Elon Musk launched the Starship to transport people to Mars

Starship spacecraft system and Super Heavy boosters are expected to send humans to the moon and Mars in the near future.

Elon Musk, the owner of SpaceX, introduced a new prototype of the Starship spacecraft for private flights on the evening of September 28 to commemorate the 11th anniversary of the successful launch of the rocket into orbit. The new Starship, called Mark 1, comes with a Super Heavy propulsion that can carry 100 people into space, to the Moon and beyond to Mars. SpaceX also revealed the Raptor, an internal combustion rocket engine powered by frozen methane and liquid oxygen.

Starship spacecraft prototype.(Photo: Reuters)

"This is probably the most inspiring thing I have ever seen," Musk shared with 200 SpaceX employees, guests and reporters present at the company's rocket site near Boca Chica village on the outskirts of Brownsville. , Texas.

In the near future, SpaceX plans to fire a new prototype in a short flight to an altitude of about 19,812m. Within 6 months, SpaceX hopes to be able to make unmanned flights to Earth orbit, missions that require speeds of more than 25,750km / h.

Starship is designed to launch into space on Super Heavy's back, the rocket carries the fuel tank to load the spacecraft in Earth's orbit during its journey to Mars. Both spacecraft and rockets are designed to be reusable, the only way to make the vehicle affordable.

"Almost any vehicle, whether it is an airplane or a car, a horse or a bicycle can be reused. If you can only use a car once, very few people can afford to drive it. Therefore, an important breakthrough is a reusable orbiting rocket , " Musk said.

On September 28, Musk talked about using stainless steel as a media cover. Although heavier than the carbon compound or aluminum-containing material used in most spacecraft, steel has outstanding thermal properties. 301 stainless steel does not brittle at extremely cold temperatures and melts at a temperature of 1,500 degrees C. As a result, Starship just needs a simple thermal shield. In addition, stainless steel costs $ 2,500 / ton while carbon fiber costs $ 130,000 / ton.

Making Starship rockets with a budget is central to Musk's plans. According to him, the biggest obstacle on the journey to bring people to explore other planets is not technology but cost. SpaceX's goal is to create a vehicle that can reduce the price of flying to Mars to $ 200,000 per person compared to $ 10 billion per person with current available technology.