Space exploration trading crops is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation company founded by Elon Musk in 2002. It was the first private company to launch the crewed spacecraft and deliver it to the international space station. The company successfully launched and returned a spacecraft from Earth orbit. Elon Musk said that he wanted to make space travel for everyone, and the company was working on developing powerful rockets that carry people into space.
At the age of 30, Elon Musk started thinking of creating space, then he sold his two companies and started a privately funded space company. In 2001, Elon Musk made Marsosis, a project to build an automated greenhouse on Mars, and the main goal was to gain public interest in space exploration. But the problem is the cost of the project, which is too high. And tried to make a deal with the Russian Federation, but later, he decided to design his reusable launch vehicles and space manship and started a spaceflight company called SpaceX.
In March 2006, after four years and hundreds of millions of private investments, SpaceX launched its first Falcon 1. Falcon 1 was a small rocket, and it took four tries to fly successfully. It was the first privately funded, liquid-fueled rocket. The Falcon 1 was designed to minimize price and increase reliability, and it was also used to verify the component and design, which would be reused in Falcon 9. The first launch of the Falcon 1 failed after 25 seconds because faulty valves caused structural damage. In the second attempt, the rocket performed well but did not reach the orbit. The third time it failed during staging. The data gathered through the launching process is used to improve the system and change the operational procedures.
The next launch was successful, and they achieved its first success. In 2006, many companies got interested, which include DARPA, NASA, ORS, ATSB, NSPO, Orbcomm, Astrium, and NASA signed a contract to fly American astronauts to and from the earth orbit. SpaceX developed several types of rockets, which include kestrel, Marlin 1, Draco, and super Draco. The last one developed Falcon 9 and Falcon massive for use in the Dragon Spacecraft. Musk’s engineer works on massive innovative rocket engines to get into space with a heavy cargo load. Falcon 9 is a medium launch vehicle powered by a Merlin engine, and payload capacity is 25,000 kg, which was intended to enable launches to both cargo and vehicles to the ISS. It is designed in a way that its stage can be reused.
The maiden flight of Falcon 9 launched successfully, and it landed too roughly, but the team managed to land the rocket on the coast of Florida.
The next and the most critical step is space station delivery, and when an operational spacecraft is launched, it completes all the mission objectives. The company reached another milestone when they released a Dragon capsule into orbit, and it successfully returned to the earth. SpaceX also used a drone ship for rocket stage landing, which was successfully reused in the 2017 launch. The Falcon heavy tested, and two stages landed successfully, and the third hit the water near the dropship.
SpaceX proposed the development of the technology, which is suitable for colonization on Mars. At the astronautical conference in Mexico, announced that SpaceX is working on an interplanetary transport system. On September 27, 2016, Musk described the details of the vehicles, which include size, design, the type of engine, and the detail of passenger payload capabilities. SpaceX developed Raptor, which is the first type of Cryogenic methane-fueled Rocket and the interplanetary transport system equipped with at least 42 Raptor Rocket engines. Elon Musk plans to build four or five versions of the rockets, and the first rocket will do a test launch, and then the final version will orbit the earth. It is also a reusable vehicle that can support both crew and cargo configuration that can make trips to both mars and the moon.
The development of the interplanetary Transport system faced many challenges and failures during testing. The initial prototype was failed during the cryogenic pressure testing, and after that, SpaceX refined the design and addressed the structural deficiencies. The second and the third attempt also failed, but SpaceX quickly moved to the next prototype and development process. SpaceX, now working on the fifth prototype of the starship, which is SN5 and SN6, SN7, is also under construction. To implement the plan of the establishment of humanity on Mars, it will take 40 to 100 years. However, the biggest challenge is to reduce the time and cost per flight; if the initial trip takes 80 days, it should be 30 days in the future.
To provide global internet services, Elon Musk announced the development of a new satellite constellation called StarLink. The goal of the company is to build a constellation of 4425 satellites to provide the internet to the entire globe, including the area which does not have internet access and increase the profitability, which helps the company to build its Mars Colony. Product development started in 2015, the first two prototype test-flights were launched by SpaceX, and the second massive deployment of constellations occurred with the first 60 operational satellites.
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