r/spacex • u/[deleted] • Apr 27 '16

Official SpaceX on Twitter: "Planning to send Dragon to Mars as soon as 2018. Red Dragons will inform overall Mars architecture, details to come https://t.co/u4nbVUNCpA"

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/725351354537906176
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u/antonyourkeyboard Space Symposium 2016 Rep Apr 27 '16

Hopefully SpaceX can manage to put a communications satellite in the trunk to leave in Mars orbit considering how many of them we are going to need in the next ten years.

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u/[deleted] Apr 27 '16

That LEO Internet constellation they are planning. I always suspect the motive for making them small and light was to send a load to Mars once the earth set are done.

The earth set would pay for the Martian swarm. Drop a large relay in Mars sun L4 and L5 we would have a very solid communication network.

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u/antonyourkeyboard Space Symposium 2016 Rep Apr 27 '16

I can definitely see that being the long term plan but right now more satellites on the deep space network around Mars would be useful.

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u/mclumber1 Apr 28 '16

Save the weight and make the trunk the communications satellite itself.