Hi Steemit!
Today is an historic day, successful or not, the Falcon heavy launch that will happen today at 1:30PM ET will mark the first time that a private company will try to send a payload to Mars’ orbit. It will also be the most powerful rocket on earth at moment, with levels of power we haven’t seen since the Saturn Rockets. The falcon heavy is constituted of 3 Falcon 9 First stages, two of which have already been used, strapped together. Each Falcon Core has 9 engines (hints the 9 on the name), giving the Falcon heavy a total of 27 engines and a combined power off 934kN (or 210,000 lbf) of thrust in vacuum and about 63,800kg (or 140,660lb) of payload capacity to the lower earth orbit, this represent a more than 2x the capacity of the space shuttle missions. SpaceX will also attempt to land all 3 falcon cores (the two side boosters in a base and the main booster in a drone ship) making this their most risky launch to day. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been quoted to say that if Falcon Heavy clears the safety distance (which means about 20 seconds of air time) the mission will be considered a success, but either way it would be interesting to watch as it becomes a success or the “biggest fireworks show ever”, told Elon.
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Inside the Falcon Heavy, as a test cargo there is Elon Musk’s first ever Tesla, a red roadster that, if everything goes to plan will have many firsts to its name. Such include fastest speed a car ever traveled (it will hit 11km/s at peak speed), first consumer car in space, first car to orbit a planet, among many others. The red Roadster will then orbit Mars, never contacting the red planet.
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This test is a lot more meaningful that putting a car on mars, this is about proving that the falcon heavy works, and that it can put a payload on mars, which would open a lot of doors. Flacon Heavy is much less expensive than any other rocket capable of doing the same kind of transports FH can do, since all 3 cores can be reused, lowering the cost. What would this mean for future exploration one might ask? It would be a game changer, opening a lot of doors for exploring the moon, both going around it as well as landing on it again, but also its main goal, putting humans on mars. If this launch goes on to be successful, SpaceX can begin to prepare and send gear to mars, so that when a FH equipped with their Dragon Capsule is ready to send humans to mars, all their equipment can already be there. So watch that livestream today at 1:30PM ET, as you may be witnessing the first step on humans becoming an interplanetary species, today.
See you next time!