SpaceX claims it can get to Mars by 2018

Num7

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T-minus two years to Mars. In a tweet yesterday afternoon, private spaceflight company SpaceX announced its intention to send its Dragon capsule to Mars as soon as 2018. But will the Red Dragon really fly? The timeline has been labelled ambitious, but realistic.

21424800115_1ff6e4624d_o-1200x800.jpg


“Everything about Dragon since the beginning has been done with Mars in mind, you can tell from the design,” says Jim Bell of Arizona State University in Tempe, who has worked on several NASA missions to Mars and is working on the planned Mars 2020 rover. “I wouldn’t put anything past these folks.”

The tough part won’t be getting the spacecraft to Mars, but getting it down to the surface. And the company will need some help from NASA. Details are scarce at the moment, but the overall plan has been in motion since at least 2011, says Brian Glass at NASA Ames Research Center in California.

“This is not out of the blue,” he says. “It’s not just boom, two years off the block. This is more like a seven-year effort that culminates with launch in 2018 and goes from there.”

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket first launched in 2008, and its Dragon capsule has been successfully ferrying cargo to the International Space Station since 2012. The trip to Mars will use souped-up versions of both: the Falcon Heavy rocket, which is essentially three stages of the Falcon 9 rocket strapped together, and the Dragon 2 capsule, which will eventually bring astronauts to and from the ISS.

“If the Falcon Heavy stays on schedule and the Dragon 2 stays on schedule, they can make 2018,” says former NASA chief technologist Robert Braun, now at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. “If those elements take longer, then 2018 gets harder to do.”

Neither piece of kit has been extensively tested yet. The first Falcon Heavy launch is scheduled for later this year, and Dragon 2 is set to undergo test flights this year and next year.

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SpaceX claims it can get to Mars by 2018 – what are its chances?
 

Derrick C.

Member
Messages
399
T-minus two years to Mars. In a tweet yesterday afternoon, private spaceflight company SpaceX announced its intention to send its Dragon capsule to Mars as soon as 2018. But will the Red Dragon really fly? The timeline has been labelled ambitious, but realistic.

21424800115_1ff6e4624d_o-1200x800.jpg


“Everything about Dragon since the beginning has been done with Mars in mind, you can tell from the design,” says Jim Bell of Arizona State University in Tempe, who has worked on several NASA missions to Mars and is working on the planned Mars 2020 rover. “I wouldn’t put anything past these folks.”

The tough part won’t be getting the spacecraft to Mars, but getting it down to the surface. And the company will need some help from NASA. Details are scarce at the moment, but the overall plan has been in motion since at least 2011, says Brian Glass at NASA Ames Research Center in California.

“This is not out of the blue,” he says. “It’s not just boom, two years off the block. This is more like a seven-year effort that culminates with launch in 2018 and goes from there.”

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket first launched in 2008, and its Dragon capsule has been successfully ferrying cargo to the International Space Station since 2012. The trip to Mars will use souped-up versions of both: the Falcon Heavy rocket, which is essentially three stages of the Falcon 9 rocket strapped together, and the Dragon 2 capsule, which will eventually bring astronauts to and from the ISS.

“If the Falcon Heavy stays on schedule and the Dragon 2 stays on schedule, they can make 2018,” says former NASA chief technologist Robert Braun, now at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. “If those elements take longer, then 2018 gets harder to do.”

Neither piece of kit has been extensively tested yet. The first Falcon Heavy launch is scheduled for later this year, and Dragon 2 is set to undergo test flights this year and next year.

Continue reading:
SpaceX claims it can get to Mars by 2018 – what are its chances?

2018 is a little ambitious but im a huge space x fan and belive they can put man on Mars that soon, we do have the tech for it, NASA said the earliest they could put a man on Mars is between 2020 and 2022, which if you think about it is pretty sad. also with new engine tech for the spaceships/rockets we could reach mars in 2 months each way and make it only a 4 month round trip instead of 7 months each way and a year and a half round trip. :)
 


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