Less than one month ago, Elon Musk detailed his 'Battlestar Galactica' plan for colonising Mars. Now he has provided more details.
In a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA), the SpaceX founder detailed how humans would survive on the planet and the technical details of the craft that would take us there.
Answering 15 questions, the entrepreneur was also quizzed on the Falcon 9 rocket and said he didn't know what equipment would be needed to refuel spacecraft that land on Mars.
The duty of the first settlers on Mars, Musk said, would be to "build out and troubleshoot the propellant plant" and he added that they would be responsible for creating the power system for 'Mars Base Alpha'.
He also shed light on the structures the first 12 humans settlers would create and live in; they would use "glass panes with carbon fibre frames to build geodesic domes on the surface".
There will also be "a lot of miner/tunneling droids," Musk continued. These, which presumably would be at least semi-autonomous, would be used to create underground space for the unsightly experiments and processes needed to live on the planet.
"You can build out a huge amount of pressurised space for industrial operations [with the robots] and leave the glass domes for green living space," Musk said in response to a question asking about permanent habitation on the planet.
Musk also said that early tests of a giant tank that will be used for fuel in the Interplanetary Transport System (ITS) have been "promising".
The prototype tank will be tested at sea before the end of the year. Musk said it would "take it up to 2/3 of burst pressure on an ocean barge in the coming weeks." The tank would carry liquid oxygen plus methane and be refillable to get humans back to Earth.
The details revealed by Musk contribute to his wider plans for the colonisation of the planet. On September 27, he outlined how he would build a one-million-strong population on Mars.
Speaking to the audience at the 67th International Astronautical Congress, Musk estimated it would take "40 to 100 years" to build a giant colony on Mars.
The huge advanced carbon fibre ITS spaceship and booster would have thrust power of 13,000 tonnes, propelled by 42 engines using cryogenic methane as rocket fuel.
ITS is set to be built and developed for human missions in 2025. However, before this SpaceX will be sending unmanned probes to the rocky planet's surface. The firm will send spacecraft to Mars every two years – starting in 2018.
You can read all of Musk's replies here.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
