so this is the third video in our series
about Mars colonization which we do
together with our friend the angry
astronaut the first video analyzed
Elon's Mars colonization plans and we
try to give a more realistic timeline
you can watch the video right here
in the second video the angry astronaut
analyzed what NASA's and other space
agencies' plans are for human Mars
missions so in this video now we want to
build on that and explore the potential
of a future cooperation for human Mars
missions between SpaceX and NASA how
could such joint missions look well
let's find out
in order to figure out how joint Mars
missions between SpaceX and NASA would
look we actually don't have to look very
far because only recently could we
witness the first such joint mission
between SpaceX and NASA namely the crew
dragon demo-2 mission that was the
first time ever that SpaceX has launched
humans into space and that was all in
cooperation with NASA here NASA acts as
the provider of know-how personnel and
expertise in decades of spaceflight and
spaceX is the contractor as part of
NASA's Commercial Crew program spaceX
is paid by NASA to launch NASA
astronauts to the ISS with their crew
Dragon capsule mounted on top of a
Falcon 9 rocket this contract between
SpaceX and NASA extends many years into
the future and is worth billions of
dollars and not only that but recently
NASA has announced many more such joint
missions we already know that the first
two modules of the Artemis lunar gateway
will be launched by a SpaceX Falcon Heavy
rocket in 2023 again SpaceX will act as
the prime contractor to NASA another
contract which is also worth billions of
dollars are the resupply missions to the
lunar gateway with spacex's upcoming
dragon XL spacecraft and lastly
even starship is now slowly but surely
being considered as part of NASA's
Artemis moon program in order to land
NASA astronauts on the moon by 2024
a first award of around 150 million
dollars has been given to SpaceX for the
development of a special moon version of
their starship
if SpaceX will be chosen as the prime
contractor for the Artemis moon landings
this would also become a contract worth
billions of dollars so yes we are already
witnessing right now how a collaboration
between NASA and SpaceX
would look like but Mars of course is a
whole different beast launching
astronauts to the ISS is one thing but
it will be child's play compared
to crewed Mars missions even launching
the lunar gateway resupplying said
gateway even landing starship on the
moon with astronauts will be a walk in
the park compared to Mars missions
so how would such Mars missions look in
the first place
well of course starship would be the
prime vehicle to conduct these missions
we could already see that the Falcon 9 used for the human ISS missions
bears a nice shiny red NASA logo even
the moon starship will probably bear a
nice shiny NASA logo so yes if SpaceX
would conduct the first Mars missions
together with NASA we can be very sure
that the Mars version of starship would
also bear a cool-looking NASA logo so
much for the looks but how will
actually the financing of such a mission
work out well it would probably be done
differently than with the crew dragon the
dragon xl missions the lunar
gateway launch or even starship why
because we strongly assume that by the
time Mars missions are carried out spacex will already have a huge budget at its
disposal rivaling maybe even surpassing
the entire annual budget of NASA we know
that NASA's annual budget is at around
20 billion dollars recently it has
started to rise due to the planned
Artemis missions going up to twenty one
point five billion dollars in 2020 and
maybe even up to twenty eight billion
dollars by 2024 and 2025 should this
budget increase be approved by Congress
of course but soon spacex will be
generating massive truly massive annual
revenue with Starlink it's estimated that
by the mid 2020s starlink will be
generating 40 billion dollars in annual
revenue for spacex that's right ladies
and gentlemen that's twice the annual
budget of NASA even should NASA's budget
increase SpaceX will still have a bigger
annual budget at its disposal than NASA
by the time human Mars missions
are carried out which will be at some
point in the second half of the 2020s
realistically now believe us we would
like to believe ourselves that the 2024
date is doable but let's remain
realistic here you've seen how hard it
is to even get starship off the ground
we all have seen how many delays can
happen and what can go wrong so we just
think it is very unlikely that it will
indeed happen in 2024 we know many will
disagree with us but that is just our
opinion that a few years of delay will
certainly happen so 2027 or even 2029 is
certainly more realistic but in any case
by the mid-2020s
SpaceX would have become so powerful
that it will this time not act as a
contractor to NASA this will be the
major difference as compared to what we
see now and what we will see with the
Gateway and the moon starship therefore
these missions will be joint missions
not contractor missions this might of
course affect the size of the NASA logo
on starship it might end up being a
pretty small NASA logo just kidding the
NASA logo probably will still be
quite big out of respect to the agency
that gave us the moon landings and will
possibly give us the new Artemis moon
landings and we also shouldn't forget
that without NASA there wouldn't be
SpaceX so in case of such joint missions
NASA would contribute a certain budget
probably in the order of a few billion
dollars annually they would provide all
their expertise as always and the many
lessons learned by then with the
starship moon missions should they
indeed be carried out for NASA in any
case NASA will contribute also their
vast knowledge on space radiation so
that the Mars version of starship will
have some kind of shielding against not
only solar radiation but also against
the more dangerous cosmic radiation in
fact NASA has been working since a long
time now on hydrogenated boron nitride
nanotube shielding so this might be
employed in starship about which we by
the way talked in this video here then
of course NASA would
also strongly advise to use artificial
gravity something somehow Elon is
quiet about you know he hasn't yet
talked about artificial gravity on
starship on journeys to Mars because
NASA knows firsthand that a long-term
zero-g exposure is really really bad for
the human body so a NASA spaceX joint
mission would also certainly employ some
kind of rotation on the journey to Mars
then NASA would most certainly
contribute their highly trained
astronauts because let's be realistic
the first people on Mars will probably
be highly trained NASA astronauts and
not regular civilians and then NASA
would of course also contribute all
necessary building blocks for the first
Mars base Elon often said that he views
spaceX as a transportation company
meaning SpaceX will just enable humans
to get to the Moon and Mars but the
hardware itself for Moon and Mars bases
will have to be provided by someone else
SpaceX will not manufacture habitat
modules now sure at some point we will
probably see Tesla or boring company
products on Mars maybe a Mars version of
cybertruck or a boring company tunnel
machine certainly also Tesla battery
packs and solar arrays but the habitat
modules the water extraction machines
the propellant production machines
the space-grade nuclear generators the
3d printers the exploration drones all
these will be provided by NASA probably
even the first mars roving vehicles
will be a cooperation between NASA and
Tesla we could also imagine Tesla
building a pressurized Rover based on
the cybertruck design for NASA or maybe
a completely new design so the most part
of the hardware needed for building up
our first Mars base will be provided to
some extent by NASA and NASA will also
provide the personnel who will build up
the mars bases after them being landed
on Mars with starship at some point in
the next five to 15 years depending on your level
of optimism and the basic concept how
our first Mars base will be built up
would be very similar to how we
described it in our first video of this
Mars colonization series first we will
have pure cargo starship missions
already carrying some necessary
equipment to Mars so when the NASA
astronauts arrive afterwards they will
already find some habitat modules and
other important equipment in the cargo
bay of at least two but possibly more
than two starships that have already
landed on Mars two years earlier than
the first crewed Mars missions the NASA
astronauts would then proceed to unpack
all the Cargo and would depending on the
layout of our first Mars base building
a regolith dome using 3d printers or
use specially designed habitat shelters
with cosmic ray protection shielding so
the design of our first Mars base still
remains to be seen
we believe that expandable habitat
modules in combination with regolith
domes make more sense but in case of a
joint mission NASA will decide for the
safest and the best solution and the one
that would pose the lowest hazard for
the astronauts so that they would be
best protected against solar and cosmic
radiation power generation hydroponics
water extraction propellant production
and so on would be set up now contrary
to a purely SpaceX carried out Mars
mission a joint mission with NASA would
have of course a higher science focus at
least for some years until SpaceX would
use the knowledge gained in the joint
NASA missions until civilian colonists
would arrive and build up a first
civilian Mars settlement the NASA led
Mars base would try to answer the
age-old question if there is life on
Mars long extravehicular activities
so-called EVAs
would be carried out drones would be
sent out looking for signs of life maybe
even the giant subterranean lave tubes
would be explored with NASA drones or
even astronauts at some point in order
to find possible Martian life and of
course the safety precautionary measures
would be much higher with all NASA
missions quarantine against possible
contamination with Mars microbes or
protection against the perchlorates in
the Martian soil we know that NASA is
always super careful with everything so
a joint NASA SpaceX mission would be
definitely more science focused and
careful the downside of course would be
as we know NASA that this would take
more time NASA likes to follow
procedures and protocol so the timeline
with a joint NASA and SpaceX mission
might thus not be quite so aggressive
now if NASA would take too long SpaceX
of course could also decide to
completely bypass NASA and carry out
their own missions because as we said
SpaceX would have the necessary funds by
then however the know-how the protocol
the increased security and the
scientific discoveries could still be
big pros for joint NASA and SpaceX Mars
missions as the first human missions to
the red plant until colonists would
start arriving building upon all the
lessons learned from these early SpaceX
and NASA joint
Mars missions so what do you say should
spacex carry out their first Mars
missions together with NASA or do you
think NASA would slow SpaceX down too
much if they would do joint missions
and don't forget to check out the second
video of this Mars colonization series
from our friend the angry astronaut he
nicely explained all of NASA's efforts
towards our first Mars base the video
is right here so thanks for watching the
JS space report and then I would say on 2
the future
