting Engineering)

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!