The future of exploration of mankind is space, without a doubt. Yes, there is still plenty left to be discovered here on Earth but for the most part, we have done the job. The final frontier of humanity, has always been space.

After the excitement around the moon landings, it seemed as though our interest in space withered away with no big breakthroughs in space exploration over the last several decades.

Our dreams of colonising other planets, made bigger by sci-fi movies, has always been just that. A dream. Nothing more. I mean, we always knew it would happen one day but we always thought it would be at least a 100 years from now.

Not if Elon Musk has his way. He is spearheading a revolution that has brought that dream of ours right to humanity’s doorstep and is now aiming to achieve it in not a few decades from now but only 7 years from now!! Wake up people. The future is knocking!

How SpaceX Will Do It (A BIG Update)

On the last day of the International Astronautical Congress that was held recently in Adelaide, Australia, CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk took to the stage to update us all on his plans of Mars colonisation.

He started by saying, “The future is vastly more exciting and interesting if we are a space faring civilisation”, and begun discussing about how exactly he will get us there.

For the purposes of Mars exploration and colonisation, he helped design a spaceship, that would be capable of not only Mars exploration but any other planet of the solar system as well.

For this, they are now developing the BFR (Big Falcon Rocket) project, which Musk talked about in great length on stage including future plans, the economics of it and its implications.

First off, let’s talk funding. Such a project demands huge funding and its a major roadblock. Musk said, they have a way though. First of all, they plan to make the BFR smaller than planned before (but still pretty big).

They also plan to replace their current Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Dragon Rockets to direct all funding to the BFR project. They also plan to generate revenue by launching satellites for the various agencies of the world and by servicing the ISS.

Now comes the technology part. There are several key areas which need to be perfected before we can head out to Mars and SpaceX has been doing just that. Apart from creating the capability to store large amounts of fuel on board and designing a really powerful engine, they are other several key technologies that must come together.

One of them is the ability to land perfectly. With Falcon 9, they are already perfecting propulsion landing and already have 16 successful landings in a row now. Another one is reusability of the rockets which will help bring the costs down dramatically which is also being perfected with Falcon 9 and Falcon heavy.

Other technologies that they are perfecting are, automatic docking to space stations, heat shielding that they are perfecting with their dragon vehicles, and a state of the art payload bay.

The journey to Mars would take somewhere between 3-6 months. Therefore, there are 40 cabins (2-3 people per cabin) and large common areas on the BFR. There is also a central storage, galley and a solar storm shelter on board.

The Future Plan

Musk continued to say that they have now already begun serious development of the BRF and plan to make an initial cargo mission to Mars in 2022. Yes!! 2022!! He even had to say on stage, “It’s not a typo, although it is aspirational.”

They plan to send at least 2 cargo ships to Mars to confirm water resources and identify any hazards. They are also planning to place power, mining and life support infrastructure for future flights.

Then for the main event, they will send a total of 4 ships in 2024 to Mars. Two of these will be cargo ships and two will have crews present in them. The initial missions will be aimed towards identifying water sources and to build a propellant plant which will be needed for future journeys back to Earth.

Also, another important goal is to build up a base from where the expansion can take place which will slowly turn into a city. The longer term goal is to terraform Mars and to establish a permanent, self-sustaining civilisation on the red planet.

One More Thing…

At the end, Musk astonished the crows in his “one more thing” type moment, by saying that since BFR rockets were capable of taking people to Mars, what if they could be used to transport people within Earth. He stated that they looked into this and the results were astonishing.

A trip on the BRF from New York City to Shanghai would take just 39 minutes. In fact, most long distance journeys would take just under 30 minutes and you would be able to travel to anywhere on Earth in just under an hour travelling at 18,000 miles an hour! NOW THAT’S THE FUTURE!!

I think if you had any doubts about who the leading change maker in the world is today, I think all those will now be cleared away now. For the more skeptical ones, I think they will need to wait for just 7 more years to see a new age begin for humanity.

You should check out the whole stage event for yourself. It's really great.

Video taken from SpaceX official channel on YouTube.

Images taken as screenshots from the video mentioned above.