Musk revealed the plans for
an "interplanetary transport system" Tuesday at the International
Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico.
In his address, Musk said
that the goal of SpaceX's planned missions to Mars is to turn humans
into a "multiplanetary species." Musk has said in the past that making
humanity "multiplanetary" is his primary reason for starting SpaceX.
The ship in the video is
what the company intends the actual craft to look like, Musk said. It
would need to fit about 100 people, and enough cargo to build
self-sustaining colonies on the planet, with "iron foundries, pizza
joints, you name it."
sciencealert | A rocket engine to get to Mars
This isn't the first the world has heard about the Raptor engine, but it's allegedly the first test-firing of the device – and definitely the first photo we've seen of it.
The image shows a static fire test, which is when a cone-shaped
rocket engine is hooked up to a fuel source, ignited, and pushed to the
limits to measure its performance.
The Raptor's fuel is almost certainly methane burned with liquid oxygen,
based on SpaceX's previous intimations about its Mars rocket system,
previously called the Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT) – and before that a
self-descriptive "Big F**ing Rocket" (BFR).
Musk shared a few of the Raptor's test-firing details on Monday
morning as well, including a beautiful image. "Production Raptor goal is
specific impulse of 382 seconds and thrust of 3 MN (~310 metric tonnes)
at 300 bar," Musk wrote on Twitter.
