GOALS
Musk has stated that one of his goals is to improve the cost and reliability of access to space, ultimately by a factor of ten. A major goal of Space X has been to develop a rapidly reusable launch system. Musk stated in a 2011 interview that he hopes to send humans to Mars' surface within 10–20 years. In 2010, Musk's calculations convinced him that the colonization of Mars was possible. In March 2014, COO Gwynne Shotwell said that once the Falcon Heavy and Dragon 2 crew version are flying, the focus for the company engineering team will be on developing the technology to support the transport infrastructure necessary for Mars missions.
Space X plans to send two private citizens around the Moon in its Dragon 2 spacecraft in 2018. The company has selected two participants for the mission, which is being funded by Nasa and cash from the citizens. The trip will mark the first time humans have been sent to deep space in 45 years and will launch from the same pad the Apollo programme used to send humans to the Moon in 1969. If all goes to plan, those on board will break a record for travelling the fastest and farthest into the Solar System. As part of Musk’s plan to create a colony on the planet, he hopes the first spacecraft carrying humans will set off in the mid-2020s. Before then, he hopes Space X will send an unmanned mission to Mars in 2020.
SPACE X TO LAUNCH MOST POWERFUL COMPUTER EVER SENT TO SPACE STATION
When the Falcon 9 rocket takes off successfully, one of the items on board will be a supercomputer built by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE, Tech30), dubbed the "Space borne Computer." If it works, it could be the most powerful commercial, off-the-shelf computer ever to operate in space. According to Mark Fernandez, the HPE engineer who is heading up this new experiment, the space-bound supercomputer will have the ability to make one trillion calculations in a single second -- about 30 to 100 times more powerful than your average desktop computer. Julie Robinson, the chief scientist for NASA's space station program, said if this supercomputer can function in the harsh conditions of space -- it'll be very exciting news for companies down here on earth.
Launch of Falcon 9 carrying ORBCOMM OG2-M1.
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