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There was a time when visiting Mars was a thing purely of science fiction,
relegated to the likes of John Carter or Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character Douglas
Quaid from Total Recall. However, thanks to recent advances in technology, the first
humans might be walking on Mars within this decade . They’ll be brought there by Starship,
a rocket in development by SpaceX, which hopes to get humans to Mars by as soon as 2030.
Once a colony is established, many others will start making the 6-month trip to the Red Planet.
Perhaps this is a thing that you might do in your lifetime. Even if made as a commercial vacation,
the journey to Mars is no trivial cruise or long-distance flight. If you go,
you will not come back the same again. You quite literally could be changed forever.
I’m Alex McColgan, and you’re watching Astrum. Today we will be taking a look at Starship and
imagining for ourselves what a voyage to the Red Planet might be like. SpaceX company founder Elon
Musk has long aspired to take humans to Mars. In 2005 Musk first declared to the world his plans
to create a long-term, high-capacity rocket; one capable of carrying massive weights into orbit.
However, it took over a decade of development and tinkering with the idea for Starship to
be first officially announced. Starship is a super-heavy lift launch vehicle,
made to deliver 100 metric tonnes to Low Earth orbit and beyond. It is fully reusable,
able to launch and then land itself thanks to high levels of control from its multiple engines,
as well as its flaps which extend to slow its fall in atmosphere. Starship is a spacecraft of two
parts. The first part, the Super Heavy Booster, is a 69-metre-tall behemoth filled primarily with
two massive tanks of liquid oxygen and liquid methane fuel. It sports up to 33 raptor engines,
capable of producing between them around 76,000,000 Newtons of force. The Starship
spacecraft, which is the second stage, sits on top of its Super Heavy booster. It’s 50 metres long,
with a diameter of 9 metres, and is equipped with a distinctive shiny exterior.This
shine is important. Starship is not made from the usual Carbon Fibre, which is a material you
might expect in a rocket, but instead a version of stainless steel – a similar material to what you
find in your knife and fork. Stainless steel is a surprisingly useful building material for rockets,
it turns out. It can heat up to temperatures of over 1300 °C without melting or warping, which is
useful when you intend your rocket to perform atmospheric re-entry. But more than that, it
is cheap, and easy to mass produce.This speaks to Musk’s vision. He intends to produce entire fleets
of these. In his mind, Mars is somewhere that humans will set up a serious presence, and when
that happens, it’s only natural that materials, products and personnel will need to make the
journey to and from the Red Planet. Which brings us to Starship’s payload. As previously mentioned,
this mostly hollow space is able to carry around 100 tonnes. It has a 9-metre diameter circular
base, and is 18 metres high, tapering to a point allegedly because Musk thought it would be funnier
to have a pointier rocket. It can be used to carry satellites, which can then be released into orbit
for commercial ventures. However, SpaceX has made it clear that when it comes to the trip to Mars,
they intend to put humans in this area. Currently, SpaceX has not revealed what the interior design
of this habitation will definitively look like, but there are some preliminary ideas.
So, let’s explore those ideas. Let’s imagine that in a couple of decades from now, we receive
a call that tells us colonists are needed on Mars, and it’s time to make the long trip.
To begin with, you would travel to a SpaceX launch site, possibly in cooperation with NASA,
and would meet up with your roughly 100 co-passengers . 100 passengers are how
many SpaceX thinks it can comfortably fit inside of Starship, although Musk mentioned that this
number could be as high as 200 if passengers are willing to really cram themselves in there.
You might do well to get to know some of these people now, as unlike with a regular trip in an
aeroplane, you are going to be spending a lot of time with these individuals.
On an aeroplane, it is often tempting to watch a film, read a book, or go to sleep. However,
you can’t only do that for 6 whole months. These are the people you are going to be
eating breakfast with. You will spend your free time together. You may form friendships – human
interaction is important for healthy psychology, and there is no way off this flight mid-way if
you find there’s someone you don’t get along with. Better start off by making friends early.
Together, you will then be ushered into the rocket itself. Likely for the initial launch you and the
others will need to strap into your seats. All of that thrust beneath you will crush you with
powerful G-forces that will push you into your chair. More intense than the most powerful roller
coaster, a certain level of physical fitness will be an important element of this part.
If there is a medical emergency on the flight, you are not going to get proper hospital treatment
until you get to the other side. You will likely have been screened before travelling. Launch and
lift-off will only last about 9 minutes. At some point in this journey, the Super Heavy Booster
will detach and drop back to Earth. The booster is reusable, and by controlling its descent it
will land perfectly on a landing pad, ready to be filled up with fuel again for another voyage.
Thrust will switch over to Starship. While in the atmosphere, it will use 3 of its raptor engines,
but will switch over to the other three once the ship has reached true
space. These secondary raptor engines have larger nozzles, which are better suited to
propelling the ship through space. All of this will be enough to get you up past the
Karman line and into space. You will by now be travelling at thousands of kilometres per hour.
However, as the boosters cut off, and as gravity drops away, you will suddenly
experience weightlessness. Gravity , as we discussed in this video, is only a form of
acceleration – if we do not accelerate, even if we are travelling at thousands of miles an hour,
we will float around. This will be a major feature of the next 6 months of your life.
By now the seatbelt lights will come off, and you can begin to explore your environment.
Current plans expect Starship to be split up into multiple floors or areas. At the bottom will be
crew cabins. You will likely share a cabin with 1-2 other people, and conditions will be a little
cramped. Above that, there will be a common area for gathering and social interaction. You will see
exercise areas and equipment, an important part of space travel. On the International Space station,
where astronauts also spend 6-month stints, exercise takes up 2 hours of their daily routine.
You will need to do this too, to prevent the loss of muscle mass and bone density. Without it, you
will lose considerable weight, and may not be able to stand up once you reach Earth’s gravity again.
There may also be some emergency shelters. Hopefully you will not spend much time in these,
but it’ll be important to acquaint yourself with where they are, in the event of an unexpected
solar flare. One of the greatest threats of space travel is radiation. Prolonged exposure can result
in cancers and other negative health effects. Solar flares represent a hazardous spike in this
radiation level, and the captain might at times require you to take refuge in these thick-walled
shelters, for the good of your health. Mealtime will be a little different from what you are used
to. The food you will eat in space must be able to survive for months on end without going bad. There
is no opportunity to restock. The International Space Station does not even have a fridge.
All of this means that vacuum-sealed, rehydratable food will be the order of the day.
Whatever you eat, be wary of mess. You will not be able to sprinkle salt or pepper on your food,
as the low gravity will send this flying into the air. Thus, these will be provided in liquid form.
As for water… well. The only way to carry enough water for 100 people to Mars is to have excellent
recycling systems. So anything that comes out of you will likely be syphoned off and recycled,
only to be served back to you at your next meal time. It’s best not to think about it. Then again,
this is not that different from what happens on Earth. All the water you drink has been through
many other living things’ systems, multiple times. As I said, best not to think about it.
Showers will not likely be present, as without gravity water does not flow – astronauts tend
to use waterless shampoos, and rub themselves with wet flannels.
Toilets will be something you need to strap yourself down to use, and they will be vacuum
powered to get rid of waste and stop it floating around. Sleep will take a little adjusting to,
as there will be no true night and day anymore, and gravity will not pull you down onto a bed.
Think you could get used to all this? Well, here is where the really strange things start
happening. As you travel through space, you will start to experience changes. Under the
effects of low gravity, you will start to grow taller. Some astronauts gained an entire inch of
height after 6 months in space. Your face will become redder and puffier, as your heart – so
used to fighting against gravity to pump blood up through your system – will find itself too good
at its job in a weightless environment. This change can lead to health issues – thickening
of carotid arteries, and sight issues. These are not all fully understood by scientists,
as there are not many examples of humans in space to test from. But perhaps strangest of all,
your very DNA will begin to change. There is always some adaptability in human DNA.
Certain genes are turned on or off at certain times in our life, under certain conditions.
In a ‘twins’ study performed by NASA in 2019, two twins with identical genetic material were tested.
One was sent up to space for 6 months, the other remained on Earth. When the two reunited and were
tested again, it was found that the astronaut twin’s DNA had changed in how it was expressing
itself, creating differences between him and his brother. There were shortened telomeres,
weakening of the immune system, and issues with bone formation. It’s worth noting, upon arriving
back on Earth, most of these changes in genetic expression reverted back to normal after 6 months.
However, 9% of them did not. In ways we do not fully understand yet, spending time in
space changes you – most likely because of the radiation the astronaut experienced.
So eventually you will arrive at Mars. Starship will fall at an angle and will use its flaps
to shed an incredible 99% of its kinetic energy aerodynamically, travelling in a long arc through
the atmosphere before eventually bringing you to the planet’s surface. You will step out into the
biodomes and sniff the manufactured Martian air . Starship will be checked over and then refuelled
using Oxygen and Methane extracted from Mars itself. As for you, you will have plenty of time
to ponder. All journeys change us, but yours may be one that you can never change back from. The
you that left Earth will never truly return home. But then, perhaps that’s just how it always is.
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