Monday, October 3, 2016

Elon Musk at IAC 2016: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species

In case you missed it, SpaceX's Elon Musk's talk titled 'Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species' is below (linked from YouTube). This is an entertaining video, packed with interesting data, lasting an hour:



Here are some random notes, in no particular order:
  • 01:13: Talk starts
  • Musk is a nerd, and comes off as awkward while speaking. Do not pay attention to the style, listen to him.
  • There are some really interesting scientific/engineering data on some of the slides. They are very very cool!
  • 8:25: Estimate of an average one-way ticket cost to Mars
  • 11:04: Southwest advertisement around
  • You gotta love this guy; he mentioned a few times that going to Mars at scale will be a bit 'tricky'.
  • 12:10: Discussion on refueling.
  • 14:25: Propellant discussion
  • 16:55: Simulation of the overall system (a.k.a, movie with extremely high cheese quotient) starts. Make sure you pay attention to the numbers shown.
  • Cheesy video? Yes, but you need to listen to what he is going to say around 21:35.
  • 23:00: Don't skip slide shown; very interesting re-use numbers on that page.
  • 24:36: Size discussion. His comment on size at 23:45 is priceless. 
  • And, the comment at 27:03.
  • 29:24: Nice comparison of past and current space vehicles on the slide. Pay attention to the last two on the right, and the 'white bars.'
  • Engine numbers at 32:30 mark; rocket booster intro at 33:45. 
  • There will be 42 engines, folks! Interesting choice of number :)
  • 36:42: Raptor engine configuration at the base of booster
  • 37:22: Spaceship intro starts.
  • 37:43: Musk says that "liquid oxygen tank on the spaceship is probably the hardest piece of the whole vehicle, and [...] they started work on that piece."
  • Cool ship capacity chart at 39:42.
  • 40:10: "Mars transit times as little as 30 days in the distant future."
  • 40:36: Heat shield technology info starts
  • 41:15: Fly-thru of the crew compartment. (Smaller version of 'Ascension' ship; needs music.) He claims that the environment on the ship will be really fun. If it is going to be anything like the first Tesla cars, it probably will be.
  • 42:47: Details of the propellant plant on Mars.
  • 43:22: More details about reuse. New cost number is $140K per ton.
  •  44:15: Founding sources!
  • 46:35: Timelines (of SpaceX). Don't miss the pictures.
  • 48:34: One of the most exciting engineering timeline in the history of human civilization. This is one fast startup!
  • 53:09: "Most of our missions (60%) are commeircial geo missions."
  • 53:37: Timeline for Mars launches. First development ship in 4 years. Also, potential FedEx killer (54:30 :)
  • 56:30: Trying to send Dragon 2 to Mars in a couple of years; another mission in 2020.
  •  58:45: Raptor engine vs Merlin; same size, 3 times operating pressure. 
  • Producing 300 engines per year!
  • 59:00: Raptor firing test video
  • 1:00:30: Carbon fiber tank, requirements, production issues and picture (at 1:01:31)
  • More cool pictures at 1:02:17 and 1:02:24
  • 1:02:44: Beyond Mars! No, no, he is serious! Lotsa cool pictures; he has a plan...

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