On September 27th 2016, at the 67th annual International Astronomical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX announced his company's ambitious plan for the colonization of Mars. The plan calls for the creation of what Mr. Musk is calling the Interplanetary Transport System (ITS). This system involves the combination of a rocket more powerful than the Saturn 5 and a spaceship that can hold 100 people.
At the heart of the ITS (Interplanetary Transport System) is a scaled up version of SpaceX's Falcon 9 booster that will feature 42 Raptor engines. When the crewed spaceship is place on top of the ITS it will stand a whopping 400 feet tall, making it the largest space flight system that's ever been built. It will be a potent machine that's capable of lifting 300 tons into low earth orbit.
The spaceship by it self will be 162 feet tall by 57 feet wide. It will have its own set of nine Raptor engines. The booster will carry the spaceship to orbit and return for a soft landing back on Earth. A second ITS will then be launched carrying fuel. It will rendezvous with the orbiting spaceship in order to fill its tank. The spaceship will blast off for a mission once Earth and Mars are aligned.
The spaceship will be able to carry from 100 to 200 hundred people at one time. The craft will be large enough to contain movie theaters, lecture halls, and a restaurant. The Raptor engines will allow the flight to take only 80 days at the outset. When the ITS is up and running, Mr Musk envisions a fleet of 1,000 ships heading off on the journey to the Red Planet.
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