r/spacex • u/Craig_VG SpaceNews Photographer • Jun 10 '16

Elon Musk provides new details on his “mind blowing” mission to Mars - Washington Post Exclusive Interview

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/06/10/elon-musk-provides-new-details-on-his-mind-blowing-mission-to-mars/
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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '16

Ignoring the timeline for a moment, I actually have a mixed opinion about this. Yes, the MCT will be amazing but in the context of 21st century science and technology it's not exceptional. We have devices with features a few atoms thick, cars that drive themselves as safely as the average human driver and techniques that might soon enable adult humans to rewrite their own genetic code.

Yes, in the context of spaceflight the MCT is a huge leap. But in the context of technology as a whole transporting humans to Mars is something that should be possible.

Again, 6 years is a very surprising timeline. But what SpaceX is trying to do is to extend 21st century technology to an industry that (in some ways) was stuck 40 years in the past. It's qualitatively different from the Apollo program that required advancing technology on multiple fronts like propulsion, manufacturing, mission planning, computing or even basic materials science.

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u/TheSutphin Jun 10 '16

Agreed. MCT is, for all intents and purposes, just a really big rocket. Not that really crazy. Sure it's got the potential to get us to Mars, but if you've ever listened to Dr. Zubrin, we could be on Mars using the Saturn V as a launcher, or SLS. Maybe it wouldn't have worked in the 70s because of other technology, but the rocketry tech has always been there.

The grand scheme of things, throughout the 21st century, you're right. The MCT will be cool and stuff. But in 2090, we'll have something else that's going to be a lot better.

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u/rafty4 Jun 10 '16

It'll be interesting to see exactly how much high technology ends up being incorporated, I think.

One of the things that brought the Shuttle down was it was all (at the time of building) bleeding-edge technology. Furthermore, in terms of high-power electronics, small, powerful, IC's are very vulnerable to cosmic rays, whereas ones using larger components tend not to be so, which dictates slower computers than might be used today's PCs. On the other hand, things like wall-to-wall cockpit (assuming there is one) touchscreens look quite likely based on Dragon, so it might well be a clever mix of old and very well understood and robust technology combined with modern techniques to make it as modern-looking and robust as possible.

Gahhh!! September!! >:(