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goobster  ·  2737 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: SpaceX Interplanetary Transport System

He does talk at length about staging materials in orbit in "thousands of flights" to set up a constant resupply for both the spacecrafts and the Martian inhabitants.

And, again, as he says at the very beginning, his whole intent here is to make a trip to Mars seem possible. To get people more comfortable with the idea, so that it simply becomes a series of problems to solve toward a visualized goal, rather than a long litany of problems that - once solved - could allow us to mount a trip to Mars.

He's not going to do it alone. He's not going to do it without solving some very big problems. But a reusable barge with big fucking rockets on the back that goes to space, turns around, and locks itself back into position back on the pad, where it refuels, restocks, and flies again... that's a pretty fine start to solving almost all of the weight problems. And he has practical solutions to all of those issues at least in alpha testing, if not beta.

Add to that the intent to refuel for the return trip using native elements on Mars, and a powered landing craft, and ... well ... it seems pretty Moon-shot (which worked) to me!