ThirstyBarbarian
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EDIT: The title of the thread has been changed to indicate the conference has now happened and the details have now been released. The original post, which was before the conference, follows below. New links to the conference materials are further down in the thread.
Remember Elon Musk alluding to plans for SpaceX to develop a Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT) and saying that he would announce more complete details at this year's International Astronautical Conference? Well the IAC is next week, and Musk has confirmed he will be talking about the system at the conference.
According to the article below, they have decided to change how they refer to the system. Because the system could be used for many other types of missions, not just to Mars, it is being renamed the Interplanetary Transport System (ITS). Whatever you choose to call it, the idea is a system large enough to transfer many tons of cargo or very large numbers of people to places in the solar system, such as Mars.
SpaceX has a history of big announcements that take a lot longer than expected to pan out. But they also have a history of making good on plans that everyone thinks are impossible, even if it takes longer than their rosy predictions. Who knows if this will be elaborate vapor-ware or not? I still get excited about these kinds of announcements, and i'm really looking forward to hearing about this system!
And if it is just vaporware, I hope it at least comes with snazzy "artist's impressions" and concept videos! Blue Origin recently released their artist's impression of their proposed New Glenn rocket, and little more than that, so I hope SpaceX can win the artist's impression race and do better than that crappy Blue Origin infographic!
Here is the article about the name change and the announcement announcing coming announcements!
https://www.space.com/34115-spacex-mars-colony-spaceship-elon-musk.html
Remember Elon Musk alluding to plans for SpaceX to develop a Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT) and saying that he would announce more complete details at this year's International Astronautical Conference? Well the IAC is next week, and Musk has confirmed he will be talking about the system at the conference.
According to the article below, they have decided to change how they refer to the system. Because the system could be used for many other types of missions, not just to Mars, it is being renamed the Interplanetary Transport System (ITS). Whatever you choose to call it, the idea is a system large enough to transfer many tons of cargo or very large numbers of people to places in the solar system, such as Mars.
SpaceX has a history of big announcements that take a lot longer than expected to pan out. But they also have a history of making good on plans that everyone thinks are impossible, even if it takes longer than their rosy predictions. Who knows if this will be elaborate vapor-ware or not? I still get excited about these kinds of announcements, and i'm really looking forward to hearing about this system!
And if it is just vaporware, I hope it at least comes with snazzy "artist's impressions" and concept videos! Blue Origin recently released their artist's impression of their proposed New Glenn rocket, and little more than that, so I hope SpaceX can win the artist's impression race and do better than that crappy Blue Origin infographic!
Here is the article about the name change and the announcement announcing coming announcements!
https://www.space.com/34115-spacex-mars-colony-spaceship-elon-musk.html
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