The AMA session on Reddit was a follow-up to Musk’s comments at the space conference in Mexico last month, a highly anticipated event where he outlined his vision for colonizing the Red Planet.
And while Musk’s comments at the conference dispelled any doubts as to his dream of putting a colony on Mars, the Reddit AMA still drew over 5,000 comments, with people asking some nitty-gritty questions: what about radiation, and is there some way to protect the colonists? And where would people live?
The Interplanetary Transport System (ITS), the real backbone of the whole mission was the focus of many of the questions, and Elon Musk seemed to have answers, but stressed that many solutions were still in the planning stage. For example, he explained how they had great concern about the metal used in the hot oxygen-rich turbopump of the ITS.
But he said, “We have that problem under control, as the Raptor turbopump didn’t show erosion in the test firings, but there is still room for optimization.” Their next goal is sealing those tanks from oxidation.
“Biggest question right now is sealing the carbon fiber tanks against cryo propellant with hot autogenous pressurization. The oxygen tank also has an oxidation risk problem as it is pressurized with pure, hot oxygen. Will almost certainly need to apply an inert layer of some kind. Hopefully, something that can be sprayed. If need be, will use thin sheets of invar welded together on the inside.”
Musk elaborated on his plan to send an unmanned spacecraft to Mars first with the equipment to build a plant to create a propellant for rockets to return to Earth. He added that building the plant would be the job of the first manned crew, according to the Associated Press.
Musk also sees a space colony with “miner/tunneling droids” used for building pressurized, large, underground tunnels for industrial uses, as well as geodesic domes for daily living. He says colonists would never have to see the “ugly” side of the planet.
While Musk was able to answer many mundane questions, or at least give his opinion on what could be done, as Engadget says, SpaceX is still a long way from explaining the “nuts and bolts” of many parts of the mission. For one thing, it will be a couple years before anyone learns about the ITS’s habitation section.
The whole concept of the Mars mission is still very exciting, and there is a growing base of enthusiasts out there on the Internet. And right now, everyone is waiting with great anticipation for the next big announcement from SpaceX.
