The colonization of Mars was one of the goals behind the establishment of the space exploration technology company, SpaceX, by American businessman Elon Musk in 2002.
Over the course of two decades, SpaceX has succeeded in launching several satellites to serve the Internet space technology “Starlink”, and has also developed many vehicles such as the “Dragon” space cargo vehicle.
The company achieved a breakthrough in the private sector’s contribution to the space industry, as it launched the first privately funded liquid-fuel rocket, and it is the first private company to send a spacecraft to Earth orbit.
The company was able to achieve a number of successes, as it was the first private company to send a spacecraft and astronauts to the International Space Station, and achieved the first vertical take-off and vertical landing of an orbital missile, and it also transferred 20 flights to the International Space Station in partnership with NASA.
Falcon 9 boom
In December 2015, SpaceX successfully launched the Falcon 9 rocket, and 10 minutes later the rocket made a vertical landing, an unprecedented feat for a rocket in orbital spaceflight.
SpaceX is the first company to reuse an orbital rocket launched into space, and it is hoped that this achievement will reduce the costs of space missions by reusing rockets with reusable launch systems.
After that, the company became the largest commercial satellite operator in the world with the launch of the third phase in January 2020 of the “Starlink” project, and the number of its satellites reached 242.
“starlink”
It is a constellation of thousands of satellites owned by SpaceX, aiming to provide lunar Internet or satellite Internet service, and works in conjunction with ground transmitters and receivers.
SpaceX plans to sell some of these satellites to serve military, scientific and exploratory purposes, and plans to send an additional 60 satellites during each launch flight of the giant rocket “Falcon 9”.
And last December, the US Federal Communications Commission “FCC” granted approval to “SpaceX” to deploy 7,500 second-generation satellites, as part of a larger request aimed at sending 30,000 satellites.
In the same month, US regulators rejected SpaceX’s plan to launch an additional 30,000 satellites into low orbit needed to expand Starlink’s service, citing the preservation of a safe space environment.
The Starlink project took a decade to design, build and launch satellites, with an estimated total cost of about $10 billion. The project faces fears in the astronomical community of harmful interference between satellites.
Mars colonization
Elon Musk and company have proposed developing a Mars transport infrastructure to facilitate the eventual colonization of Mars, including fully reusable launch vehicles and a safe human transport spacecraft, Starship.
The architecture also includes in-orbit fuel tanks, fast-swap launch and landing pads, and rocket fuel production on the surface of Mars, with the goal of sending a manned mission to land on Mars by 2024.
SpaceX’s ambitious dream is based on the Starship, a fully reusable spacecraft. The expected payload of the Starship carried on a Super Heavy rocket is estimated at 150 tons.
And in February 2022, Musk presented his vision of what the “Starship” trip to Mars would look like, in the first Starship update in more than two years, as the company prepares for the vehicle’s first orbital test flight.
Musk posted a video on Twitter showing what the trip to Mars would be like on the ambitious SpaceX Starship rocket, and the company’s founder said at the time: “This will be real in our lives.”
The video shows the spacecraft taking off from Earth with astronauts on board, before embarking on a long space journey, then the spacecraft reaches Mars, where there appears to be a thriving human settlement.
SpaceX value
Last May, SpaceX sought to raise huge funding, in a new round that raised the company’s valuation to about $127 billion at the time, with aspirations to bring in $1.725 billion in new capital.
The company’s share price reaches $70, according to CNBC, and before that the company split the stock to 10 for each share in February, which reduced the value of the common stock to $56 per share.
The company’s valuation has skyrocketed in the past few years, raising billions of dollars to fund work on two capital-intensive projects, the next-generation Starship rocket and the Starlink satellite internet.