The space-age electric car company, Tesla, have a new 10-year masterplan, amazing stuff which you can read here. With the sheer technical ingenuity and Sci-fi level of aspiration it’s no surprise that I’ve become a fanboy of both these companies.
Planning – how to get to the future
Both Tesla & SpaceX were started with a fairly fantastical vision based on a step-by-step development and marketing plan. For companies that didn’t exist 14 years ago, they’ve been amazingly successful in those goals. Along the way they have also influenced their respective industries, challenging competitors to become more responsive, competitive and efficient. In doing so they’ve changed the public perception of sustainability, electric transport and space exploration.
Tesla’s plan started off with a fast, expensive electric Roadster, before progressing to a big saloon (Model S), and then a family SUV (Model X) and the recently announced mass-market Model 3. The automated driving is still in experimental stage, but alongside similar projects by Google and other vehicle manufacturers, this should lead to an improvement in road safety. Their longer-term plans, as detailed in the link above, include pick-up trucks, buses, full automation, and integrated solar power and storage for homes.
SpaceX also had a masterplan, to develop a low-cost rocket, a delivery & return vehicle for the ISS, to learn from these and make them rapidly re-usable. Remember these were previously always discarded, either crashing into the sea, burning up on re-entry, or for the returning vehicles, retired to a museum. Millions of dollars and years of work and manufacturing lost each time. Not to mention the lessons you can learn to make improvements.
Spectacular becomes routine
CRS-9 launch, showing launch arc (left), Stage 1 reentry burn (top) and landing burn. by @johnkrausphotos
That’s almost complete, with the Falcon 9 experimental landings getting more consistent, to the point that the press largely ignored Monday’s 2nd successful land landing (shown above in an amazing composite photo by John Kraus). These are streamed live, and are spectacular to watch. Here’s a link to just the landing portion of CRS-9 technical webcast. There’s also a hosted version which gives more explanation of what’s going on and why they’re doing it, excellent for newcomers and great for kids.
The first re-used booster with a paying customer is likely to launch this autumn. The next step, Falcon Heavy, sees three of the boosters being strapped together for bigger payloads or more distant destinations, *and* landing them, which should look like this:
The ISS cargo vehicle, Dragon, is being refitted to fly again in 2017, and 2017 will also see the first flight of a human rated version of Dragon. A version of this vehicle is planned to go to Mars (possibly returning a sample) in 2018.
Next stop, Mars
Now if that wasn’t scifi enough, SpaceX’s next masterplan is announced in September and will cover what’s needed to colonise Mars, inlcuding the vehicles (a Big “Falcon” Rocket and a Mars Colonial Transporter) and other resources needed. The 2018 Red Dragon mission is likely to be a testbed for many aspects of these, including safe entry to the Mars atmosphere, identifying and landing on a suitable site, and possibly manufactuing fuel for return flights.
The reference in the title to Tomorrowland comes from the 2015 movie, which I saw with my daughter. Although it’s obviously a fictional place, the “vision of the future scene” really captured her imagination, and so she asked if she could go there. With moist eyes, I replied “You will, one day”. The rocket landing featured in that scene became a reality by the end of the year, so who knows what she will live to experience?
taken from Tomorrowland (2015)
Mediary 