SpaceX mass driver at Moonbase Alpha

A render of SpaceX mass driver at Moonbase Alpha to launch Moon-made AI satellites (data centers) into orbit. The render was included in Elon Musk's presentation yesterday at xAI All Hands meeting.

A lunar mass driver is a proposed electromagnetic launch system optimized for the Moon’s low gravity (1/6th Earth’s) and hard vacuum, consisting of a long, straight acceleration track (typically several to tens of kilometers) lined with sequentially fired superconducting coils or linear synchronous motors that propel a payload-carrying sled or bucket to lunar escape velocity (~2.38 km/s). The track is usually elevated on supports or aligned along a natural slope (e.g., crater rim) to achieve the desired trajectory. Payloads experience continuous acceleration (potentially 20-100 g for brief periods) without atmospheric drag or chemical propellant expenditure, enabling theoretically high throughput at far lower recurring cost than rockets. Practical challenges include the immense construction effort, precise alignment for orbital insertion, recoil management into the lunar surface, and the energy storage needed for rapid repetitive launches.

SpaceX Starship Mars mission update 2025

On May 29th at Starbase, Texas SpaceX CEO and lead designer Elon Musk provided an update of SpaceX's Starship Mars architecture "The Road to Making Life Multiplanetary". Here are slides from his presentation.

Full presentation:

Slides from the presentation

Starship mission timeline for next 4 Earth-Mars transfer windows every 26 months:

The next opportunity is in the end of 2026, with landing in 2027:

SpaceX Mars mission in 2026:

SpaceX Mars mission in 2028:

SpaceX Starship update 2024

On April 4th at Starbase, Texas SpaceX CEO and lead designer Elon Musk provided an unannounced update of SpaceX's Starship architecture. Here are slides and animations from his presentation.

Full presentation:

Slides from the presentation

Starship v1, v2 and v3 specifications:

Thrust comparison of Raptor v1, v2 and v3:

First Mechazilla launch tower pairs at Starbase, Texas and Cape Canaveral, Florida:

Elon's latest vision for Mars Base Alpha

During Starship update presentation on Thursday SpaceX CEO and lead designer Elon Musk shared to us SpaceX's latest vision for Mars Base Alpha. Here are some images from the animation.

Part of Mars Base Alpha is covered with a large, transparent dome:

Starships are landing on landing pads some distance away from the base:

Settlers arriving at Mars Base Alpha:

Animation of Starship landing at Mars Base Alpha shared by Elon:

SpaceX Starship update 2022

On February 10th SpaceX CEO and lead designer Elon Musk provided the latest update of SpaceX's Starship architecture. Here are slides and animations from his presentation.

Animation of Starship launch and arrival to Mars Base Alpha [updated on April 2023]:

Full presentation:

Slides from the presentation

Starship specifications:

Super Heavy booster specifications:

Starship Super Heavy launch pads at Mars City

As SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk has acknowledged, eventually Super Heavy booster stages for Starships could be manufactured on Mars as a launch platform for outer Solar system missions. Here is a vision of several Starship Super Heavy (in its 2016 design, then called Interplanetary Transport System) launch pads at Mars City's spaceport by US designer Casey Alexander.

"Mars City" is the name Elon Musk gave to SpaceX's future human colony on Mars (now referred to as "Mars Base Alpha") in some earlier presentations of SpaceX's Mars colonization architecture.

Elon Musk arrives to Mars Base Alpha

Who will guess the year? SpaceX's CEO and chief designer Elon Musk finally arrives to the spaceport of Mars Base Alpha by American comics artist Eli Burton, creator of The Adventures of Starman.

Donut cafe on Mars by Natalia Babiy

As Elon Musk has said: colonizing Mars will create "an explosion of entrepreneurial opportunity because Mars will need everything from iron foundries to pizza joints to nightclubs. Mars should really have great bars". Here is a donut cafe on Mars by Ukrainian concept artist Natalia Babiy. More of her art here.

Elon Musk with his youngest son X Æ A-12 at Mars Base Alpha

“Dad, what was it like to be confined indoors?”
“It doesn't matter son, now we have the whole universe to ourselves”

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk with his youngest son X Æ A-12 at Mars Base Alpha by Indian space artist Eashan Misra in collaboration with Eli Burton, known as Real Life Starman. Note the Tesla Supercharger station on the left side.

Painting of Elon Musk on Mars by Conor Walton

Oil painting with Elon Musk, the CEO & lead designer of SpaceX, on Mars by Irish painter Conor Walton. More of his art here.

Slides from SpaceX Starship 2019 update presentation by Elon Musk

Today SpaceX CEO and lead designer Elon Musk provided an update of SpaceX's Starship design. Here are slides and animations from his presentation (open link in new tab to view image in full resolution).

Basic info about the new Starship:

Layout of Starship Raptor engines:

Super Heavy booster layout:

Starship comparison with Starhopper and Millennium Falcon:

Nuke Mars

"Nuke Mars" is one of the few Elon Musk's ideas we wouldn't support; there are much better options, how to kickstart a terraformation process on Mars, as solar mirrors or powdering Martian ice caps with black lichen/powder to lower their albedo. But we couldn't resist posting this awesome illustration of (hopefully robotic) Starman riding on a nuclear warhead towards Mars by Peter DeLuce 😈 More of his art here.

New engine bay of SpaceX Starship by Kimi Talvitie

Finnish 3D artist Kimi Talvitie has made a model of possible new configuration of SpaceX's Starship engine bay with 3 vacuum optimized Raptors and 3 sea level optimized Raptors (news recently revealed by Elon Musk). More of Kimi's art on his Twitter account.

SpaceX. Raising the bar!

"Do it", as Elon Musk bluntly replied to the bragging of Boeing's CEO about "beating Elon Musk to Mars" 😁

These days SpaceX is the leading NewSpace company developing innovative and cost-effective rocket/space technologies and beating all the "space dinosaurs" in the field. Its ultimate goal is to colonize Mars. In the spirit of this reality Instagram user starjet_pilot has made this retro style poster (recalling the iconic photography of US soldiers raising the flag on Iwo Jima by Joe Rosenthal) of starmen raising the flag of SpaceX on Mars with the Starship in the background.

New official renders of SpaceX Starship on the Moon & at Mars Base Alpha

Today Elon Musk revealed on his Twitter two more renders of SpaceX's Starship on the Moon and at Mars Base Alpha:

New official renders of SpaceX Starship landing at Mars Base Alpha

Today Elon Musk visited Doyle Ryder Elementary school in Flint, Michigan and demonstrated a new video of SpaceX's Starship. Here are some render images from that presentation with Starship landing at Mars Base Alpha. Forgive the poor quality of the images as they were captured by a camera; we will definitely get better quality official renders in the future.

Possibly official render of SpaceX stainless steel Starship during Mars entry

Yesterday Elon Musk gave an exclusive interview to Popular Mechanics. The interview is illustrated with several images, one of which is a fresh render of SpaceX's stainless steel Starship during Mars entry. The author of the render is stated to be "SpaceX" (as one more earlier official render from SpaceX).

Photo of SpaceX's Starhopper (official)

Today Elon Musk tweeted the photo of the actual Starhopper (the shorter test vehicle of SpaceX's stainless steel Starship) built in SpaceX's Boca Chica launch facility in South Texas and sheduled to fly first test flights in March/April.

Elon Musk thinking about colonization of Mars

Collage of Elon Musk thinking about human colonization of Mars - a cover image for an article on Business Insider.

Official schematics for Big Falcon Rocket v2018 by Elon Musk, SpaceX

Today SpaceX CEO and lead designer Elon Musk provided an update of SpaceX Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) design and announced the first BFR Lunar mission, orbiting the Moon in 2023.

Here are video, schematics and images from his presentation (open link in new tab to view image in full resolution). Animations of the Big Falcon Rocket from presentation HERE.

Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) and Big Falcon Ship/Spaceship (BFS) v2018 schematics:

Big Falcon Rocket launch: