SpaceX made history at the end of 2015 when it launched and landed an orbital rocket, but that feat is just the beginning for the rocket company.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is planning a gigantic rocket and spaceship system called the Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT) capable of carrying 100 people all the way to Mars. With that kind of cargo it's going to have to be big and heavy.
This kind of thing has never been done before, so it's hard to conceptualize what kind of contraption could carry a hundred people (for months), all of the food and living space they need, also be able launch from Earth, land on Mars, and then launch itself back.
Each of these feats are incredible and historic on their own, so this spaceship will have to be something incredible.
Musk said he will release detailed plans of the MCT sometime this year, but the wait has inspired deep speculation on Reddit. Fans are getting so excited that some have even drawn up their own models and renderings. But since no one has ever built a launch system this large before, details and specifics are hard to nail down and these are really just fun guesses.
John Gardi, a self-described engineer created a conceptual sketch of the MCT that you can see below. He estimates it's 200 feet tall and 50 feet wide, and what its various sections might look like.
The passengers would sit in a section near the top, sectioned off into a few different levels. A capsule holds all the passengers, a lander, and escape systems. Below that is a crew and cargo section.
There are no guidelines as to how much room 100 passengers will need on the journey to Mars — a trip that will take up to eight months to complete.
Below the crewed section is the upper stage of the rocket (which is appropriately nicknamed BFR for "big f***ing rocket) itself. It also shows the fuel tank and oxygen tank, and a mount for the engines:
Musk has already said he wants the MCT to be reusable, so Gardi imagines that the top capsule that holds the passengers and crew would detach, and the BFR could then return to Earth.
But the speculation didn't stop there.
Reddit user gesit put together a rendering of what Gardi's design might look like in 3D:
You can see the multiple levels in the capsule at the top and room for the fuel tanks at the bottom:
Gesit imagines a pretty sleek look from the outside:
There's no word on when Musk will release the official SpaceX design, so in the meantime we'll have to be content with scrolling through speculative designs. (You can find a few more model ideas in the Reddit thread.) And even when the designs are released, they'll need to actually build it.
It seems Musk is up to the challenge though. SpaceX has already revolutionized spaceflight by launching and landing the first orbital rocket. What's more, Musk thinks colonizing Mars is our only chance to ensure the human race survives.
It seems the most effective way to colonize a place is to send big groups of people there at a time.
