Everything SpaceX revealed about its updated plan to reach Mars by 2022
At the 2017 International Astronautical Congress in Australia, SpaceX founder Elon Musk laid out some exciting changes to his vision for helping make humans an interplanetary species, with a presence on Mars and potentially beyond. "The future is vastly more exciting and interesting if we're a space-faring species than if we're not," Musk said as he took the stage.
From article, (The plan is still to build ahead and have a stock of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy vehicles, despite the future focus on BFR, so that SpaceX’s customers can be reassured they can use this. Meanwhile, once that stockpile is achieved, SpaceX will turn all attention to building next rocket, which it will pay for by launching satellites and servicing the ISS.
The BFR, once in service, can also deploy large satellites, pick up space debris, and service the space station, but SpaceX wants to ensure that customers aren’t made nervous by the new platform before extensive testing.
BFR can also do lunar surface missions without having to produce fuel locally on the moon, which will allow the production of “moon base alpha or some sort of lunar base.”
The initial Mars goal is to have landed at least 2 cargo missions on Mars by 2022, per the SpaceX CEO. The company will start building the first BFR ship in the next 6 to 9 months, and Musk “feels confident” they can do the first mission in about five years. The purpose of the initial missions will be to confirm water resources and spot hazards, and to put in place power, mining and life support systems to support future missions.
Further missions following in 2024 would fly four ships, including two cargo vessels and two crewed ships. During this stage, the goal will be to build a propellant plant as well as take the first people to mars, and to build up a base in preparation for an expanded surface presence. And then to build that into a city, blossoming across the red dirt of Mars.)
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