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What big announcements should we expect in the coming years? And, most importantly, where will Musk get the money for this?

Elon Musk's SpaceX has many ambitious projects, but two stand out among them - entwining the planet with a network of Internet satellites and building a huge rocket that can take people to the Moon and Mars. There is little information about these plans, but we still know something - from the company’s reporting, Elon Musk’s tweets and published ones.

SpaceX's flagship product, the Falcon 9 rocket, recently received NASA certification for its most expensive science missions. Company President Gwynne Shotwell called the event "a major achievement for the Falcon 9 team." The company said at least 22 Falcon 9 launches are planned for 2019, highlighting the reliability of the rocket that will carry astronauts into orbit next year.

But around the world, only $5.5 billion is spent annually on rocket launches, and this money also goes to competitors from Europe, Russia and China. So SpaceX needs to develop new businesses to justify its $27 billion valuation.

Internet from space

The global goal of the Starlink project is to launch several thousand satellites into low Earth orbit and provide Internet access to all users on Earth. The company has been developing these plans for several years. This year the news is mixed. On the one hand, two test satellites have been launched and approval has been received from the US government. On the other hand, there have been changes in the project management, and today SpaceX refuses to say who is now responsible for the design and construction of satellites.

However, the company still plans to launch the service in 2020, with the first batch of satellites expected to be in orbit by the end of next year. Computer scientist Mark Handley from University College London believes that Internet connections will be so fast that high-speed trading (trading using special strategies in which computers buy and sell positions within fractions of a second) will be able to take advantage of it. - Ed. .).

Recently, the US Federal Communications Commission, led by Ajit Pai, took an initiative to ease regulation of space-related businesses. And this is to SpaceX's advantage, since the Starlink project requires the launch of 4,425 satellites, which will double the number of devices in orbit and increase the risk of collisions and space debris.

On November 7, the SpaceX executive working to obtain satellite licenses met with Pai to show how seriously SpaceX takes this problem, since the company's survival depends on the ability to launch satellites, which means it is the most threatened by space debris. The next day, SpaceX submitted an application to reduce the orbital altitude of future satellites by 560 kilometers relative to the original plans.

A lower orbit reduces the risks associated with debris generation because satellites will deorbit and burn up in the atmosphere within five years, and there will also be 16 fewer satellites needed and faster connection speeds. On the other hand, SpaceX will have to sacrifice some of its service reach and amortize its satellite investment in a shorter time frame, but the company clearly believes that these costs will make it easier for regulators and shareholders to approve.

Matt Desch, CEO of Iridium, which provides satellite communications services and uses SpaceX to launch satellites into orbit, called the move “a very responsible one.”

Financing of rocket launches

Musk says the goal of the Starlink project is to raise money for the company's Mars mission. However, launching the system itself will not be cheap, and SpaceX plans to borrow money. According to Bloomberg, the company hopes to raise $750 million, and Bank of America will be the organizer of the round.

It is reported that initially they wanted to organize the deal through the bank Goldman Sachs, with which Musk usually cooperates, but investment bankers refused to participate, suggesting that the company would continue to lend more and more. Today, SpaceX doesn't have major debt and even has a profit, but the company does rely on debt to finance future launches and government projects.

The company's first spacecraft, called Falcon 1, was financed mainly from Musk's personal funds. The next major project, the Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft, was created with government support. In 2015, Google and Fidelity invested $1 billion in SpaceX, partly for the Starlink project. But raising funds to build the huge, fully reusable BFR rocket capable of taking people to Mars (which the company wants to launch by 2022) is much more difficult.

Another source of profit is space tourism. It is known that Musk accepted a significant deposit of the order of hundreds of millions of dollars from Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa for a future flight around the Moon.

Last Saturday Musk

Interplanetary Transport System (ITS) - an interplanetary transport system that will be used to deliver the first colonists to the Red Planet.

To bookmarks

According to the ITS promotional video, the rocket with the spacecraft is first launched into orbit, and then separated from the ship and returned to Earth. In orbit, the ship is refueled, and then it deploys solar panels that generate 200 kilowatts of power and begins moving towards Mars.

According to previous statements, Elon Musk plans to send people to Mars by 2024. According to the updated schedule, the first expeditions will begin at the end of 2022.

The first missions to the Red Planet will begin to be implemented in 2018 - for example, dropping supplies and other supplies for the survival of the first colonists. Each Dragon ship will be able to “carry” 2-3 tons of payload.

At the conference, Musk explained the reason for going to Mars as two things: the development of the human race as interplanetary travelers, and the remote possibility of the extinction of all life on Earth. The other planet closest to Earth, Venus, has a too unfriendly atmosphere, similar to an “acid bath”: “Venus is not at all like the [eponymous] goddess,” the head of SpaceX explained the choice.

Because Mars is further from the Sun than Earth, it is somewhat cooler - but the planet can be "warmed up" by geothermal changes and create an atmosphere friendly enough for growing plants. In the past, Musk has already suggested that Mars can be heated, for example, using thermonuclear bombs.

Musk estimates that the cost per person of a trip to Mars is currently $10 billion. If it can be reduced to the price of one house in the United States, many will be able to begin relocating to the Red Planet. This will require using completely renewable means, the right (efficient) fuel that can be produced directly on Mars, and also refueling ships in orbit (rather than spending money on delivering fuel into orbit every time a new ship is sent).

For example, kerosene cannot be produced on Mars due to the lack of oil on the planet. However, liquid methane is possible, and in almost all respects it is suitable for effective cost reduction, says the head of SpaceX.

According to Musk, the ITS simulation video is the result of the work of engineers, not artists: it reflects exactly what SpaceX is trying to achieve, and future ships will be virtually identical to what is depicted in the video.

The largest number of reuses SpaceX puts into a launch vehicle is to launch a spacecraft into orbit - 1000 times. The refueling tanker is planned to be used about 100 times, and the ship itself - 12-15 times. On it, colonists will send cargo from Mars to Earth or fly away themselves.

According to calculations, approximately 100 people fit into one ship. The launch vehicle that will be used to launch the spacecraft into orbit will have 3.5 times the mass of the world's heaviest rocket, the one that launched the first human landing on the Moon.

On planets with weak gravitational attraction - for example, the Moon or Mars - a launch vehicle is not needed to enter orbit: the ship itself can handle this task. The rocket has 42 engines built in (it can lose some of them and still continue moving), and the ship has nine.

One trip to Mars, depending on the year in which the flights will take place, will take from 90 to 150 days. According to Musk, during the flight the ship's crew should have fun - in the compartment they can enjoy zero gravity, watch movies, give lectures or relax in a restaurant.

If a person takes less than a ton of payload with him, his flight will cost less than 200 thousand dollars, Musk believes.

Musk did not name the exact structure of income that will be used to finance the program. In his opinion, both SpaceX’s profits from launching satellites and delivering cargo to the ISS, as well as voluntary donations to the project through Kickstarter, can be used for this.

Musk estimates that it will take at least 40 years to create a fully autonomous civilization on Mars.

Musk noted that technology does not develop on its own, but only when the minds of engineers are applied to a specific problem to solve it. There have already been examples in the history of mankind when technologies developed to a certain level and then rolled back, and the latest such example is the situation with the lunar program.

In addition to the Mars program, the new ships can also be used to move around the Earth - according to Musk, it will be possible to travel with them to anywhere on the planet within 45 minutes. In addition, Musk plans to install “refueling stations” for spaceships on other planets - this will allow travel to any point in the solar system.

According to Musk, he himself will someday fly to Mars - when he can decide what will happen to the company if for some reason he dies and SpaceX investors are left alone with the problem of maximizing profits: “First flight will have a very high probability of death, and I still want to see how my children grow up.”

Musk plans to call the first ship that will go to Mars Heart of Gold - by analogy with the spaceship from the novel “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”: “I think our first flight will also be of infinite improbability.”

Even before performing on stage, Musk revealed some details of ITS on his microblog. Launch vehicle diameter