Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

On the evening of February 10, Beijing time, space exploration technology company SpaceX CEO Elon Musk forwarded a video of the successful ignition of the booster rocket of the SpaceX starship prototype, commenting: "one day, the starship will take us to Mars."

Asked when humans would be able to land on Mars, Musk replied: "I must admit that I am naturally optimistic (otherwise SpaceX and Tesla would not exist), but I think five years is possible and 10 years is very possible."

The starship is a new generation of SpaceX carrier rockets that aim to replace the current main rocket Falcon 9 for cargo missions and will eventually carry astronauts to the moon and Mars. The starship can carry more than 100 passengers and will become the largest spaceship ever built by mankind.

SpaceX has been developing starships at bases in southern Texas since 2019 and has tested several starship prototypes at altitudes below 20 kilometers. The video released by SpaceX today shows engineers conducting static ignition tests. According to Musk, 31 of the 33 engines at the bottom of the rocket were lit at the same time.

The starship has 33 engines, and Musk said the team shut down one engine before starting, and one engine shut down itself. As a result, a total of 31 engines ignited, enough to put the rocket into orbit. Musk said last month that the starship was most likely to make its first orbital flight in March this year.

Mr Musk said in 2020 that he hoped to build 1000 starships within 10 years to send 1 million people to Mars and build a city there by 2050. Later, Musk hinted that humans are expected to land on Mars in 2029.

Musk also expects the price of a round trip ticket to Mars to range from $100000 (currently about 678000 yuan) to $500000 (currently about 3.39 million yuan) and eventually fall to $100000. In this way, almost everyone can earn 100000 dollars by working and then fly to Mars.

But Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said last week that colonizing Mars would be better than investing in vaccines to save lives. Asked if going to Mars was worth it, Gates said: "I don't think it's worth it."

Gates believes that funding vaccine development is more practical than sending humans to Mars. "in fact, going to Mars is quite expensive," he said. instead, you can buy a measles vaccine and save a life for as little as $1000 (currently about 6780 yuan). So don't go to Mars. "

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