Last month, Elon Musk’s firm SpaceX detailed its plans for its Interplanetary Transport system (ITS), which the company hopes will take humans to Mars so we can colonize the red planet.
Today, CEO Musk took to Reddit to answer questions about the outrageously ambitious project in an AMA session, and had some interesting ideas to share about our future.
Responding to a question about permanent habitation on Mars, Musk said that he envisions geodesic domes on the surface made with glass panes supported by carbon fiber frames. He added that ‘miner/tunneling droids’ will help ‘build out a huge amount of pressurized space for industrial operations’ underground.
Concerning transporting equipment, materials and people, Musk said that the first crewed mission would have about a dozen people, who will be tasked with building out and troubleshooting the propellant plant and Mars Base Alpha power system once it lands.
That’s all we’ve got for now: Musk noted that it’ll be a year or two before the company will release mockups of habitation environments. It’s kind of mind-blowing to think about such major issues and problems, and to observe a company already working to solve them for the future of mankind. You can find more details about the inner workings of SpaceX’s ITS in the AMA thread.
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