Elon Musk's presentation for his plans to colonize Mars. I was skeptical that landing the Falcon 9's first stage booster back on Earth would be doable, especially on a barge so was very impressed when SpaceX pulled it off enough times to show it can be done. However, I must admit to finding a whole lot of what I saw in his presentation to be more of a sales pitch that needs so much to happen on a scale never seen before that I guess I'm skeptical again. For one thing, having 42 engines in the booster stage has me thinking about how well the Russian N1 worked out and it only had 30 engines in the first stage. There are many other issues but that one point really stands out for me. How many of those 42 engines are going to be mission ready for the next launch after having the fuel module loaded? Anyway, here's the video:
It will be interesting to see how the next few years go and hopefully, my skepticism is doused again.
|