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Interplanetary Transport System

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YNot1989
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apolloarescolonizationcolonydragonfusiongoddardinterplanetarymarsmarscolonymartiannuclearreactorrobertshipspacespacecraftroberthgoddardthemartianfusionreactorrobertgoddardspacexthesecondrenaissancehelium3elonmuskmannedmissiontomarsmarscolonialtransportermarscolonizationinterplanetarytransportsystemfuturefuturisticsciencefictionspaceexplorationspaceship

Description

Function:                   Orbital Launch and Interplanetary transport
Manufacturer:            SpaceX
Country of origin:       United States
Cost per launch:         $50 million

                -----Size-----
Height:                      122 m (400.22ft)
Diameter:                  17 m (53.77 ft)
Stages:                      2
Booster Engine:          Raptor x 42
Booster Thrust:          128 MN (SL) 138MN (Vac)
Booster Dry Mass:       275 t       
Ship Engine:               VacRaptor x 6, Raptor x 3
Ship Thrust:               31 MN
Ship Dry Mass:           150 t
Payload to LEO:          300 t
Payload to Mars:         450 t (with in-orbit refueling)
Propellant:                 Deep-cryo methalox

The first Interplanetary Transport System lifted off from Pad 39a of Cape Canaveral in 2020, after 3 years of design, redesign, development and systems testing. The massive rocket was the most powerful chemical launch vehicle ever built, and the workhorse of the Frontier program. Originally the spacecraft was designed to refuel with a dedicated "tanker" variant of the main ship, and featured an 8 meter wide window near the front of the ship. Safety concerns ultimately resulted in the elimination of the larger window, and the ship's own massive payload capacity created the asteroid mining boom that made in-orbit refueling possible from the network of fuel depot stations it helped build. The spacecraft was built in a public-private partnership with the US government who encouraged NASA to adopt it for the exploration of the Solar System, moving up from the original date of late 2024 to 2022. Successive versions of the ship would see the removal of the large solar collectors for an on-board fusion power plant, which also radically improved the performance of the ship, and the creation of a manned variant with a much larger cargo  hold for asteroid mining missions. 

The ITS would become the work-horse of 1st half of the 21st Century's space projects, and many remained in service well into the middle of the 22nd Century, despite having long since surpassed in interplanetary cargo capacity by the O'Neil Ships, and replaced by hyper-sonic space-planes and the Elevators for orbit capable transport.
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Comments18
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JonasGraf's avatar
JonasGraf

Hopefully humans finally set foot on Mars in this decade. :)