SpaceX: History And Future Plans Towards The Conquest Of Mars!

What Is SpaceX?

If you want the simple answer, here you go:

“SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. The company was founded in 2002 to revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets.”

While that may sound very basic, it’s actually quite a complex thing. You see, for all the advances that humanity has made in regards to going into space, the fact of the matter is that it costs a LOT to do that. So much so that the United States main space agency, NASA, was hit with major budget cuts because the attempts they were making to revolutionize space travel just wasn’t working.

Enter Elon Musk, one of the richest men in the world, and a man who truly believes in trying to make space travel not just the future, but the present. He founded SpaceX in 2002 to try and make space travel better, cheaper, more accessible, and beyond, and as the Space X website loves to boast, since 2002, they’ve had quite a few successes:

“SpaceX has gained worldwide attention for a series of historic milestones. It is the only private company capable of returning a spacecraft from low Earth orbit, which it first accomplished in 2010. The company made history again in 2012 when its Dragon spacecraft became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to and from the International Space Station.

SpaceX successfully achieved the historic first reflight of an orbital class rocket in 2017, and the company now regularly launches flight-proven rockets. In 2018, SpaceX began launching Falcon Heavy, the world’s most powerful operational rocket by a factor of two.”

So as you can see, this is more than just a company, it’s a place with a mission, though how it officially came to be is a bit more ironic than you might guess.

Musk’s Idea

As noted, Elon Musk is a futurist, he believes in trying to make the future happen as soon as possible, and when he started to formulate his “plan” for SpaceX…SpaceX wasn’t even a thought in his mind. Rather, he was trying to push the idea that humanity could go to the planet Mars and habitate it, which in the early 2000’s was still believed to be space fantasy.

NASA had gotten a massive budget cut, so Elon decided to put his money where his mouth was and try to get NASA more by inspiring a new space race. part of his plan was to go to Russia and buy up their rockets to use him for his plans with NASA.

The problem was that the Russians wouldn’t sell to him. But ironically, this gave him his idea. He realized that he didn’t NEED Russia, or technically even the US to help him and his vision to go to Mars. All he needed…was a company to make it happen. A company that he himself could own, operate, and make the right calls without any bureaucracy.

As he started to further formulate that plan, he realized an interesting truth about building rockets and spaceships. The price wasn’t nearly as high as NASA and other government-powered agencies were stating. Mainly because they were importing all the materials, but if his company could build everything in-house, the cost of building rockets would plummet and they’d have a better gross profit margin. Thus, SpaceX was born.

And while the place may not have started out as a place to help the governments of the world as a whole, SpaceX has done dozens of missions in both a commercial and government capacity:

“As one of the world’s fastest growing providers of launch services, SpaceX has secured over 100 missions to its manifest, representing over $12 billion on contract. These include commercial satellite launches as well as US government missions. SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft is flying numerous cargo resupply missions to the space station under a series of Commercial Resupply Services contracts. Dragon was designed from the outset to carry humans to space and will soon fly astronauts under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.”

Say what you will about Elon Musk and his eccentricity, but his ideas take form, and this was another example of that.

How SpaceX Changed The Game

One of the reasons that SpaceX is not only very popular, but very successful, is that there isn’t any real government oversight on his company outside of the basics like health, safety, and obviously weapons control (not that he’s making weapons, but rather to ensure he doesn’t.) The reason NASA took a hit in the 2000’s and beyond was because of the government all but shutting them down, since SpaceX is Elon’s own company, that literally can’t happen barring an offense of a grand scale, and then some.

So that kind of freedom and progress is what helped the company get to where it is right now, and why many of the experts in the field of space travel believe that SpaceX will truly be the first space entity to set people onto the face of Mars.

But there’s another reason that SpaceX has changed the game, and it’s not that they’re the first privately-owned space company in the world, they weren’t, but they are one of the longest-lasting, and arguably the most successful.

You see, there have been a lot of people who have tried to set up their own space agencies apart from the government. And some have succeeded…for a time. Some of them even had their own plans for getting to Mars and setting up a colony there. But the problem is almost always the same: Money. They either spend too big and burn their budget up before they have something done, or, they just run out of money to spend period. With Elon Musk though, that’s not really a problem.

Mainly because at last count he’s worth $23.4 BILLION dollars. So yeah…that’s going to be REALLY hard to burn through, especially since he’s making money in other areas of the world that don’t involve space.

Now, obviously this doesn’t set a precedent that is easy to follow, however, it does prove that you don’t need government oversight to change the game in a certain field. And the success of SpaceX shows that Musk was able to make a gameplan, stick to it, hire the right people, and get results. Which is a model many could follow to have their own successful businesses.

To Mars

As noted earlier on the list, the main goal of SpaceX right now is to get humanity to Mars in the VERY near future. In fact, the first missions (depending on setbacks, conditions, etc) could start happening in the next few years, maybe even before 2022, and 2024 at the latest, only time will tell.

But why Mars? Because as of right now it’s the closest place that we could go to colonize that is actually feasible to colonize at all. Sure, the Moon in our sky is closer, but it doesn’t have its own natural water source that we can find. Whereas Mars has polar ice caps that can be used to make water and beyond. Plus, while not perfect, Mars has an atmosphere. It’s not ideal as it doesn’t protect the planet like Earth’s, but it could theoretically be modified to help future colonists.

If you didn’t know, we also talked about possible colonization by SpaceX on Mars!

But above all else, Mars is seen as the next step in human advancement in terms of exploration and moving beyond Earth. Sure, we won’t be at Star Wars or Star Trek levels of travel just yet, but this is a step in the right direction. What’s more, if we’re able to colonize Mars, even partially, it could potentially help the Earth via getting people off the planet and thus preventing overpopulation, which is a serious threat as it stands right now.

That’s another fuel of sorts for Elon Musk and his crew, to get humanity to Mars, and maybe beyond, so that we don’t focus solely on our own planet as the only hope for survival.

The Plan

Part 1

So SpaceX wants to colonize Mars, that’s great, but how are they going to do that? Especially since right now there’s nothing on Mars that we can live in? SpaceX is working on that as well. their plan is to have a singular massive base to start the colonization with. The base itself will be 41 feet tall, 16 feet wide, and have three different air locks that will allows the colonists to go from the inside to the outside with minimal change in air pressure.

If you’re thinking about the dimensions, yeah, it ain’t the biggest place to live in, but that’s not the point at first. The point is to see how humanity will react on Mars first, then we can work on building big cities.

Space X intends to launch the colony with a series of reactors and generators. Some of them will be meant to specifically power the station itself. While others will be used to test making power based on the elements that are naturally and readily available on Mars. Thorium for example is one element they believe they can harness a great amount of power from.

Believe it or not, this is actually a key element of truly colonizing an area. For it’s easy to just go to a new place and bring along everything you think you need to survive. But to truly “live” there you need to use the natural elements and resources around you. That way you’re not just “living” there, you’re living there. Which is another goal of SpaceX as a whole.

Part 2

Ok, so we send the colony, the generators, supplies, and more to Mars, and then it’s time to send the people, right? Correct. Though the process of picking the first Martian astronauts has not been disclosed, it’s likely going to be experts in their fields who have been trained to survive on Mars, and for the first trip and quest, they’ll need their skills to set everything up, make sure everything can work, prepare for eventualities and potential failures, and survive until they return home.

“Return home? What do you mean by that?” Well, this was never meant to be a one-way trip like many speculate. Because colonization isn’t just a one-time thing, it’s about waves of actions, reactions, and more.

The first base is meant to ensure that colonization on the most basic levels is possible. To test out getting water, get the generators working, prove the living spaces work, and so on and so forth.

The plan is for them to live on Mars for about 9 months. Then, after that, go back into their ship and head for home. Which would be the first round trip from Mars in history.

Part 3

Once the astronauts return home from Mars after the first trip, they’ll be studied heavily. Their bodies will be tested for unknown biological signatures, much like the astronauts on ISS they’ll be tested to see if their bodies have been negatively affected by microgravity and radiation exposure. And so on and so forth.

All of this data will be vital to the SECOND trip to Mars. Where Elon Musk is planning to go even bigger this go around. And by that time, the governments of the Earth will no doubt be helping out more as well.

Anyway, the goal of the second mission will be to help not just expand the colony, but help expand the potential of the colony. Including giving them more materials and equipment to work with as they try and truly establish an everlasting colony on Mars.

So while it may seem like a really complicated plan, it’s one that is meant not for speed, but for lasting impact. They don’t want to make a basic mistake and have their colonization plans set back years. So they’ll take it slow, and go with the flow until they know for sure that Mars can be colonized, and colonized safely.

The Hopeful Results

If everything should go well, by the time we get into the 2030’s it’ll be likely that we won’t just have colonized Mars, we likely will have made multiple trips to the planet. To the extent that we may have multiple colonies on Mars and are starting to seriously consider it a planet that we inhabit.

While it’s impossible to know just how far we’ll be by then, and how far until the whole planet can be colonized, it is the dream of Elon Musk that is being accomplished here.

Having humans living on Mars is a true wish of his, and if it works, humanity will grow in ways that we’ve only suspected was in the realm of science-fiction before.

The Future of SpaceX

So let’s say that SpaceX succeeds in their mission to get humanity to Mars. That they were able to get their spaceships there and so on and so forth. Where do they go from there? Do they simply stop? Of course not! Remember, the other goal of SpaceX wasn’t just to get people to Mars, but to make space travel cheaper, more affordable, and more efficient.

The spaceships and rockets that they are developing are leagues above where NASA, JAXA and all the other space agencies are right now. So if they keep advancing, imagine where they’ll be in a decade or two? 

For all we know, SpaceX could become THE agency for Space Travel, and with colonies on Mars they’ll likely have a never-ending supply of customers and people wanting to either work with them or alongside them. 

They could also be the reason that we colonize other places in our solar system. The sky is truly the limit, they’re just focusing on the Mars goal right now. Who knows what they’ll pick when that mission is done.