A beginning for a space bound successor

SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch. https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/03/01/rideshare-mission-for-u-s-military-confirmed-as-second-falcon-heavy-launch/

“Side booster ignition! 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, and liftoff of Falcon Heavy, building on the history of Saturn V Apollo, returning pad 39A to interplanetary space!”  Since the cancellation of the constellation program, NASA has struggled to put anything onto the table when it comes to manned spaceflight.  It has stuck with the SLS program, which has fell very far behind its goals of a 2017 launch despite reusing old shuttle technology.

In the private sector however, SpaceX has quickly made progress with the Falcon series of rockets, including the Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket in use currently, doubling the possible payload to space of the next most powerful rocket, the Delta IV heavy, with the added benefit of being reusable, which saves money.  In my previous blog post here, I talked about SpaceX being able to save money, which they have already before even reusing the rockets, and they have also proven that they could launch the world’s most powerful rocket, however, they still need NASA to reach their goals as they do receive funding from NASA for the commercial crew program.  

For my agent of change,  I have decided to spread awareness of NASA’s funding.  I created a petition on Change.org which can be found here.  I also created 2 posters with the phrase “This is our future.  Make it happen”.

The first one has a Falcon heavy rocket during launch.  The idea behind that one is showing what SpaceX is doing and how they are going revolutionize space travel by first, making the largest rocket flying today, and second, make it reusable. They are already on their way to that goal with the Falcon 9 block 5 and the Falcon heavy rocket, but they plan to go one step  further with an even larger rocket called the BFR.  However, the BFR is an absolutely massive rocket, with obscene payload capabilities.  So what will the BFR be used for exactly?

The second poster is an image of “Occupy Mars” logo, which depicts Mars in it’s phases of being terraformed into a life supporting planet.  Again, SpaceX is at the forefront of this innovation with a plan to colonize Mars using their within the next century, with the first cargo missions launching on BFR around 2022.  

Something that I have learned via my agent of change was to never underestimate a human’s ability to procrastinate.  My petition I created only amounted up to 18 signatures as of May 18, however, change is already happening in the industry around us with such minds as Elon Musk.  Rather than working at the question of how NASA can get more money, he is achieving more through having the space industry spend less to do the same thing. Although the change that I pushed for in particular is not happening, there is definitely change happening in the industry of space exploration as a whole, and it seems like it is for the better, and I think we should leave it at that and see what the future has in store for us.