A New " Space Race " !

Remember the days of the race to space between the United States and the Soviet Union  ?  We were treated to television views of massive rockets lifting off from the launch pad - and sometimes spectacular explosions when they misfired.

The biggest rocket from that era was Saturn V which put men on the moon and it was capable of lifting a payload of almost 150 tonnes.  Since then the rockets have been getting smaller, and now a new space race has evolved between American billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.

Musk's Space-X has had success in retrieving and reusing his Falcon Heavy rockets and they are now lifting NASA satellites into orbit and supplying the International Space station.  Musk has the ambition of soon taking tourists on space jaunts and establishing a colony on Mars and he is building a rocket nearly as big as Saturn V which retired from service in 1973.

This bigger version of the Falcon Heavy is seventy metres tall and is powered by 28 engines, each capable of delivering 22.8m newtons of thrust.  It will be the equivalent of harnessing eighteen Boeing 747 jet liners in a team to pull a 64 tonne payload into near earth orbit.  This is half what the Saturn V could manage but it is more than double what the present NASA work horse - the Delta IV Heavy - can lift.

This bigger rocket will make a test flight within the next few days and consequently it will carry just a nominal payload.   Elon Musk is also the head of the Tesla electric car company and he intends to use this test launch to enhance the Tesla advertising potential.   The payload that will be carried into orbit will be his personal Tesla cherry red sports car which he hopes will spend eternity circling around the sun.

Musk has set his sights on Mars and already work has started on an even bigger rocket system which is designated " BFR ". Little is known about the specification, beyond the payload which will be designed to lift about 250 tonnes into space, far in excess of both the Chinese Long March 9 and Russian Energiya 5V which are expected to debut in 2028 and lift about 150 tonnes.

Musk has set a launch date of 2022 for the BFR.  Due to his irreverent sense of humour BFR stands for " Big Fucking Rocket " but students writing essays on the space race might be wise to omit this detail from their submissions.

NASA is also back in the big rocket business with its SLS with a 70 tonne payload, but not expected on the launch pad until 2029. This " Space Launch System " will enable NASA to get back to the moon and probably eventually to Mars, but it seems that the space race is now open to a field of contenders.

After the Moon landings the world lost interest but the prospect of a space colony on Mars will certainly rekindle a new enthusiasm.   The prospect of an earth station on another world that we can actually see with a telescope will open new bragging rights for whoever firstly attains this goal.