Ahead of Elon Musk’s presentation of how he thinks humanity should colonize Mars — to be given Tuesday at the International Astronautical Congress, a four-day affair in Guadalajara, Mexico — SpaceX released this hype video that dramatically illustrates the key points in the mission.
The video begins with a line of humans walking across a sky bridge from a silo into a spacecraft attached to a SpaceX rocket booster at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. We see the rocket break through the Earth’s atmosphere, and shortly afterward, the stage separation from the spacecraft, which “parks” in orbit. Meanwhile, the booster heads back to Earth to land on a “launch mount” where it is fitted with a new tank of propellant. It returns to the parked spaceship and refuels it in orbit. From there, it’s off to Mars.
As the spacecraft begins its trip to Mars, solar arrays fan out from the back of the ship to provide it energy before what’s called an “interplanetary coast” at a speed of 62,634 miles per hour. Then we see the ship approach the red planet and enter into the atmosphere of Mars, eventually landing upright on its surface. A door slides open, and we see four figures in space suits facing the orange landscape: Mars.
If you were curious about the dimensions, Musk offered these stats:
Watch Musk’s presentation here:
