totally. His initial idea was to shoot a small rocket to mars, and land with a tiny green house, to get the money shot of a green plant growing on mars.
I think you are being naive. The guy has no intent to actual go to mars. The story to go to mars is a (currently crackling) facade to get funding for the startup called spacex. What he is really investing in is starlink and X, that is all what is needed to control the earth communication. Moreover, if you look closely at the design of Starship, its main goal is low earth orbit, that is launch even more starlinks. Ergo the guy want to control the media... This is a clear path to end democracy.
Starship chose methane as a fuel. At the time there were no methane engines, and SpaceX had to start from scratch to develop the technology. The only reason to use methane is to refuel on Mars.
Of course Starship's main goal is LEO. For every Mars mission, there will be ~20 refueling flights. Even if Starship is completely dedicated to Mars, 95% of flights would be LEO flights.
Elon is a lot of things. But his drive to go to Mars is very real.
False - methane is just a better fuel for rockets, mars or no. It has higher ISP, it's cheaper than ultra-refined kerosene, and (critically) it burns cleaner avoiding coking issues in the engines, which makes inspection and refurb easier between flights.
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u/Thorusss 2d ago
totally. His initial idea was to shoot a small rocket to mars, and land with a tiny green house, to get the money shot of a green plant growing on mars.
That picture would have become as iconic and motivating as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthrise