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SpaceX: Elon Musk hopes for a self-sustaining city on Mars in 20 years

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Sunday said that he hopes for a self-sustaining city on the Red Planet in 20 years’ time, as his space company prepares Starship to take people and cargo to the moon, Mars and beyond.

Musk said in a tweet: ‘I hope there is a self-sustaining city on Mars in 20 years!’

Last month, the world’s richest man said he was optimistic that ‘humanity will reach Mars in your lifetime’.

‘Without a common goal, humanity will fight itself. The Moon brought us together in 1969, Mars can do that in the future,’ Musk had said.

The Tesla CEO had stated that making multiplanetary life will help back up the ecosystems on Earth and added that apart from humans no other species can transport life to Mars.

Referring to Biblical patriarch Noah who built an Ark that survived the great flood on Earth, Musk said his Starship models will be ‘modern Noah’s Arks’, that can save ‘life from a calamity on Earth’.

SpaceX’s Starship consists of a giant first-stage booster called Super Heavy and a 165-foot-tall (50 meters) upper-stage spacecraft known as Starship. Both elements are designed to be fully reusable, and both will be powered by SpaceX’s next-generation Raptor engines, 33 for Super Heavy and six for Starship.

Last week, it was reported that the much-awaited first orbital test flight of the Starship vehicle will not lift off this month as it has not yet received the necessary launch clearance.

Earlier, the launch was scheduled for July and was shifted to August later.

On August 2, Musk said that a successful orbital flight is probably ‘between 1 and 12 months from now.’

According to a radio-spectrum license application that the company filed with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), SpaceX is targeting a six-month window that opens on September 1 for the highly anticipated mission.

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Technology

Finally! SpaceX can launch Starship into orbit as soon as September 1

SpaceX’s Starship and NASA’s SLS prepare for launch

That’s not to say we’re not nearing launch though. Starship is set to launch from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in South Texas. The company is preparing for lift-off, and it recently conducted a “static fire” engine test with both its first-stage Super Heavy booster, called Booster 7, and its Starship prototype, dubbed Ship 24. SpaceX fired up only one of Booster 7’s 33 engines on Tuesday, August 9, while Ship 24 ignited two of its six Raptor engines. While the company is making steady progress towards launch, there’s still a way to go before both are ready for lift-off.

Both Starship and Super Heavy are designed to be fully reusable, and they are powered by a total of 39 of SpaceX’s next-generation Raptor engines. The improved efficiency of Raptor 2 alongside the full reusability of the launch elements is set to greatly reduce launch and operational costs, which is one of the main factors that will allow Starship to eventually take humans to Mars.

NASA, which may launch its own Space Launch System (SLS) around the moon this month — it’s targeting an August 29 launch date — has opted to use Starship for its upcoming Artemis III moon landing mission. SLS isn’t reusable, and it will be used for Artemis I and II, each of which will travel around the moon before returning to Earth. With preparations well underway, we’re on the verge of two historic launches that will likely usher in a bold new era for spaceflight.

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