SpaceX Mars
The Stated Goal or Elon Musk for SpaceX is to create a self sustainable city on Mars.
Most information at this stage is speculative from interviews form SpaceX - Elon Musk CEO, Gwynne Shotwell COO and Tom Mueller VP.
They are designing a whole host of new technologies
Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT) also known as ITS (Now postponed for the smaller BFR system)
The BFR(Starship) using the new Merlin engines
Internet relay satellites for Mars
Habitats
Power systems.
Mars space suits.
Are Elon Musk projects meant for Mars?
Robotic Mars missions
First Plan was from 2016
Old plan was for 2018 SpaceX was to send missions to Mars every orbital opportunity (26 months) and to launch its first 'Red Dragon' to Mars, "Red Dragons was to inform the overall Mars architecture"In 2020 two mars missions are planned.2022 SpaceX hopes to launch its very ambitious 'Mars Colonial Transporter'(MCT) towards Mars, The Red Dragon has been cancelled and the MCT has now been replaced by the smaller BFR system and a new timeline. Elon Musk gave an update in 2018 at the announcement of the #dearMoon trip set for 2023.
Modified plan using BFR design
The BFR system is now going to be used initially as it is smaller than the MCT that may be built later.
The goal is to launch two Cargo variants (BFC) on the BFR to Mars in 2022
Followed by two more BFC and then two manned BFS (Spaceship variant) in launched in 2024 to arrive in 2025.
Mars Landing graphic
The first spaceship called 'Heart of Gold' (after the fictitious AI spaceship in a Novel) will be a robotic mission transporting the equipment to enable both the oxygen and the fuel to be manufactured on Mars.
Sabatier reaction
A chemical process that can be used to convert carbon out of Mars’ thin air and combine it with hydrogen (from water) using solar energy, and to form combustible methane fuel.
Elon Musk "Mars happens to work out well for that, because it has a CO2 atmosphere, it’s got water ice in the soil, and with H2O and CO2 you can do CH4 methane and oxygen, O2,"
Send Cargo scouting missions, initially just to make sure we know how to land without adding a crater and then to figure out the best way to get water for the CH4/O2 Sabatier Reaction.
'Heart of Gold' Cargo spaceship flies to Mars loaded only with equipment to build the propellant plant.
First crewed mission with equipment to build rudimentary base and complete the propellant plant.
Try to double the number of flights with each Earth-Mars orbital rendezvous, which is every 26 months, until the city can grow by itself.”
Mars Base Alpha
In 2024 SpaceX plan to launch the first manned mission to mars to boot strap Mars Base Alpha by 2028.
First crewed mission would have about a dozen people, as the goal will be to build out and troubleshoot the propellant plant and Mars Base Alpha power system.
SpaceX are working closely with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to identify suitable locations for the first Mars missions, using Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) data.
Four locations have been identified that meet the following criteria:
Balance of terrain hazards, Size of Rocks/Pits, Slopes, Bearing strength and Dust.
Significant quantities of water ice are important, ease of water access, and quantity of water.
Power and thermal aspects, Latitude <40 deg (warmer and more sunlight), thermal safe landing zone.
Elevation, below -2Km, denser atmosphere, less Dust.
Multiple landing sites separated within a few kilometers.
Arcadia Planitia, Deuteronilus Mensae, Phlegra Montes and Utopia is the least likely.
Mars Base Alpha Habitats
Initially SpaceX plans glass panes with carbon fibre frames to build geodesic domes on the surface (SEE alternative Mars Base 2025), plus a lot of miner/tunnelling droids. With the latter, you can build out a huge amount of pressurised space for industrial operations and leave the glass domes for green living space.
Mars Base Missions
Cargo Mission 1 (CM1 2024)
Cargo Mission 2 (CM2 2024)
Cargo Mission 3 (CM3 2026)
Cargo Mission 4 (CM4 2026)
Manned Mission 1 (2027)
Manned Mission 2 (2027)
The Cargo missions will most likely include vechicaler robotic construction equipment, Elon Musk's Tesla company has experience working with automated vehicles and robotic production, it also now includes Solar power and power storage (power Wall) and even robotic power connections for its car charging.
All equipment will have to be able to function in a dusty 99% vacuum with a temperature range between 20c and -150c (not as large as for in space or on the Moon)
There is low level thermal conductivity on Mars due to the low pressure atmosphere but there is almost no water vapor to worry about freezing water ice.
Any tracked or wheeled vehicles and also the colonist boots will need protection from the corrosive and sharp Mars regolith.
Possible Mars vehicles
Small exploration Rovers
Trucks for moving equipment and for transporting raw materials
mobile robotic arms for construction and connecting cables
mobile Cable layer
mobile drilling platforms and excavators
EVA rovers
Main construction
Solar power farms and energy storage plant
Various Chemical Plants and resource refinement plants
Storage tanks
Habitats
Heating and cooling systems
Food production
Insitu resource management
Oxygen(O2) production and storage
Water(H2O) production and storage
Hydro electrolysis for Hydrogen(H2) used for atmospheric Methane fuel production
Methane(CH4) fuel production and storage
Nutrient production for growing plants, Macronutrients : O2, H2, Carbon(C), Nitrogen(N), Potassium(K), Phosphorus(P), Calcium(Ca), Magnesium(Mg), Sulfur(S) and Micro nutrients: Iron(Fe), Manganese(Mn), Zinc(Zn), Copper(Cu), Molybdenum(Mo), Boron(B) and Chlorine(Cl)
Robotic Construction on Mars
Robots on Mars will be needed for setup off the initial systems before the arrival of Humans. Robots would still be very important for ongoing base construction and maintenance as any work on the surface of Mars will be dangerous for Mars suited colonist.
I was enjoying watching Boston Dynamics' Spotmini robot and wondered if in the next 3 years it could be adapted to work on Mars.
SpaceX will need to have something of this capability if the first two cargo BFR to Mars are going to be able to set up solar panels and cabling to connect them up to batteries and then to the fuel, water and Oxygen production units and for piping to be connected from the production units to storage tanks.
To do this it will need to be able to work and survive low temperatures and connect itself to a power source and have some sort of repair system that other Mars Spotminis could implement.
Mars Spotmini maybe something SpaceX and Boston Dynamics could work together on in time for a 2022 launch.
Heath management in a mars colony
One problem for Mars is there initially there will be no capability to manufacture new drugs, will need to wait for deliveries from Earth up to 2 years. Yet maybe the limited range of drugs taken to Mars may be a good thing, not sure our dependence on some drugs is a good thing overall.
It will be interesting to see what medications and food supplements will be taken on early Starships to Mars.
Medications with a much longer shelf life are needed.
Medically mainly pain killers, radiation pills, insomnia pills, basic vomiting and diarrhoea drugs for food issues. A range of operating theatre drugs for emergency surgery operation requirements maybe blood plasma.
The medical kit on the ISS is basic. It contains a first aid kit, a large book of medical conditions and some useful medical equipment including a defibrillator, a portable ultrasound, a device for looking deep into the eye and two litres of saline.