Ilon Musk voiced the approximate cost of moving to Mars

According to the founder and head of the private spaceSpaceX companies, once flying to Mars will be available to very many people. Suffice it to sell your housing on Earth and invest the money in space travel. In addition, Musk even offered a bonus for those who still dare to: the opportunity to return back to Earth will be completely free. If you survive.

To the question of one of his readers on Twitterabout whether it would be expensive to fly to the Moon / Mars with regard to the use of rockets for reusable launches, Musk replied that everything would depend on the volumes of these same launches.

Very dependent on volume, but I’m confidentmoving to Mars (return ticket is free) will be one day less than $ 500k & maybe even below $ 100k. If you want.

- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 11, 2019

</ p>

“I’m sure that once moving to Mars will cost less than 500,000 dollars, and maybe even less than 100,000 dollars,” wrote Musk.

According to the head of SpaceX, such a cost would mean that most people from countries with developed economies, if they wish, will be able, having sold their house, to finance the move to another planet.

Such affordable space flights Ilon Muskwants to make with the help of Starship - a fully reusable spacecraft designed for the comfortable delivery of a centurion to Mars in one launch, and in the future, to its limits. Recently, the company has already conducted the second fire tests of a substantially upgraded Raptor engine, which will be used for test suborbital flights. They are planning to start in March of this year.

Burning Raptor for Starship

Muscle play

In the same "Twitter" Mask said that the rocket engine for the Starship spacecraft ahead of RD-180 in terms of pressure in the combustion chamber.

“According to the plan, traction should be at least 170 tons. The engine reached 172 tons, and the pressure in the combustion chamber reached 257 bar, ”explained Musk.

A little later, he added that the pressure exceeded 268.9 bar, which allowed SpaceX to break the record of the Russian RD-180 engine.

RD-180

Of course, such a statement could not remain into the side. The words Ilona Mask decided to comment on the chief designer of NPO Energomash, as well as the designer and manufacturer of engines of the RD-180 family Pyotr Lyovochkin, whose words are quoted on the official website of the Roscosmos state corporation:

"SpaceX creates the Raptor engine oncomponents of oxygen and methane, or as is customary in the Russian classification - the scheme "gas-gas". In such schemes, such a pressure level in the combustion chamber is not something extraordinary - in our designs for these schemes we lay down the pressure level in the chamber over 300 atmospheres. And the parameter pressure in the chamber is not the output characteristic of the engine, such as thrust and specific impulse.

However, Mr. Musk, without being technicalthe specialist does not take into account that the RD-180 engine for the Atlas launch vehicle uses a completely different fuel circuit - “oxygen-kerosene”, and these are other engine operating parameters. It is like comparing a diesel and a gasoline internal combustion engine. And if we take into account the fact that Energomash certified the engine with a 10% reserve, then the pressure in the RD-180 combustion chamber is above 280 atmospheres.

Although our companies arecompetitors, we as engineers welcome the first successes of colleagues from SpaceX in the field of rocket engine building. Indeed, during the development of the Raptor engine, American engineers reached a record pressure level in the chamber. This indicates a fairly high level of development and production processes in the company SpaceX ".

In perspective, SpaceX is going to createRaptor universal version, which will be used in the launch vehicle for launching spacecraft, and in the vehicles themselves to enter the desired orbit and maneuvers. This will not only save development time, but also reduce the cost of assembly and launch.

It is convenient to follow the most interesting of the world of science and technology with the help of our channel in Yandex.Dzen.