Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket managed a successful takeoff in early 2018, orbiting the Earth with a Tesla car inside and completing its in-space maneuvers, albeit with a bumpy landing. The company can rest on its laurels, right? Hardly.
That was certainly big news for the consumer space industry (which is now a real thing!), and promises interesting developments for the future. But SpaceX has grander plans, and is now primarily focused on BFR—which raises the question, what even is BFR? ICYMI, we’ve got an FAQ just for that question!
Elon Musk is involved in crazy stuff: What exactly is a BFR?
The BFR is an in-development, privately owned rocket that’s designed to go to Mars. The name is traditionally assumed to mean “Big F**king Rocket,” although there are signs that SpaceX is stepping back from this; they really meant it to stand for “Big Falcon Rocket,” they claim — for obvious reasons.
There aren’t many facts about the BFR available, but we do know that it’s designed to be around 350 feet tall, with an incredible 10.8 million pounds of thrust, which is a lot more than any rocket NASA has created. Notably, it’s also designed to be reusable, with a docking and redeploying system that would theoretically allow the rocket to keep traveling back and forth from Mars.
What’s the difference between Falcon Heavy and BFR?
Falcon Heavy is a very powerful rocket that’s being tested for basic space-related tasks, and obviously there’s already a model capable of entering orbit. The BFR is still a work in progress, and it’s a significantly more powerful rocket that is specifically designed to reach Mars.
The two rockets do appear to have a lot in common, however. SpaceX has been working on several rocket models lately, including Falcon Heavy, Falcon 9, and Dragon, all projects in the same general pool. It looks like the other rockets will see less development work going forward (with some potential for business expansion with Falcon Heavy) so that everyone can focus on BFR right now, essentially merging the projects together.
Okay, but how would people survive in flight—or on Mars, for that matter?
Whoa, now: The BFR is just a rocket. It’s a very exciting rocket, but it’s not exactly meant for squishy little humans. There’s a good reason that the Falcon Heavy only took a Tesla car up into orbit, and not any passengers—it’s not made to sustain life, and if it sees action in the future it will probably be an automated supply transport that would ferry materials to Mars that people would use for survival. So there’s the basic answer two both questions.
When it comes to the BFR specifically, the goal is to attach the rocket to a spaceship and fly them both around, something that SpaceX thinks will take around $10 billion to accomplish. Right now, SpaceX is mostly concerned with getting a viable rocket working. The spaceship part will probably come along in a couple years.
What are the long-term goals of the project?
Ambitious! But SpaceX has successfully passed a series of ambitious milestones, so nothing seems out of the question for this company. Let’s divide them into three general categories, as mentioned by Elon Musk in his various interviews about the BFR.
The Moon: The first long-term goal may be to head over to the moon and, you know, check up on it. The moon gets tossed around as a potential goal because it’s a lot safer target than Mars, both literally and financially. There are also plans to orbit the moon with a Dragon rocket, which may well be merged with BFR if SpaceX wants to keep focused. If the BFR isn’t looking quite ready for a Mars flight in several years, then it’s safe to bet that it will at least try to go to the moon.
Mars: The Mars plan is surprisingly detailed, even at this early juncture. The first Mars flight would confirm water resources and scout out potential hazards, while scanning for the best places to build power plants, mine minerals, and so on. The second flight would include a bare-bones crew that would start to build structures and produce reserves of fuel. Once a base is established, SpaceX intends to start a full-blown colony, with a final goal of transporting millions of people to a Mars habitat.
Like we said, ambitious.
Earth transport: In the near future, you can at least expect the BFR to rocket its way around the Earth. Part of Musk’s goal is to use the BFR as a transportation option that allows people to zoom nearly anywhere on our planet in about 30 minutes. Plus, early tests of this transportation project are far easier and safer than trying for a full orbital test.
So where is BFR right now?
Things are looking pretty good! The success of the Falcon Heavy was a very important step, and Elon Musk has pushed the gas pedal down on BFR development for now, although SpaceX has acknowledged that it may pursue different projects in the future, depending on how things go.
Look for the next big milestone in 2019, when SpaceX plans to test early prototypes of the BFR in the atmosphere. If these tests go well, we can expect a much more exciting orbital test in 2020 and potentially a Mars flight in 2022. Of course, keep in mind that the Falcon Heavy itself was subject to delays and pushed-back dates, so this is more of a hopeful plan than a promise.
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