On November 4, according to foreign media reports, Elon Musk made no secret of his intention to establish a permanent human base on Mars. His latest venture is to build his own city on Earth. Around the SpaceX launch site in Boca Chica in southern Texas, Musk hopes to build a spaceport city called StarBase.
According to the plan, the interstellar base will be able to accommodate all people working at the launch site, including those who plan to take SpaceX rockets and spacecraft to fly into space. The Interstellar Base will also become a tourist destination for tourists who want to witness the spectacular scenes when SpaceX rockets and spacecraft are launched. From a more long-term plan, Musk hopes that the interstellar base will be the starting point for people to travel to Mars, and the powerful interstellar spacecraft will be able to transport about 100 people to Mars each time.
Before people are ready to fly into space, they need to obtain living space and infrastructure support similar to what cities can provide from the base. Therefore, transforming Boca Chica into a spaceport city may be crucial to helping Musk realize his vision of space exploration.
Regarding the matter of going to Mars, Musk has recently made a new statement.
On October 28, local time, Musk replied to a number of tweets on Twitter, criticizing the “billionaire income tax” proposed by Democrats in the US Senate. According to calculations, if this “billionaire income tax” is levied, Musk will pay up to $50 billion in taxes in the first five years.
Musk said in a tweet, “My plan is to use this money (50 billion U.S. dollars) to let humans go to Mars and save the light of cognition.”
According to media reports, Musk started the process of building his own city at the end of February 2021, when he formally contacted Cameron County, Texas, USA. The press release issued by the local government clearly stated that Musk will abide by all relevant laws and regulations, and any application will ultimately be decided in accordance with applicable laws.
SpaceX announced in 2014 that it intends to build a dedicated launch facility in the Boca Chica village on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Earlier, Musk launched a Falcon rocket from a site leased by NASA and the US government. The construction of SpaceX’s launch site is very fast. The main body construction work started in 2016, and preparations for the test launch will be made here in 2019. This kind of acceleration has almost become the hallmark of SpaceX, just like Musk himself gives people the impression that he always seems to be full of enthusiasm.
Boca Chica is the home of Musk’s boldest spacecraft, and the super-heavy rocket booster will launch the interstellar spacecraft into space. This project is different from any previous attempts. Once completed, the super-heavy rocket will be the most powerful vehicle ever launched.
In March of this year, SpaceX renamed the Boca Chica launch site to Interstellar Base, and now the company is preparing to conduct the first orbital test flights of interstellar spacecraft and super-heavy rocket boosters here.
SpaceX spent about 16 months of additional construction time to build the orbital launch pad here, including the launch pad for the super heavy rocket, lift the interstellar spacecraft above the super heavy rocket and fix the giant rocket in place before firing The launch tower, and the tank area containing fuel and other liquids, which will be pumped onto the rocket before launch. Two huge robotic arms are also installed on the launch tower. They are called Mechazilla. They will be used to capture the returning super-heavy rocket and stabilize it during a soft landing.
Regardless of whether Musk’s plan to establish a city near the launch site is approved or not, the interstellar base will undoubtedly become one of the most important launch sites on earth. This is because the spacecraft that sends the astronauts back to the moon will depart from here, and NASA has selected the interstellar spacecraft as the lunar lander in the “Artemis” (Artemis) return to the moon program.
Although the astronauts will launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the Orion capsule they will board will not land on the surface of the moon. Instead, the unmanned interstellar spacecraft will be launched from Bokachko ahead of schedule and enter the orbit around the moon. The spacecraft will wait for the arrival of the Orion capsule, then dock with it and allow the astronauts to transfer over. Then, the astronauts will drive the interstellar spacecraft to land on the surface of the moon and return again after the mission is completed.
This will provide some form of dress rehearsal for Musk to achieve the ultimate goal of Mars exploration. Although this still sounds like science fiction, Baker believes that we should not underestimate Musk’s ambition to land on this red planet. He said: “We have seen that Musk can do things well, and he has the motivation to do it. I think he is likely to do this!” (Xiao Xiao)