A New Dawn of Transportation
By Baird Cotsakis
Over the last few years, SpaceX has continued to successfully push the limits of space travel, and they aren’t planning on slowing down anytime soon.
Many people are familiar with the name Elon Musk. Some may call him a visionary, others a lunatic, but all can agree on one thing- he is ambitious. Best known as the founder of Tesla, Musk is on his way to dominating the automobile industry with his electric cars.
What many people don’t know about Musk is that in 2002 he used $100 million of his fortune, originally from internet startup companies, to found a new company. Driven by Musk’s intense fascination with the great unknown, he created Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, better known as SpaceX. Since then, SpaceX has been a game-changer in the commercial space industry, with an impressive collection of firsts for space travel; including, most recently, being the first to land and reuse a rocket. The driving force behind these successes is Musk’s ambition, vision, and perseverance. These traits all fuel the company's ultimate goal: to colonize and inhabit our rocky red neighbor, Mars.
This lofty goal will understandably take a lot of innovation and development in space travel. The sheer distance between Earth and Mars is daunting, as the minimum distance is around 35 million miles, which is roughly 150 times the distance from Earth to the Moon. In order to make this goal more attainable, Musk has his eye set on reducing the cost of space travel by a factor of 10. To get the ball rolling, SpaceX has designed and developed the Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon spacecraft to deliver cargo to the International Space Station.
In 2012, SpaceX made history as the first privately owned company to successfully transport cargo to and from the International Space Station, a feat previously only carried out by governments. SpaceX has a contract with NASA in which it is heavily compensated for delivering cargo and satellites into space. This year, SpaceX is expected to transport nine NASA astronauts to the International Space Station in a modified Dragon capsule. This would be a huge first for commercial space travel, as it would be the first manned mission to space carried out by a private company.
SpaceX’s vision is to ultimately become similar to a commercial airline, except instead of transporting people to different cities, they would take passengers to different planets. This would entail a fully reusable rocket, which would drastically cut down costs and improve practicality of space travel. Back in 2015, Musk wrote on SpaceX’s website, “If one can figure out how to effectively reuse rockets just like airplanes, the cost of access to space will be reduced by as much as a factor of a hundred. A fully reusable vehicle has never been done before. That really is the fundamental breakthrough needed to revolutionize access to space.”
In the short time since Musk made that statement, SpaceX has already made monumental strides towards reusability. It achieved the first-ever orbital-class rocket landing in 2015 as the Falcon 9 first stage rocket safely touched down on land. A year later, SpaceX was able to successful land another Falcon 9 first stage, except this time at sea on a drone carrier. That same rocket was later reused in March 2017 as SpaceX once again pushed the boundaries of possibility and achieved the world’s first orbital class rocket reflight. This was a huge milestone for space travel because it demonstrated that total reusability was now a reality.
Amazingly, SpaceX has reduced the cost of a mission to the International Space Station by 90%, dropping the total cost from $1 billion to a meager $60 million. Musk continues to set high goals as he wants to be able to launch, land, and re-launch the same rocket all in the same day. This may seem like an unrealistic dream, but the pace at which SpaceX has advanced in just the last decade may suggest that it is not as lofty as it may seem.
All of this success didn’t come without its fair share of failures. Space travel is inherently dangerous and often has a steep learning curve. In 2008, SpaceX had three failed launch attempts of its first rocket. These setbacks nearly caused the end of SpaceX before it had even reached space. In addition, it had several failed landing attempts of the first stage Falcon 9 before they made history and succeeded. Musk was not discouraged by these failures, and he kept pushing forward to reach his goals. Perseverance is critical for innovation, and it definitely paid off for SpaceX.
Later this year, SpaceX is scheduled to launch its new Falcon Heavy rocket, which will be the world’s most powerful rocket. The Falcon Heavy will have double the power of its closest operational competition, which will allow SpaceX to transport much heavier payloads for higher profits and lower costs. It is designed to be able to carry passengers, which could facilitate transportation to the moon, or maybe even Mars.
Later this year, SpaceX is scheduled to launch its new Falcon Heavy rocket, which will be the world’s most powerful rocket.
Recently, two private citizens paid significant deposits for a trip of a lifetime. Utilizing the Falcon Heavy rocket, these individuals will embark on a trip around the moon and into deep space, deeper than humans have ever been before. Pending rigorous health and physical tests, the trip is scheduled to depart in 2018. This will revolutionize commercial space travel and likely lead to similar missions in the future. Soon space could be a common vacation destination for deep pocketed adventure seekers.
All of these exciting innovations put human life one step closer to being multi-planetary. SpaceX is not the only player in the game, and the added pressure of competition will breed further innovation and collaboration. In the near future, Mars is an unattainable goal; however, the chances of humans inhabiting Mars sometime in our lifetime is no longer unrealistic. Elon Musk believes that humans will reach Mars in the next 10-20 years, and his company, SpaceX, is making impressive strides to make that a reality.
Driven by Musk’s intense fascination with the great unknown, he created Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, better known as SpaceX.
SpaceX’s vision is to ultimately become similar to a commercial airline, except instead of transporting people to different cities, they would take passengers to different planets.
SpaceX has reduced the cost of a mission to the International Space Station by 90%, dropping the total cost from $1 billion to a meager $60 million.
Recently, two private citizens paid significant deposits for a trip of a lifetime.
Many people out there have no desire to go to space, as they are perfectly content staying on Earth. However, some people are looking for more than the ordinary. With all of Musk’s business ventures, his main objective is to work towards a more exciting and inspiring future. In a TED talk this April, Musk expressed this by saying, “If the future does not include being out there among the stars and being a multi-planet species, I find that incredibly depressing.”
“If the future does not include being out there among the stars and being a multi-planet species, I find that incredibly depressing.” - Elon Musk
Falcon 9 rocket takeoff, photo courtesy of SpaceX.
View of Mars from space, where Musk dreams of colonizing in the near future. Photo courtesy of Kevin Gill.
SpaceX Dragon capsule resupplying the International Space Station. Photo courtesy of NASA
Falcon 9 first stage rocket approaching for landing. Photo courtesy of SpaceX.
What the Falcon Heavy, world's most powerful rocket, would look like at takeoff once it is complete. Courtesy of SpaceX.
The Charger, May 2017
Back to Table of Contents