Elon Musk's obsession with space is somewhat different from others. His space dream did not come from the feeling of space, or the fascination with technology, but from the sense of crisis that plagued him, "the little flame of human consciousness on earth, it does not appear for a long time, and it is easy to disappear." A comet, extreme climate, who knows, World War III? Can destroy it. Obviously, we need to protect this light of consciousness by becoming a multi-planetary species that extends life beyond Earth. ”
If this sentence is spoken by someone else, it will probably only be met with a "worrisome" blank stare, but this person is Elon Musk, which is different.
At the beginning of Netflix's latest documentary, "Back to Space," Elon Musk's voiceover is accompanied by the slowly opening warehouse door, which is brightly lit inside, and the huge Falcon launch vehicle that is being assembled appears in front of the audience.
Back to Space poster
Turning back the clock to the early 21st century, both the U.S. aviation industry and Elon Musk are facing a turning point, with the Space Shuttle Columbia crashing on its return to Earth in 2003, NASA losing seven astronauts and an aviation plane that has been in service for more than 20 years. The failure led the United States to finally make up its mind to launch a plan to retire the space shuttle until 2011, when atlantis completed its final mission. Since then, the United States has relied on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft for many years to send astronauts to the International Space Station.
Elon Musk was a rookie in the aviation industry at the time, but he already had an ambitious plan to save America's faltering space industry and send humans to Mars. In 2002, aeronautical engineer Hans Königsmann met Musk at a rocket enthusiast party, who asked him if he would like to work for a company that builds rockets to get people to Mars, which sounds crazy, you know, only three countries in the world have mastered the technology to launch rockets, and none of them have sent humans to Mars. But he agreed, becoming the startup's fourth employee.
Musk and his rocket dreams
It's not a one-way green light story, it's more like escalating the monsters. Space X had nothing at the time. In February 2002, Musk traveled to Russia to try to buy three Dnieper launch vehicles modified from the SS-18 intercontinental ballistic missile, so he created Space X in a warehouse in Elgundo, California, and began to develop his own rockets.
In the film, Musk says that I have prepared a hundred million dollars and can withstand three failures. Indeed, from March 2006 to August 2008, all three launches of Falcon One failed. The employees were in a fog of sorrow, feeling that the Mars plan was about to be folded in this initial step. Hans Königsmann said I was ready to roll up and leave.
Surprisingly, in the face of exhaustion, Musk finally gambled once, he stabilized the company through a loan, and immediately arranged the fourth launch, on September 28 of the same year, only two months after the failure of the third launch, the fourth Falcon I was put on the launch pad, this time, Space X was finally favored by the goddess of luck, about 3 minutes after the launch, the first and second stages successfully separated, about six minutes after the launch, successfully entered orbit.
Primary and secondary separation
There is a detail in the film that NASA calculates the probability of success through charts and data, and Space X's success is mostly based on failure after failure. Some commentators have commented that looking back at the aviation competition in the Cold War, the reason why Americans can laugh at the end of the competition is not only the huge economy as a support, but also related to the adventurous spirit of the original generation.
Falcon One's eventual victory allowed Space X to successfully prove itself to NASA, secure a $1.5 billion contract, and begin work on sending American astronauts into space.
The Falcon IX made its first flight successfully
Going into space is only the first step in Musk's plan, he believes that in order to make human civilization an interstellar civilization, reducing the cost of entering space is the top priority, and Space X's method is simple and bold - recovering rockets.
Launching a rocket is already a difficult task, and recovering the rocket – getting the rocket back from the air to the small launcher – sounds even more bizarre. This has a scene that the audience saw in the film, the rocket landed from the air, landed on the launcher, but fell to the ground, falling into the fire again and again. Space X failed for a full 5 years from 2011 until December 22, 2015, when falcon 9 core class successfully returned to land after an arrow 11 star entered orbit.
Falcon Core 9 Level 1 successfully returned
From the picture, the scene of rocket recovery is perfect like the upside down of a launch, although there is no flame at the time of launch, but it is more exciting and dreamlike. This also means that human beings have since mastered the recyclable technology of mass-produced launch vehicles.
The Back to Space documentary visually compares the change in cost per kilogram that comes with a rocket launch: from $35,000 for the Minotaur series to $4,000 for Falcon 9. Musk's vision is being realized step by step. It seems that we can already see the feasibility of achieving efficient interstellar migration for mankind in the near future.
Launch costs have been drastically reduced
In addition to Musk and Space X, the stories of the two astronauts who participated in the 2020 Space X Dragon manned flight test and took it to the International Space Station that same year are also fascinating. They've all been through a lot of battles, but riding Musk's recyclable rockets and capsules into space and back to Earth is also the first time for them to be full of adventure and challenge.
The Dragon ship is above the African desert
As of now, Space X has become a common supplier for U.S. astronauts to and from the space station, and it has successfully carried out three commercial manned space missions and successfully recovered rockets. On 23 April, it will embark on its fourth mission.
The Egyptians built the pyramids, the Romans built the canals, and the Americans sent humans to the moon, but later, they abandoned these technologies. At the end of the film, Musk argues that civilization does not progress on its own, that we have had amazing civilizations, but that we have also lost them in the cracks of history. "Now that humanity still has a chance, we should make good use of it when we still have the opportunity."
Space X envisions a Mars colony scene in a promotional video
Now, Space X is developing a fully reusable launch system called Starship, with the ultimate goal of sending humans to Mars. Perhaps, my generation will really see Musk establish a colony on Mars one day.