Elon Musk, the CEO of aerospace company SpaceX, wants to have his epitaph on Mars. In a television interview last week, Musk spoke of his wish to travel to Mars irrespective of the odds against his surviving the trip or – once there – succumbing to the harsh environs. Musk has been thinking aloud about going to the red planet since March 2013, when he said he would like to “die on Mars, just not on impact.”
Reflecting this, one of SpaceX’s goals is to transport a million colonisers to Mars using a reusable spacecraft it has already christened Starship. It will be equipped with solar arrays, thruster rockets and carbon-fibre fuel tanks.
More importantly, Starship is part of a three-stage ‘Interplanetary Transport System’ that also includes the gigantic rocket Raptor and a refuelling craft to reduce Starship’s launch weight.
The idea is for Raptor to first launch Starship into orbit around Earth and return to the launchpad. It is then launched again carrying the refuelling craft, which will dock with the Starship in orbit. After filling up, Starship will begin its Marsward journey.