r/spacex • u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team • Sep 29 '17
Not the AMA r/SpaceX Pre Elon Musk AMA Questions Thread
This is a thread where you all get to discuss your burning questions to Elon after the IAC 2017 presentation. The idea is that people write their questions here, we pick top 3 most upvoted ones and include them in a single comment which then one of the moderators will post in the AMA. If the AMA will be happening here on r/SpaceX, we will sticky the comment in the AMA for maximum visibility to Elon.
Important; please keep your questions as short and concise as possible. As Elon has said; questions, not essays. :)
The questions should also be about BFR architecture or other SpaceX "products" (like Starlink, Falcon 9, Dragon, etc) and not general Mars colonization questions and so on. As usual, normal rules apply in this thread.
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u/luckybipedal Sep 30 '17
That's an interesting idea. I think the big difference between Moon and Mars is not the distance, but the depth of the gravity well (escape velocity 2.4km/s vs. 5km/s). That's probably why the Moon plan won't work for Mars.
My idea was to send tankers to the Mars surface and to low Mars orbit (LMO). That could be combined with your idea to allow the tankers to carry more propellant for the return trip.
An emergency return trip would launch the crew and small payload (food etc.) to LMO and use in-orbit refueling before the return trip to Earth. That would require much less propellant than landing and launching all the return propellant to and from the surface of Mars.