The head of SpaceX, American businessman Elon Musk, speaking in the Mexican city of Guadalajara at the 67th Congress of the International Astronautical Federation, presented the project of the interplanetary transport system ITS (Interplanetary Transport System), intended for the colonization of Mars. It is assumed that a completely autonomous settlement will be built on the Red Planet. Thanks to ITS, a million people will move to a colony on Mars in half a century.

According to Elon Musk, humanity needs to colonize other worlds to survive. Mars is best suited for this, since the conditions on the planet, although remotely, are still similar to those on Earth. Neighboring Venus is too hot, and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, where a colony could also be established, are too far away. The development of these moons, in particular Enceladus, is the next stage in the colonization of the Solar System.

Elon Musk is the founder of SpaceX (produces rockets and spaceships) and Tesla Motors (creates electric cars), and also initiated the Hyperloop project (a hybrid transport system from a vacuum train and maglev). He also took part in the creation of the companies PayPal (engaged in electronic payments) and SolarCity (solar energy).

Terraforming Mars, that is, creating a climate there as similar as possible to Earth’s, according to Musk, may take several hundred years. This is a matter of the distant future. The businessman believes that in the past the Red Planet had a denser atmosphere and rivers of water flowed. Musk agrees with those scientists who believe it is possible to return Mars to its previous state. Then the planet will become suitable for agriculture without greenhouses and the life of at least primitive microorganisms.

Today, it is estimated that the cost of sending a person to Mars is $10 billion. Musk believes that 10 million is too expensive. And he proposes a program to reduce the cost of flights to the Red Planet. He intends to find money for it from private partners and enthusiasts. The state, apparently, is not helping SpaceX with this. NASA also, despite collaborating with SpaceX on the International Space Station program, is cautious about the project.

Musk proposes to create a manned spacecraft with a capacity of 200 people. A thousand such devices should accumulate in Martian orbit. In total, about ten thousand flights are planned from Earth to Mars. The journey will take no more than 150 days, and the cost of delivering the payload will be 140 thousand dollars per ton.

The ITS concept is based on several key technologies - reusability, in-orbit refueling of ships and the use of Martian fuel. Methane is proposed as a fuel, which can be obtained on Mars from water and carbon dioxide. All rocket engines will remain chemical - ion or nuclear options are not being considered. The ITS rocket is planned to be powered by the Raptor engine, which has the highest thrust-to-weight ratio. This unit has recently been tested; the promising carrier has 42 engines. Fuel tanks for the Raptor are expected to be made from carbon fiber.

The rocket for the colonization of Mars will be the largest ever created by man: diameter - 12 meters, height - 122 meters (including the head part). The first stage of the ITS launch vehicle is an enlarged first stage of the midsize Falcon 9 rocket. It will require about seven percent of the total first stage fuel to return to Earth after the vehicle is sent into Earth orbit.

With an ITS rocket, as Musk noted, it is possible to deliver cargo to any point on Earth in a maximum of 45 minutes. The diameter of the manned spacecraft, located at the head, will be 17 meters, height - 50 meters. Loading capacity - 450 tons (including fuel). Six engines operate in space, three in the atmosphere. After the ITS presentation, the businessman answered questions from those present in the hall.

From his answers, it became known that SpaceX does not have money to independently finance the ITS project - the company makes money exclusively on NASA orders and commercial satellites. However, the situation may change. If currently, out of five thousand SpaceX employees, about 50 people work on ITS, then over time, when investments in the project grow to $300 million a year, the businessman hopes to increase their number sharply.

To the question of Russian Anastasia about attracting foreign citizens to the project, Musk answered this way: anyone can participate in the ITS program. But for this, in addition to talent, you also need a green card. For comparison, the situation at Tesla is simpler - a quarter of its employees are foreigners.

Musk confirmed his intention to send an unmanned mission on the Dragon V2 spacecraft (with an estimated capacity of up to seven people) to Mars in 2018 using the Falcon Heavy rocket, tests of which are scheduled for the fall of 2016. After that, he plans to send spacecraft to the Red Planet every 26 months: two missions in 2020, at least one in 2022, and likely a manned mission in two years with landing on the planet in 2025. The launches are planned to be carried out on the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle under development, and the launch in 2020 or 2022 will be carried out on an ITS rocket.

SpaceX is going to call the first Mars ship Heart of Gold. Musk admitted: unfortunately, there are no guarantees that the first colonizers will be able to return to Earth. He traditionally compared the journey to Mars with the discovery and settlement of America. Let us add on our own that in Europe such migrations, like the discovery of America that preceded them, were considered by many to be madness. Whether Elon Musk will become the new Christopher Columbus or turn out to be a prudent businessman with a rich imagination - time and his affairs will tell.

Elon Musk is an upstart. Elon Musk is a genius. Elon Musk is simply a talented manager. Some people envy him, others want to be like him. Everything is as usual when it comes to a famous and successful person. Few people remember where the origins are, what is the truth and what is the lie: the existing information that concerns the late 1990s - early 2000s is shrouded in some strange fog. It was then, as is commonly believed, that “it all began.”

Those familiar with Musk’s biography know that he was born in 1971 in South Africa, but left his native country in his youth. His mother, from Canada, was at that time a model and professional nutritionist, his father was an electronics engineer. Maybe it was he who influenced his son’s future, since after his parents’ divorce in 1979, Elon and his younger brother Kimbal decided to stay with their dad.

In 2015, Errol Musk, Elon's father, gave an interview to Fortune magazine. In it, Musk Sr. assured that his son was primarily interested in books, and not in abstract conversations about sports or similar topics. "He was an introverted thinker"- said Errol. Parents often idealize their children, especially when they have really been able to achieve a lot.

Outcast

According to the head of the school where Elon studied, the future billionaire was a member of the computer club of the educational institution. Probably. It turned out that in his youth Musk was very inconspicuous, did not show much activity in general events, and he had few friends among other schoolchildren, to put it mildly - once the boy even ended up in the hospital with a broken nose after he was beaten by local hooligans - ringleaders. When you read about Elon’s childhood, you may get the image of a nerd that no one notices, and if he does, he tries to slap him on the head. No one will admit what it really was like.

At the age of approximately 9-10 years, Musk received at his disposal the Commodore VIC-20 computer that had just entered the market with a training course designed for six months. An inquisitive mind helped me understand the basics of programming in three days. At the age of 12, Elon wrote a game, which he managed to sell to a computer magazine for $500 (today that’s just over $1.2 thousand, taking into account inflation). Blastar is rather terrible, however, a mention of it appeared on the pages of the PC and Office Technology publication. "Trivial, but still better than Flappy Bird"- said Musk, having already become a billionaire.

The path to Silicon Valley

When Elon turned 17, he immigrated to Canada - after all, South Africa is not a country where you can get a good start in a technology career. “Silicon Valley was like the Promised Land for Musk,”- writes one of the biographers. And another source gives a completely banal reason - neither Elon nor his younger brother Kimbal wanted to serve compulsory military service in the country where they were born. Moreover, apartheid reigned there. According to another version, young Musk went to Canada with the money he actually earned and without the consent of his parents, but also because of his reluctance to serve. Finally, the most romantic option - Elon went to conquer the world.

Elon Musk while studying in Canada

Here the future businessman did not stay long and after a couple of years he transferred from a Canadian university to the University of Pennsylvania in the USA. Then an attempt was made to enter Stanford. She was unsuccessful because she really wanted to work.

While still a student, Musk thought about who and what he wanted to become. His starting point was the question: “What will have the greatest impact on the future of humanity?” The answer consisted of a list that listed: the Internet; sustainable energy; space exploration and, in particular, the possibility of creating permanent colonies outside the Earth; artificial intelligence; DNA reprogramming. Elon spoke about this in one of his radio interviews with StarTalk several years ago. The words, however, are taken with a grain of salt - one can hardly imagine how Musk compiled such an advanced list one and a half to two decades ago. However, not everyone is limited by needs like “a new car, a house and a lot of money”...

Elon decided to start with energy, which led the young man to Stanford, where he tried to study supercapacitors. At the same time, Musk was writing Internet-oriented software and drawing up business plans. In 1995, Netscape was on top, Amazon had recently launched, and Elon's friend Adeo Ressi launched the city website Total New York in 1994 and could not get enough of his brainchild (which was later sold to AOL). New companies and enterprises appeared around like mushrooms, which today are called nothing more than startups. Bill Gates spoke on TV on David Letterman's show about the future of the Internet. Musk himself, “being on trend,” used a telephone directory purchased on a CD to create a website directory of businesses and organizations, but he was missing something.

The ambitious South African became emotionally ill - the “lost profit syndrome” began to fall on him. But Google hasn’t started working yet. In addition, Elon allegedly incurred serious student loan debt. Something had to be done!

PayPal

However, the closer to general recognition, the more contradictions appear in Musk’s biography. But then the “star boy” was born - simultaneously with the Zip2 company, a primitive “city guide” on the Internet by today’s standards, a modern replacement for those same “Yellow Pages”. The idea was not new and was probably borrowed from Adeo Ressi with his already existing project.

After two days at Stanford, Elon leaves the university and devotes all his energy to Zip2, which he co-founded with his brother. They say Musk lived right in the office, not missing a minute of working time. The project developed successfully until Compaq bought it in 1999 for $307 million, which brought 27-year-old Elon $22 million.

Here everything turned out to be not too smooth. The fact is that in 1998, Zip2 intended to merge with a competitor in the person of CitySearch and the transaction amount was estimated at the same $300 million. Musk’s platform was supposed to dissolve into a new enterprise, which, apparently, did not suit the IT businessman. According to unofficial data, it was the future founder of SpaceX who unilaterally broke the agreement at the last moment.

In any case, as soon as Elon got rid of Zip2, he became involved in a new startup - X.com, which later became part of one of the largest electronic payment systems. The project was planned as a financial platform, something like an advanced online bank. What about an unusual name? It sounds nice and doesn’t commit you to anything in particular. Although for some, the letter “X” brought to mind the porn industry.

The startup was launched with money raised from the sale of Zip2, as well as third-party investments. In the same building where the office of the new company was located, another company with a similar type of activity was located - Confinity. And if at first they got along peacefully, then later it became obvious that they were direct competitors. The market was huge, and today the projects would probably be able to divide their spheres of influence. However, X.com and Confinity decided to merge. The first had more employees, a larger client base, and high growth rates. For the founders of Confinity, which was ahead of Musk's company only in terms of the number of eBay users, this became a decisive factor.

In March 2000, X.com acquired Confinity. The deal occurred after Elon’s conflict with the then president of the company he founded, Bill Harris, who did not share Musk’s optimism regarding the merger. It is worth noting that Harris already had a very long experience in the IT field and had supported Elon since the days of Zip2. At the same time, one former employee of X.com and PayPal once wrote that Harris was a good financier (helped attract $100 million in investments), but not a very outstanding CEO. As a result, he left the newly formed company.

A holy place is never empty, and in the second quarter of 2000, Musk took Harris’ place. However, he remained in the post of top manager only until the fall of that year. Due to disagreements with board members, Elon lost the title of CEO. One of the reasons for leaving was allegedly a conflict over the choice of server platform - Musk was against free Unix and demanded to switch to a solution from Microsoft.

By the way, Elon is in some ways similar to Steve Jobs, who was fired from Apple at one time - Musk experienced similar things at both Zip2 and PayPal. He was fired from the latter when the businessman was flying to a vacation spot: according to him, this was supposed to be his first vacation in many years.

In 2001, the combined enterprise was named PayPal, after one of Confinity's products. Now Peter Thiel, the co-founder of the latter, was in charge.

Well, at the time PayPal was acquired by eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion, Elon had an 11 percent stake in the financial platform. Profit!

The dream of space ceases to be a dream. The Birth of SpaceX and Tesla

There is money, ideas too. Moreover, the ideas are old, and not invented on the fly. Musk’s first “long-term” project was not Tesla, as many might assume, but SpaceX. Elon dreamed of Mars and space for a long time (it was no coincidence that SpaceX ships were named Falcon - in honor of the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars), so he began to realize his dream by founding Space Exploration Technologies Corporation. For what? To build your own spaceship for a flight to the Red Planet, send a “greenhouse” there and create a “Martian oasis.”

Musk was not stopped by the words of friends and colleagues who dissuaded him from the business he had started. Success, which even now looks somewhat shaky from a financial point of view, will take a long time. After all, they started talking about SpaceX seriously only in 2008: then Falcon 1 became the first private liquid-fuel rocket to reach Earth’s orbit and deliver a payload there. Until that moment, Elon’s project was treated with distrust. But between 2002 and 2008, a hole appeared in the company’s history. In 2003, for example, The Los Angeles Times wrote about the young businessman cautiously and with a bit of irony. The author of the material could not decide: whether Musk is a technological genius or another Don Quixote.

Elon wasn’t the only one looking at the stars back then. In 2004, Virgin Galactic and some other companies saw the future of space tourism very optimistically, intending in 3-4 years to establish regular commercial launches of “mere mortals” to places where airplanes do not fly. As you know, reality has made serious adjustments.

SpaceX, founded by Musk, has been actively developing the technology, reporting both achievements and failures. Did the launch vehicle components fall apart during testing due to miscalculations? The news appears on the project website: “The fuel tank was deformed due to a valve malfunction.” Second problem in a row? Fail again? Fifth postponement? Elon signs his name to reports of failures. Has there been a “white streak”? Everyone will learn about this at the same moment first-hand.

There is a feeling that everything was invented and implemented by one single person - Musk himself. Obviously this is not the case. A simple example: the development of Merlin series engines was carried out by Tom Muller, whose employer until a certain point was TRW. Here the chief engineer was part of the team that created the powerful TR-106. However, not everyone was happy with Müller, who believed that he was not appreciated and his ideas were not used. The result is the development of the world's largest liquid fuel rocket engine in a private garage. Garage, Karl! What did Elon do? Called Muller to work in 2002. The engineer currently holds the post of technical director at SpaceX. Musk chose an interesting approach to searching for top leaders, so the people in the company were not random and interesting in their own way. Passionate specialists who are allowed to realize themselves are looking for others like them, and together they make sure that their brainchild - the company and its projects - develops.

When very little time had passed since the founding of SpaceX, Elon began to implement his next fix idea. Or maybe I just got excited about something new. In 2004, already on the board of directors of Tesla, he became an investor in this startup by Martin Eberhard and Mark Tarpenning, founded a year earlier. The businessman saw the promise of the project and invested money in it. Despite the fact that the main goal of the founders of Tesla was not to create a completely electric vehicle, but only to search for effective technologies that would reduce oil consumption. To put it simply, make a “green” car.

History is linear once it has become fact, and until then, things can go in any direction. This relates to the question of whether Tesla would continue to exist without Musk’s money or not. Maybe by 2017 everyone would have forgotten about her? Or, on the contrary, would the company take over the automotive market, like Apple or Samsung did in the mobile market? Today at Tesla Motors, Elon is officially considered a co-founder - apparently, there are reasons for this, and hardly anyone cares about outside opinions. As a result, Tesla followed in the footsteps of Chrysler, which in 1925 became “the last successful auto startup in the United States,” and those who entered the market with electric cars did not achieve serious success at all.

The AC Propulsion tzero played a role in the creation of the Roadster, Tesla's commercial first-born. Allegedly, it was its power unit that was used in the prototype of Musk’s car. The appearance was “gifted” by Lotus, as Elon was obsessed with British sports cars. Already in 2006, the Tesla Roadster was introduced, but the production of the mass version lasted from 2008 to 2012. It was Musk who became the person who was able to attract all the investments necessary for the implementation of the project. This happened in 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009 - tens of millions of dollars appeared thanks to Elon. In 2007, one of its founders, Martin Eberhard, left the company. The company was briefly headed by an Israeli businessman, who reduced the staff by 10% and made Tesla profitable. In 2008, he was replaced by Musk.

Somewhere during this period, Tesla and SpaceX already give the impression of becoming stronger companies - they have commercial products and evidence that their time was well spent. The financial crisis made its own adjustments, which did not affect except the lemurs of Madagascar. Elon, who compared what was happening to the Great Depression, fired another quarter of the company’s employees, and also announced a postponement of the release of the first Model S. “There is a positive side: we now have time to make it even better,”- said the businessman.

Almost collapse and billion-dollar contracts

In 2008, the company was threatened with bankruptcy, but Musk was able to avoid this, and a couple of months later, in the spring of 2009, a prototype Model S was exhibited at the SpaceX headquarters. Elon described the past year as the worst of his life: Tesla was losing money, and SpaceX couldn't launch Falcon 1...

This period marked a turning point in the recent history of SpaceX and Tesla: despite all the criticism and obstacles, including financial ones, the projects survived. And then a contract with NASA for $1.6 billion arrived. In addition, people were actively placing pre-orders for Model S, Daimler AG believed in the project, buying 10% of Tesla for the now ridiculous $50 million (today the share is estimated at billions of dollars). Profitability, by the way, at least for Tesla, still remains a big question - but this does not stop Musk.

Today, every second schoolchild knows the name of Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal, father of Tesla electric cars and private rocket manufacturer SpaceX. And, perhaps, the brightest dreamer among famous entrepreneurs. More than 50 years ago, humanity might not have believed that space exploration was possible. More than 10 years ago, people would not have believed that a private company would explore space as a sphere.

You can be skeptical about SpaceX's ambitions. You can put a photo of Elon Musk on your desktop and watch every Dragon launch live. But one cannot be indifferent or unaware of what this company is doing in private space. For those who do not belong to “every second schoolchild” - a short history of SpaceX.

Seeds on Mars

In early 2002, Elon Musk, already a multimillionaire at the age of 30, switches to a new mission - to return public interest in sending a person to Mars. Throughout his life, Musk, a businessman and physicist by training, has dreamed of installing a small greenhouse on the surface of the red planet with the seeds of an earthly plant to inspire humanity to colonize Mars.

The problem with realizing this modest dream lay not in existing spacecraft, but in the high cost of launching them. Unwilling to pay what American rocket companies were demanding, Musk made three trips to Russia, considering buying a refurbished Dnepr rocket, which cost about $20 million. Pondering the pricing and financial risks, he decided it would be easier, after all, to make his own missiles than to bargain with the Americans or make deals with the Russians.

This is how one of the few and most advanced companies in “private space”, SpaceX, was conceived. It turns out that the purpose of its creation was to simplify “transportation costs” for future colonists of Mars.

Falcon and Dragon

By 2006, SpaceX had developed the first launch vehicle - Falcon 1, which was launched on March 24, 2006, but ended in an accident in the first stage engine. Only after three unsuccessful attempts, on September 28, 2008, Falcon 1 manages to enter low orbit and deliver a unit of payload to an altitude of 500-700 km. This event marked the first successful launch of a private rocket into orbit.

A year later, the launch vehicle, on its fifth launch, delivers into orbit the 5th commercial satellite, RazakSAT, owned by Malaysia.

By 2010, Space X was developing a second, heavier launch vehicle, comparable in characteristics to the Russian Soyuz-2, the Falcon 9. And it seems that the lessons learned from the failures with the first launches allowed the Falcon 9 to launch on June 4, 2010 year to successfully launch and become the first private spacecraft to enter orbit.

Interesting fact. At the time of launch, there was a certain cargo on board the ship, classified personally by Elon Max. After the operation, it became known that the cargo turned out to be a wheel of cheese. Space X later clarified that this was a reference to the famous cheese shop sketch by the Monty Python comedy troupe. The head of cheese was in a special container screwed to the floor of the shuttle. There was a humorous inscription on the container: “Top Secret.”

Another bright milestone in the history of SpaceX and private space is the launch and successful splashdown of the first Dragon cargo ship, non-governmental, but developed for NASA. "Dragon" is the only operating "truck" in the world capable of returning to Earth. In August 2011, NASA gave its consent to the launch and docking of the Dragon spacecraft with the ISS. On May 25, 2013, the mission launched with a successful entry into orbit and subsequent docking with the ISS.

NASA and Space X are contracting for 12 spacecraft missions to the International Space Station through 2016. The total value of the agreement is $1.6 billion. To date, 5 flights have been completed. Just the day before, on February 10, 2015, the Dragon spacecraft splashed down off the coast of California with 1,700 kg of cargo delivered from the ISS.

On the same day, the launch of the DSCOVR research satellite was planned, but had to be postponed due to weather conditions. However, today, February 12, the device was launched into outer space. DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) will monitor solar storms and strong electromagnetic emissions that can affect the operation of orbiting satellites.

SpaceX plans

Today, Elon Musk’s ambitions, if they cause some skepticism among specialists, are numerous fans of Space X, enthusiastic about the idea of ​​private space and the colonization of Mars, the press, and most importantly, investors, the company’s activities continue to keep them in suspense.

The main goals of Space X are now very ambitious: reusable rockets, the Falcon Heavy super-heavy rocket, a private spaceport and, of course, the colonization of Mars, which should at least be preceded by an expedition with a crew on board the ship.

Rocket with legs

Reusing the first stage - the most expensive part of the rocket - could reduce the cost of space launches by 70%.

In 2012, the first concept of the idea of ​​a reusable Falcon 9 appeared, that is, a launch vehicle capable of returning to Earth and taking off again. In 2013, a more advanced model appeared - Falcon 9R.

It is a kind of rocket “with legs”, or the first rocket stage, which, after completing the main task, must maneuver and take a vertical position in the air, necessary for a soft landing. The first tests fail, but the engineers manage to identify the main error. Finally, in April 2014, the launch and return of the rocket with its legs after numerous transfers did take place: the first stage assumed a vertical position and splashed down at minimum speed, but, unfortunately, was lost in the ocean. However, this can be called more of a success than a failure.

The latest launch test of the reusable Falcon 9 looked like this, although it also helped get the results.

Private spaceport

In August of this year, SpaceX announced another ambitious goal - the construction of the world's first private spaceport.

The project will be supported by the State of Texas, where it is planned to be located in Brownsville. Construction of the private spaceport will create about 300 jobs and should bring about $85 million in capital investment to the Texas economy.

Colonization

In 2012, Elon Musk said he was working to make a family flight to Mars cost $500,000 by 2029.

In May 2014, SpaceX introduced a new generation of spacecraft called Dragon V2. According to Musk, they are capable of landing “anywhere on Earth,” carrying up to seven people, and being reusable. It is planned to begin transporting astronauts from the surface of the Earth to the ISS and back by 2017-2018.

And, despite the fact that the cost of the flight still looks cosmic - on the scale of space as a sphere (and in general), it is truly negligible. You may not believe in Musk’s ambitions and be skeptical about SpaceX’s plans, but it cannot be denied that the very existence of a private company that has shaken the state monopoly accelerates the development of the entire sphere, and as a result, space exploration.

SpaceX Falcon Heavy was looking forward to the launch of the Space X Falcon Heavy rocket (the rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida on February 6 - editor's note) the entire space industry.

What's special about this rocket?

It will be the first of its kind, the world's most powerful launch vehicle designed for repeated use. The Space X Falcon launch has been delayed several times since 2013, but if all goes well, we'll be one step closer to Musk's incredibly ambitious goal of a manned mission to Mars within the next decade.

Context

Russia's competition plan with SpaceX has a flaw

Ars Technica 11/16/2017 However, rocket science is a complex thing. Even Elon Musk, as CEO of SpaceX, is reserved in his assessments: “Everything has gone further than originally planned on paper. I hope this doesn't lead to any surprises. I'd like to think this is a victory."

We will also have to wait for the launch and see what happens next. Absolutely in the style of Elon Musk, the payload for the rocket will be his Tesla Roadster electric car, which will become the fastest car in the world launched into space.

Rockets capable of carrying a payload weighing more than 20 tons are classified as super-heavy launch vehicles. To enter orbit, the rocket must reach a speed of over 8 thousand meters per second at a distance of 160 kilometers above the Earth's surface.

To illustrate these numbers, imagine that a rocket could carry two fully loaded city buses to an altitude greater than 50 Everests, and at a speed that is 32 times the cruising speed of a Boeing 747.

Falcon Heavy will achieve this goal using three boosters "linked together." The central one will lift the Tesla Roadster into space and enter an elliptical orbit between Earth and Mars. The electric car will remain in this orbit for thousands of years.

Pioneers of the new space

Multimedia

NASA 02/20/2017 Since the launch of the first space missions, space exploration, as a rule, has been a state sphere. Governments created and funded organizations such as NASA, the European Space Agency, the Russian agency Roscosmos, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Along with these agencies, private space companies were created. However, given the enormous costs of space exploration, space innovation has always been driven by governments.

But in the 21st century everything begins to change. SpaceX has figured out how to reduce the cost of launching reusable launch vehicles and increase their efficiency. The new space industry is growing at a rapid pace, and SpaceX is leading the way.

SpaceX's ambitions don't end with launching space satellites with the Falcon Heavy. The rocket was designed so that it could also be used for manned missions. SpaceX also plans to complete tests of its capsule for astronauts Dragon2 - a contract with two space tourists, whose names have not yet been disclosed, has already been signed. They will embark on a week-long flight around the moon.

Will everything work out?

Unfortunately, quite often the first rocket launches are unsuccessful. Typically, companies conduct test trials over several years. And, for example, in 2016, SpaceX engineers faced numerous problems.

But Falcon Heavy is a very ambitious endeavor for SpaceX, and no matter what, Falcon will leave its mark on the skies, to one degree or another. In addition, it is already absolutely clear that Musk is changing the landscape of the entire space industry, with far-reaching consequences.

Ben Thornber, engineer, space innovation researcher, associate professor at the University of Sydney.

InoSMI materials contain assessments exclusively of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the InoSMI editorial staff.

At the request of readers, a little more of our Elon Musk. The text is not mine, the link is below.

My young reader! Of course, you go to the rocket modeling section, and you are wondering why Russian engineers are laughing like horses at this Canadian asshole Elon Musk - in the engineering sense, and not in the sense of the clever swindler who launched the Invisible Hand of the Market into the American budget. (And he would have remained in the American budget, like his patrons from Congress, and God bless them, blue (in every sense) thieves, but we will talk about, in fact, engineering nuances that are not usually remembered in the era of qualified consumers ).

It's boring at first.

Rocketry, as a branch of mechanical engineering, absorbs knowledge and technologies of metalworking, materials science, instrument engineering, mathematical modeling, flaw detection, etc., every squeak in this industry is protected by patents, often umbrella ones, all parts, assemblies and products are repeatedly tested on extremely expensive stands, with their own requirements, restrictions, tolerances and landings, this knowledge accumulates over years and decades, this entire complex costs not even hundreds of billions, but trillions of dollars, government trillions, trillions from the pockets of the American people.

But if you, as a government lobbyist, have a trillion-dollar NASA, which, as a government organization, is accountable to a bunch of strict doctor-auditors, and you really, really want to steal, then you need to come up with some kind of super-expensive project, which is like a toad through a straw , it will be possible to inflate it on the stock exchange, simultaneously pumping money out of the budget.

To do this you:

You hire a chatty dude with sparkling eyes,

You hire a team of PR people, designers and others, both energetic and unprincipled,

You register a private company in California, and this private company is not obliged to disclose the nuances of its financial health (gee),

You merge into this charade: patents, technologies, finished projects, technical documentation (thousands of volumes and hundreds of thousands of drawings - but since this is the most shameless privatization of state intellectual property worth hundreds of billions of dollars from the people’s pockets, then you declare the talkative dude a super-duper Inventor) and ready-made work teams of real inventors (this is important - whole teams) directly from NASA,

You are pushing the idea through the Congressional Budget Committee that in this way you are reducing the burden on NASA's budget, especially on its pension items (we remember that NASA personnel - the coolest engineers - are gradually aging?),

You provide the newborn sharaga with technical, technological, patent support, involve the military, intelligence and counterintelligence, silence the mouths of hundreds and thousands of patent owners, you silence the mouths of tens and hundreds of journalists who suddenly understand that it is better to never try to “dig” in your life, otherwise they will fire you the hell out of nowhere with a wolf ticket, you connect tens and hundreds of first-class media to the Ingenious Company of a Unique Suddenly Out of Nowhere Ingenious Inventor,

You provide the Unique Ingenious Collective of the Young and Bold with dozens and dozens of orders on the satellite services market (yes, everyone, anyone can go where four-star generals and tanned congressmen with noble gray hair graze),

You negotiate with stockbrokers, brokers, rating agencies, bankers, with this whole wolf pack, so that they “look where they should, and don’t look where they shouldn’t, it’s going to snow on your head, it’s going to be really bad, they’re going to send doctors, you might accidentally fall out of the window, choking.” with an olive, to rape a maid in flight – the services of Jamesbonds to choose from,”

But you can’t launch rocket production directly at NASA facilities, so you help the newly minted team find factories (a whole cooperation that consists of dozens and dozens of private, semi- and fully public companies, often from the Pentagon) with an aerospace background where they can rivet rockets based on projects leaked (free of charge, i.e. for free) from NASA),

And - the cherry on the cake - you promise everyone that you don’t just make rockets (NASA can do this - and why bother?) - you promise that you are doing a Unique Program, a BREAKTHROUGH INTO THE FUTURE!! 11 one-of-a-kind - reusable rockets with landing on planet Earth! Hurray, victory, Hollywood catches multiple orgasms.

If you can pull this all off within a few months, then you are part of America’s home team, no less. So, everything is ready for the scam of the suckers, everyone is ready, charged, discharged and excited.

But these are fucking rockets! This is fakinshit, planet Earth! And on it there is gravity, the laws of nature and various minor engineering restrictions.

Which ones?

This is a geostationary orbit, where satellites need to be “hung”.

This is the orbit of the ISS, where they have lobbied (well, everyone can do this, right?) for the delivery of cargo by trucks and, in the future, astronauts - living human people. (At the same time, the state NASA was offered to buy the services of a private private company, which - see above - is not obliged to report on the structure of financial flows, shareholders, etc. - what a delight, isn’t it?).

These are the dimensions and average mass of telecommunications and military satellites - several tons, at a minimum (shouldn’t we be working on microsatellites? All serious people, we work seriously).

Consequently, the rocket’s energy is released from the thrown orbital mass into geostationary orbit and from the mass of trucks (and ships with people).

Naturally, you can’t just take a ready-made Nasov engine out of your pocket, because everyone will be surprised - where is the uniqueness and ingenuity? Therefore, you accidentally find in your pocket the completed Nasov drawings of the old engine from the American lunar landing module (who said patents? who said stands?) - and take this engine as the main propulsion engine. But you need a lot of such low-power engines, nine of them at the start - but you shout loudly that this is a Breakthrough into the Future - and people eat it up.

Naturally, the technology for soft landing on a planet has been proven for more than 60 years, so you take the same ideas from the lunar landing module and attach landing legs to the rocket. But here the engineering joke begins - normal disposable rockets have reached such perfection that the walls of their structure are as thin as possible, so normal engineers even take into account the strengthening of materials when filling tanks with liquid oxygen. And they tell you that it’s simply impossible to attach landing supports to these thin walls - so you need to fence in support belts, thicken the entire shell, strengthen the structure, install drives for the “legs” - and this is all hard, it’s all design, strength materials, and constant weighting design, and not at all like the beautiful presentation that you showed in Congress (or not you, but your tanned patron with noble gray hair - and why does he need all this headache? Decide, redneck, they gave you money!) - and you you put in place unique (I’m not kidding) engineering teams (who were given to you en masse like slaves) - and they do the impossible - they work on the unfortunate folding landing supports, they do it perfectly, as real American engineers can... but all the meanness is not over yet.

Naturally, for a soft landing of a rocket you need a lot of fuel and oxidizer - this is the same “dead” mass that is useless for launching a satellite into orbit, but you need to carry this weight in order to guarantee that your rocket lands on a platform in the ocean (here you yell wild cry, because for every extra kilogram of the structure you need to take additional fuel - or reduce the declared, promised orbital mass).

Naturally, having lunar technologies, a bunch of lunar engines, you are trying to somehow save on the design. The most important thing is that you cannot produce your rocket at the cosmodrome itself - there simply aren’t these fucking technologists, workers, welders, metallurgists, mechanics and all this rabble that wants to eat and fuck women, so you, trying to somehow save money, must deliver the rocket piece by piece to the Vanderberg military base (who said the Pentagon?) - and how to do this other than by rail??

And here His Terrible Majesty - the Railway Gauge - comes into action. You cannot change bridges, crossings, contact lines along the entire length of the route from the factory to the launch complex, so you must fit the structure within the maximum dimensions of 3.7 meters.

THREE POINT SEVEN TENTHS fakinshit meter. That's all you can do. Do you understand? You, the ruler of the United States, who has put everyone at risk, are forced to reckon with the railway gauge.

Oh Kay, cowboys, so what happens with our nine Merlins and a railway gauge of 3.7 meters? And here it turns out to be a wild, sticky horror for an engineer - in order to stuff so much fuel and oxidizer in order to pull the promised cargo into orbit, you need to make a rocket with a height... height... (raise the calculator, she is lying unsightly in a faint) - 70 (in words - SEVENTY) meters .

You feel sick. You really feel bad - with a diameter of 3.7 meters, you need to ensure the flight strength of a “pasta” 70 meters long (we divide 70 by 3.7 and we get a ratio of 18.9 - one to nineteen!). The worst thing is that you need to ensure the stability of this “pasta” on a platform in the ocean (who said waves?!) - a column 70 meters high - and hold it in a normal breeze (who said wind pressure?!). You feel very bad - you need to increase your “legs”. They simply should be longer. Given their dimensions, they need to be made thicker and stronger (who said - we cut by weight?!). For every extra kilogram of “legs”, for every extra kilogram of “pasta” - you need additional fuel and oxygen.

Fakinshit. Riley fakinshit.

You are trying to improve the engineering quality of this pasta monster. You, quite by accident, pull out from your wide trousers the technology for supercooling kerosene and oxygen - so at least a few percent more fuel and oxidizer can be crammed into the same tanks - while you are silent about the price of such technology - these are losses and expenses, it all costs money , not provided for in any estimate, but you no longer care about the estimates - you need to serve the “pasta god” and the physical laws of planet Earth.

But you are the owner of America. You have a headache. Your clown is jumping all over the media, and your colleagues from the Committee are asking you: “Listen, Billy, buddy, how are things going with dividends?”

Uncomfortable in front of the boys.

And now your engineering bastard, the size of a heavy-class rocket, squeezed by a railway gauge, weighed down by “legs” and a dead stock of landing fuel, begins to put into orbit (you, after all, have first-class slaves who once worked at NASA) the orbital load , which can be launched by a light (well, okay, light-medium class) missile.

To the friendly neighing of Russians and Europeans. Even the Chinese are giggling.

But you are the master of America. And you, stung by a coyote, through hundreds and thousands of pocket media, howl to the entire planet Earth that your “pasta” is about to sit down. She falls once, she falls twice - but here she lands!!! You managed not to drop the “pasta”! You have the best programmers on the planet.

What's next? And then - the most boring thing - you need to re-defect the entire “pasta” and examine whether it, a space design, a triumph of materials science and engineering, can start again - you need to study how each element, each gasket survived overloads, temperatures and vibrations , are there any microcracks in every detail, in every weld, are there any defects in every information cable. And you have - ma-ka-ro-ni-na - with nine antediluvian lunar engines, consisting of hundreds of thousands of parts, assemblies and mechanisms. And each unit must work flawlessly - after landing - and again work at super overloads.

And you, almost the master of America, a brilliant promoter who has placed hundreds of thousands of specialists in cancer - from a fucking engineer to four-star generals, from a girl from a PR service to a cunning banker from the Bank Which is Better Forgotten - you understand that you need to endure until the end of the presidential the term of that too dark guy with a tired look, not to get shot, not to fall out of the window, not to choke on an olive and, God forbid, not to rape the maid.

And what about your lively boy with impudent eyes? And today he is forced to publicly announce that the successfully landed rocket, based on the results of the examination, is unsuitable for re-launch.

Oh fucking shit...

(thanks to Alexey Shironin for pointing out the link)

Source https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1128071823923229&id=100001612675483