How much does it cost to send 100 rockets to launch Mars? Your brain must be running out, this, that, obviously not, but if it does kick in, at least $1 billion won't beat it, won't it? That's what NASA concluded when it estimated launch costs for the next few years in its 2010 Space Budget, released in March. Other heavy rocket launches cost hundreds of millions of dollars each time.
No, just 90! This is a tweet that Musk recently posted. The tweet is eye-catching: Can reusable Martian arrows take off like rockets? What does it look like? That's what SpaceX founder and space maniac said today at Los Angeles Air Force Base to Lt. Gen. John Thompson, director of the Air Force Space Missile Systems Center. Musk said the reusable Spark carrier can carry 100 passengers and costs $900,000 in fuel per launch, which doesn't exceed $200 million per launch, even when other operating costs are taken into account.
As long as your understanding of space is not zero, you will find that the price is completely unexpected. Launching rockets around the world costs an average of more than $300 per rocket; in the United States, each rocket costs less than $10 million. But in fact, the cost of rocket launch is not as low as we think. The record for each launch is "billions of dollars." Even with Musk's own Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, while Musk will certainly make a lot of money, it's already the cheapest launch to date, and Rocket Lab can only launch a 150-kilogram microsatellite at an electronic rocket in a 500-kilometer orbit, costing $5.7 million in a single launch.
Lt. Gen. Thompson and Musk had a 40-minute conversation today about corporate governance, leadership style, and more. When Thompson asked about Musk's leadership, Musk said he wasn't an expert on that. Thompson joked: "Don't underestimate yourself. He thinks Musk is a very talented man. Musk also admitted that he didn't do well with Tesla, but his performance made him very satisfied. He told Thompson: I believe in you. I'm not going to change. Musk said many on Wall Street are betting on him to lose so they can make a lot of money on Tesla.
Musk has repeatedly mentioned the importance of reusable rockets, saying his starship and Falcon Super Heavy rockets are designed to help humans open up Mars, the Moon and other deep space destinations, making humans a veritable space species. These are all very likely goals to be achieved, but there are also some problems: rocket manufacturing techniques are complex and expensive, launches are expensive, and require a lot of money. If this situation is not changed, it can only be on paper. To do this, you have to reduce the cost of launching rockets by several orders of magnitude, making them affordable. Musk also said he is working on Plato's "ideal rocket" and "ideal car" (Tesla).
Musk's "starship" is still being designed and built, and if launched at $2 million, it will undoubtedly be the most important turning point in the evolutionary history of life on Earth, not only on Earth, but also on Earth. Life will truly spread from Earth to space, and human civilization will spread from Earth civilization to interstellar civilization. Even if you don't want to be a space species, Musk will "force" you to call it a space species. Waste is too cheap. It's not a joke, it's really coming! In space, you'll see a completely different world: the future of the universe that you don't know; it's a new world full of unknowns and wonders. Surely you don't believe it? Those who bet Musk win, even if they make a lot of money in a short period of time, will end up relentlessly pulling aside in the space age.