Yeah, there you go. All right. The gateway to Mars.

 [Applause]

Yeah, there you

go. All right. The gateway to Mars.

So, here we

are. Here we are at uh at the newly

incorporated Starbase, Texas.

[Applause]

This is uh the first new city made in

America in I think quite a few decades.

Uh that uh at least that's what I'm

told. And uh very cool name and it's

named that because it is the it is where

we're going to develop the technology

necessary to take uh humanity uh and

civilization and and life as we know it

to another planet for the first time in

the 4 and a half billion year history of

Earth.

[Applause]

So go with this little video here. This

is how it started off with basically

nothing. So start stra started off as

basically a

sandbar with

nothing. Even those little things we

built obviously

[Music]

That's the original sort of MadMax

rocket. This is where you discover

light. Light lighting is very important

for that Mad Max rocket.

So, yeah, not that long ago, there was

basically nothing here. And in the space

of about five or six years, uh, thanks

to the incredible work of the SpaceX

team, uh, we've built a small city, uh,

and we've built, uh, two a gigantic

launch pads and a gigantic rocket

factory for a gigantic rocket. Um, so

and the cool thing is for anyone out

there who's watching this, uh, you can

actually come and visit, uh, because our

entire production facility and launch

site are on a public highway. Um, so

anyone comes who comes to South Texas,

um, can come and see the rocket pretty

close up and see the factory. And um so

anyone who's interested in seeing the

largest flying object on Earth can come

here anytime they want and just drive

down the public highway and see it,

which is pretty cool.

So then we progress to where we are now,

Starbase 2025.

So, we're we're now at the point where

we can produce a ship roughly every 2 or

3

weeks. Now, we we don't always produce a

ship every 2 or 3 weeks because we are

making design upgrades. Um, but

ultimately, we're aiming for the ability

to produce a,000 ships a year. So, three

ships a

day. So, that's where things are now.

I'm standing in that building.

That's our hovercraft.

We're driving

booster down the road to the uh launch

site. You can see the mega

bays. And as I said, what's cool the

cool thing for those out out there

watching this video is that you can

actually just literally come here, drive

down the road and see it, which is the

first time in history that that's been

possible.

So all this cool stuff you that that

that road on the left there, that

highway is public and you can just come

here and see it, which I recommend

doing. I think it's very inspiring to

see.

So that's our gigaby. So we're where

we're expanding integration to produce a

thousand starships per

year. Well, yeah, that hasn't been built

yet, but we're building

it. Um, that is a truly enormous

structure. This will be one that'll be

one of the biggest structures, I think,

by some measures, the biggest structure

in the

world. And it's designed for a thousand

starships a

year. We're also building a gigabay in

Florida bringing so we'll have uh two

facilities, one in Texas and one in

Florida. It's it's actually difficult to

gauge the tr the size of these buildings

because you need a kind of human for

scale. When you see how tiny a human is

next to that building, you realize just

how enormous it is.

So when we look at uh our bullet

comparison vehicles per year um and uh

so you look at Boeing and Airbus making

uh airplanes

uh Starship making will be making at

some point probably as many starships

for Mars as uh Boeing and Airbus make

commercial

airplanes. So this is really at a scale

enormous scale and each starship uh will

have a capability uh it's it's each

starship is bigger than a 747 or an

A380 like it's truly

enormous. Uh and then in terms of uh

Starship Starlink satellites, the

version 3 satellites making on the order

of 5,000 a year, maybe at some point

closer to 10,000 a year. And those uh

Stallink V3 satellites are uh each the

size of roughly a

737. They're pretty

big. That compares to the B24 bomber in

World War

II. Now it's still small compared to

Tesla. Um so and Tesla will probably

doing you know um double or triple that

volume in the future. So it just puts

things into perspective that is it is

actually possible to build uh a vast

number of uh interplanetary starships.

Um, and even when you can compare things

on on the tonnage standpoint, Tesla is

still and and other car companies are

still building far more complex

manufacturer tonnage uh than than

SpaceX, which is really is a way of

saying that uh it's very achievable like

the these numbers while they are

insanely high by traditional space

standards are are uh are achievable by

humans because they have been achieved

in other industries. Progress is

measured by the timeline to establishing

a self-sustaining civilization on Mars.

That's how we're gauging our progress

here at Starbase. So, with each launch,

especially in the early days of of

Starship, each launch is about learning

more and more about what's needed to

make life multilanetary

um and to improve Starship to the point

where it can be taking ultimately

hundreds of thousands, if not millions

of people to Mars. Ideally, we can take

anyone who wants to go to Mars, we can

take to Mars um and bring with bring all

of the equipment necessary to uh make

Mars self-sustaining uh so Mars can grow

by itself uh in a worst case scenario.

uh getting to the point where uh the

fundamental fork in the road for human

destiny is where um we where Mars can

continue to grow even if the the supply

shifts from Earth stop coming for any

reason. At that point uh we've achieved

civilizational uh resilience

uh where um Mars can potentially come to

the rescue of Earth if something goes

wrong or maybe Earth could come to the

rescue of Mars. But we but having two

planets that are that are that can that

that are both self- sustaining um and

strong um I think is going to be

incredibly important for the long-term

survival of

civilization. Um, so like just I think

any given civilization is likely to last

maybe I don't know 10 times longer,

maybe much longer if it is a multilanet

civilization than if it is a single

planet civilization because there always

there's always some chance that uh you

know us humans could do something crazy

like World War II. Hopefully not, but

it's possible. um or that there could be

some uh natural event like uh meteors or

super volcanoes or something that we

don't expect and uh and and then if we

only have one planet then that that

could be curtains but if we got two

planets uh we keep going and and then we

go beyond Mars ultimately to um the moon

maybe the asteroid belt the moons of

Jupiter and beyond and ultimately to

other star systems and we can be out

there among the stars making science

fiction no longer

fiction. So in order to achieve this

goal we have to be we have to make

rapidly reusable rockets so that the uh

the cost per flight the cost per ton to

Mars is as low as possible. Uh that's

essential. So that for that rapidly

reusable rockets I said we could it's

actually four Rs. It's like a pirate R.

It's like rapidly reusable reliable

rockets is the key.

R Now we've uh congrats to the SpaceX

team on making incredible progress on

catching a giant rocket.

[Applause]

So, it's really mind-blowing that

the SpaceX team has been able to catch

the largest flying object ever made

multiple

times using a very novel method of

catching it out of the air with giant

chopsticks.

[Music]

I mean, have you ever seen that before?

Yeah, congrats again. That was an

incredible achievement.

[Applause]

So the the the the reason we are uh

catching it in this way which is uh

never been done before is in order to

achieve the rapidly reusable portion of

the in order to make the rocket rapidly

reusable. So if it is if if if if the

super heavy booster which is gigantic uh

it's like 30 ft in diameter um if if if

it were to land with landing legs on a

landing pad we would then have to uh

pick it up uh stow the legs uh and put

it back in the launch pad. Um and that's

uh it's quite difficult to transport

such a large thing. Um but if we catch

it with the same tower that it's used to

put it in the uh launch uh mount to

begin with that that is the best case

outcome for rapid reuse. So it literally

gets caught uh by the same arms that

placed it in the launch uh in launch

ring and then it is placed back in the

launch ring immediately. So in principle

the super heavy booster can be refflown

within an hour of uh landing.

So it it comes back in about five or six

minutes one way or another and and then

it it gets caught by the tower arms

placed back in the launch mount and then

you can re refill propellant in about 30

to 40 minutes and and place a ship on

top of it and in principle refly the

entire booster uh every hour maybe every

two hours to be give a little bit of

extra time. Um, but let's just say it's

it's very it's in the limit of rapid

reuse. And then we the next thing we

need to do is is catch the ship too.

So, we haven't done this yet, but we

will. So, that's what we hope to

demonstrate later this year, maybe as

soon as 2 or 3 months from now.

And then the the ship would be placed on

top of the booster and then again uh re

re refilled with propellant and flown

again. Um with the ship takes a bit

longer because it's got to orbit Earth a

few times until the ground track comes

back over the launch pad. Uh but it the

ship is also intended to be refflowing

multiple times per day.

This is the uh the new Raptor 3 which is

an awesome engine. Big hand to the

Raptor team for this. This is very

exciting.

[Applause]

So, Raptor 3 uh is designed to require

no basic heat shield uh saving a lot of

mass on the bottom and actually

improving reliability so that uh if if

there is for example um a small fuel

leak uh from the Raptor engine uh it

will simply leak uh into the existing

flaming plasma and um not really matter.

Whereas a a fuel leak when the engines

are contained in a box uh is a very

scary thing indeed. So this is a Raptor

3 uh might it'll take probably a few

kicks at the can but it will be is a

massive increase uh in payload

capability uh in engine efficiency uh

and in reliability. So this is really a

revolutionary engine. Um, you know,

Raptor 3 is really, I'd say, kind of

alien technology rocket

engine. I mean, even industry experts

when we showed a picture of the Raptor 3

said that engine is not complete. So,

then we said, well, here's the engine

not complete, firing uh at a level of

efficiency that has never been achieved

before. So,

[Applause]

I mean that is one clean

engine. So in order to make the engine

like that we had to simplify so many

parts of the design incorporate uh

secondary fluid circuits and electronics

in the structure of the engine itself. U

so everything is contained and

protected. uh it is uh a marvel of

engineering

frankly. Then one of the other

technologies that's key for Mars is is

uh doing orbital propellant transfer. So

you can think of this like similar to

aerial refueling for airplanes uh but in

this case it's orbital refilling of

rockets which has never been done

before. Uh but it is you know

technically feasible.

Um I always feel like these things are a

little

NSFW sort

of listen you got to transfer fluid

somehow. There's no this has got to be

done. So uh

the

the the two starships would get together

and one starship would transfer fuel and

oxygen and actually most of the mass is

oxygen. It's almost 80% oxygen that gets

transferred. Um, a little over 20% fuel.

And um, and so on you you so you send a

starship to orbit with that's full of

payload and then you send a bunch of

other starships up and you would refill

the propellant on that starship and once

the the propellant tanks are mostly full

then you can depart for the Mars for

Mars or the moon or Yeah. So this is an

important technology which uh we should

hopefully uh demonstrate next

[Applause]

year. So then with the

uh one of the toughest problems to solve

is the uh reusable heat shield. Um so so

no no one has ever developed a truly

reusable orbital heat shield. So the

that it's extremely difficult to do so.

Um even the the shuttle shuttle's heat

shield required several months of

refurbishment. Basically fixing broken

tiles um testing each tile and um

because it's an extremely hard problem

uh to to be able to withstand the

extreme heat and pressure of

re-entry.

Um and uh the only things that that can

really withstand this level of heat are

uh advanced sort of ceramics uh kind of

uh you know basically glass, aluminum

uh some types of of

uh carbon carbon but very very little

actually can survive the uh and with

with reusability without getting without

eroding um or falling off or cracking.

can survive the stresses of re-entry.

Um, so this will be the first time

uh that it's done that that that a

reusable orbital heat shield is

developed. Um, and it needs to be

obviously extremely reliable.

Um,

so this this will be something that

we'll be working on for a few years, I

think, to to keep honing the the heat

shield. Um, it's it's a very it's it's

it is an achievable thing. So we're not

trying to do something that isn't

achievable. It is within the realm of

physics to get this done. Just an

extraordinarily difficult thing to get

done. And Mars uh the Mars atmosphere is

carbon dioxide,

which at first may seem better, but

actually it ends up being worse because

it it when the CO2 turns into a plasma

and you've got you actually end up with

more free oxygen entering on a Mars

atmosphere than on Earth atmosphere. So

Earth's atmosphere is only around 20%

um oxygen and Mars ends up being

basically more than double that maybe

triple that um when you consider when

the the CO2 becomes a plasma and uh and

you and you get carbon and O2. So the

that wants to oxidize the heat shield

basically burn the heat shield. So

that's why we uh we tested very rig

rigorously in a CO2 atmosphere because

it's got to work not just for Earth but

also for

Mars. Um and and we we want we want to

use the same heat shield for Earth that

we use for Mars because there are many

other factors with the heat shield uh

such as making sure the tiles don't

crack or fall off or anything like that.

Um, so we want to have the same heat

shield structure, same material on Earth

as on Mars. So we can test it uh

hundreds of times on Earth before going

to Mars and be confident that when it

goes to Mars, it will work.

So we developing some next generation

starships which

are have a number of improvements

uh versus our current gen. So uh it's

taller for

example and has a a

better inter kind of a the interstage

between the ship and the booster. You

can see that sort of

um the the sort of struts there that

makes it easier for the flame ah like

that right there. Um when doing hot

staging, which is when we light the

ship's engines while the booster's

engines are still firing, the the flame

from the um from the ship engines can

more easily exit through the uh the open

struts of the of the new interstage. And

in this case, we'll bring the the struts

interstage back with us instead of

throwing it

away.

So, a little more height here. Uh 72 m

from around

69. Uh repellent capacity, I think we'll

probably push that up a little, maybe

3,700 tons.

Um long term, my guess is we're maybe

around 4,000 tons.

and about just sort of just over 8, you

know, sort of uh 8,000 probably like

8,000 300. This will keep getting up. My

guess is ultimately we're 4,000 tons

here, close to 10,000 tons of thrust,

but this is kind of the next uh the next

level or the next version of the Super

Heavy. Uh, so the booster will look a

little naked on the bottom because the

the Raptor 3 engines don't require a

heat shield. So it look like it looks

like there's kind of parts missing, but

that's just because the the Raptor heat

shield uh does not the the Raptor 3 does

not need a heat shield. So it's just

it's

just standing there there in

a bathed in flaming plasma.

But it's a lot

lighter.

Yep.

Integrated hot

stage. I think it looks

amazing. And then the shift's a little

little more little longer, a little more

capable. Um moving to 1550 tons of

propellant capacity.

Um, and my guess is this probably ends

up 20% more than this long term. Um, and

uh, yeah, you can see it the the heat

shield is

sleeker. So much smoother

boundaries as as the the boundary of the

the heat shield going to the leeward

side uh is is very smooth.

Um, no more jagged tiles.

I think it looks very

sleek. Uh so and this version we still

have six engines but a future version

will have nine. Uh but with the Raptor 3

again we have improved um uh uh reduced

mass higher um specific impulse. Um it's

this is the the Starship version 3 is

really

the it the version that is I think

achieves all of the the key elements. I

mean generally with any new technology

it takes three major uh three major

iterations of any major techn of any new

technology to have it really really work

well. And this with Raptor 3 with and

Starship and booster version three uh we

it should be able to achieve all of the

things that I just mentioned which is a

rapidly reusable reliable rocket uh with

orbital

refilling. Basically all of the

ingredients necessary uh to make life

mult multilanetary will be achieved with

version three of Starship which we're

aiming to launch for the first time at

the end of this year.

[Applause]

Yeah. So you can see this is

uh kind of where things are on the left

where things will be uh end of this year

in the middle and as I was saying kind

of where things will be probably

longterm

um yeah 142

m.

So, but the the one in the middle is is

full will be fully capable of of doing

Mars. Uh, and uh thereafter we'll it'll

be a lot of uh performance improvements.

Um, and as as has been the case with

Falcon 9, we always end up making the

rocket longer um and increasing payload.

So, that's uh that's that's the game

plan. Pretty straightforward. Um, but

it's important to emphasize even with

the rocket that will be launching just

at the end of this year, it will be

capable of making life multilanetary and

thereafter it's it's it's just about

continuing to hone the efficiency and

capability of the rocket and and reduce

the cost per ton and reduce the cost per

person to Mars and and like I said,

ultimately make it so that anyone who

wants to move to Mars and help build a

new civilization can do so.

So, anyone out there, like how cool

would that would that be? And even if

you don't want to do it, maybe that you

have a son or daughter who wants to do

that or a friend who wants to do it. And

I think it would be the adventure, the

best adventure that it one could

possibly do is to go and help build a

new civilization on a new planet.

[Applause]

So yeah, ultimately we'll we'll have 42

engines

which it was inevitable

um as as the prophecy foretold

uh by the great prophet Douglas Adams in

his uh you know book of the Hitchhog's

Guide to the Galaxy. Uh the answer to

the meaning of life is 42. Um and so

inevitably the Starship stack will have

42

[Applause]

engines. And in terms of payload to

orbit, what's remarkable is that it's

200 tons of you know Starship will have

200 tons payload to orbit with full

reusability.

So this is twice the capability of the

Saturn 5 moon rocket. The Saturn 5 moon

rocket was fully expendable. Uh Starship

is fully reusable but will have twice

the payload to orbit um of the the next

biggest rocket that made it to orbit

which is a Saturn

5. Um in fact if without reusability

Starship would have about 400 tons of

payload to orbit.

So this is a this is a very big rocket

is what I'm saying. So but you need a

big rocket you know

to you know make life

multilanetary. Um and then along the way

we could do very cool things like have a

moon base um like moon base alpha long

ago there was a TV show about moon base

alpha.

Um you can't couldn't think about the

physics of that too much because

apparently like the moon base was like

drifting away from earth. Um but uh

anyway we should have a moon base alpha

which is the next step after the Apollo

program would be to have a base on the

moon. Um so you could like you could

have a like a gigantic um you know

science station uh doing research about

the nature of the universe on the moon

would be very cool.

So in terms of like when can you go to

Mars? So you can go to Mars every two

years or every 26 months.

Um so the next Mars opportunity is at

the end of next year in about 18 months.

So November, December is the next Mars

opportunity. So we'll try to make that

opportunity if we get lucky. I think

we'll probably have a 50/50 chance right

now because we've got to uh we've got to

figure out orbital refilling uh in order

to um have enough capability to go to

Mars. But if we achieve orbital

refilling in time, then we will launch

the first uh uncrrewed uh Starship to

Mars at the end of next year.

[Applause]

So So this gives you an illustration of

of how does how does a spaceship go from

Earth to Mars. So you got blue Earth

there and red Mars.

And I mean the the the actual distance

traveled on the ark is close to like a

thousand times further than the

moon. So you can't just go straight to

Mars. You have to create this elliptical

orbit with Earth at one point and Mars

at the other side at the far end of the

ellipse. and then time the time the the

where you are in that or in that ellipse

to intersect with Mars. And this so this

is the the orbital transfer how how you

do orbital transfer from Earth to Mars.

And if you look on your Starlink Wi-Fi

router, you'll see this image because

the Starlink Wi-Fi is uh what is or

Starink internet is what's being used to

pay for um humanity getting to Mars. So,

I just like to thank everyone out there

who has bought Starlink because you're

helping pay helping secure the future of

civilization and helping uh make life

multip multilanetary and helping make

humanity a space bearing civilization.

Thank you.

So this is a tentative game plan here

where we're hoping to that we're hoping

to achieve

um where we increase the the cadence of

flights to Mars dramatically with every

launch window. So every every roughly

two years

um we are dramatically increasing the

number of of of ships that go to Mars um

and ultimately try to get to a,000 or

2,000 ships u you know per Mars uh

rendevous.

Um,

so the the I mean as a rough order of

magnitude, this just guesses obviously,

but we we need to get about a thou about

about a million tons is my guess um to

the surface of Mars to make um uh a

civilization on Mars

self-sustaining and getting to that

critical point where um if the if the

resupply ships from Earth stop coming

for any reason, Mars still succeeds.

Mars can still grow. And so you can't be

missing anything. You can't be missing

even like the equivalent of vitamin C or

anything. You've got to have everything

you need for Mars to grow.

Um that's that's essential. So my guess

is that's about a million tons, but it

might be 10 million tons. Uh I hope it's

not 100 million tons. That'd be a lot.

Um but uh we want to try to get to that

point and secure the future of

civilization as quickly as

possible. So we're looking at different

locations. Um the lead candidate right

now is the Arcadia

region. So um now Mars has a lot of real

estate, but when you combine all of the

factors and say, okay, we need we can't

be too close to the poles, we need to be

um near ice for for to get to get water.

Um and uh can't be too mountainous for

the rockets. Um then you you it narrows

down to a smaller region. So, Arcadia is

uh

uh it's one of my my my daughter's name

is Arcadia actually. Um and is one of

the the options. So, we got the first

starships on Mars, gather critical data.

So, the first the first flights there

we'll we'll send with the Optimus robot

um so we can go out there and explore

and kind of prepare the way for humans

and um that'll be a very cool image if

we're able to achieve it um by launching

end of next year. would actually

technically arrive in

2027. Uh but that would be uh an epic

fixture to see Optimus walking around on

the surface of

Mars. And then with the launching two

years later, uh we would be sending

humans assuming the first missions are

successful and they land successfully,

we'd send humans on on the next mission.

uh and we really start building the

infrastructure for

Mars. So anyway, might maybe just to be

safe and we might just do two two

landing episodes with the Optimus and do

the third one with humans. We'll see.

So that that classic picture of the

workers on the Empire

State and then for communications on

Mars uh we'll be using a version of

Starlink to provide uh internet on

Mars. Yeah. So the the the speed of

light even at moving at the speed of

light your best case scenario is I guess

I think around 3 and a half minutes to

Mars uh and then worst case is uh 22

minutes or more because Mars is on the

other side of the sun from

Earth. So anyway it's

it's quite challenging to do high

bandwidth communications with Mars but

Starlink will achieve that.

Um, yeah, and then we'll have the first

humans lay the groundwork for permanent

uh presence on the surface.

Um, and yeah, the goal, like I said,

will be to make Mars self- sustaining as

quickly as

possible. This is just a sort of rough

idea of what things will be like for the

first city on Mars. My guess is we'll

probably put the launch pads a little

further away. um or the landing pads

just in

case. But uh I mean for Mars we're going

to need uh a lot of solar power. Um

we'll be you know since you you can't

really walk around on the surface of

Mars at least as yet until Mars is

terraformed to be like Earth. Um the you

you need to walk around with a Mars suit

um and be you know initially in kind of

glass domes.

Um, but it would work. Um, and

eventually we can make Mars into an

Earthlike

planet. And we want to get to the point

where we're uh transferring over a

million tons uh at every Mars transfer

window. And then we that's like a

serious

civilization. A megaton per transfer

window.

So yeah, it would have a lot of

spaceports. I mean, because of the fact

that you can't fly there continuously

and you have to transfer in these

windows, you'd have a gathering of a

thousand ships or 2,000 ships or more

than that. So we look have this kind of

like battle star galactica field where

all these ships are in orbit waiting to

depart and uh and then they they'd all

depart.

Um I look at I think an amazing image of

all these ships departing at once and

then you're going to need obviously uh a

lot of launch pads a lot of landing pads

on Mars. Um or you'll need to move the

the ships off the landing pad pretty

fast. Um, so if you get a you got uh I

don't know a few thousand ships inbound,

probably need at least a few hundred

pads, landing pads and

um anyway, we'll solve that problem

later.

So yeah, anyway, this is this is like an

incredible thing to have like this

amazing city on Mars, the first city on

another

planet, and

um a new

world. Um, and it's also an opportunity

to, I think, for the Martians to to

rethink how they want civilization to

be. So, you can maybe rethink like what

kind of form of government do you want?

What new rules do you want to have? Um,

there's a lot of freedom and opportunity

in Mars to do a recompile on

civilization, which will be up to the

Martians.

So, all right, let's get it

done. Thank you everyone.

[Applause]