Elon Musk answers one of humanity's burning questions on Joe Rogan's podcast, revealing the “fundamental breakthrough” needed for multiplanetary life

Elon Musk recently addressed key questions regarding the reduction of costs in space exploration. As the leader of SpaceX, he has taken significant steps in the private sector to advance the industry, with ambitious goals of terraforming and colonizing Mars. However, one of the major challenges remains the high cost of space travel.

During his recent appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, Musk highlighted that achieving the reusability of rockets is a fundamental breakthrough necessary to make space exploration affordable and to transition humanity into a multi-planetary species. He stated:

“The fundamental breakthrough that we're aiming for at SpaceX is a fully and rapidly reusable orbital rocket, where both stages are fully and rapidly reusable. Our Falcon rocket, we're able to re-use at the main stage and the nose cone, but we're not able to use the upper stage. It still takes us at least a few days from when the main stage lands to when We can fly it again.”

He continued:

“It's not fully reusable because we lose the upper stage, which costs 10 million dollars to build. And the main stage, it's not reusable like an aircraft. Where we can just refuel, fly it and it can work for a couple of days.”

Musk further explained:

“But the starship design is the first design that is capable of full and rapid reusability, where that is a possible outcome. One you have fast and rapid reusability, the cost of access to space drops by a factor of a 100 - like, 100 times cheaper. And by some matrix, a thousand times cheaper.”

Check out Elon Musk’s comments below (1:41:50):

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Elon Musk tells Joe Rogan about another revolutionary capability that can reduce the cost of space exploration "by the factor of 10,000"

In the aforementioned episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Musk also discussed another aspect that needs a breakthrough - Orbital refueling.

Orbital refueling refers to the transfer of propellant fuel to a spacecraft while it is in orbit. Currently, a space mission concludes once the fuel is depleted. This advancement would significantly extend mission lifespans.

Musk elaborated on the impact of orbital refueling on space exploration:

“When you factor in orbital refilling - so when you're refilling in the orbit, it can drop the cost per ton to the surface of Mars, by the factor or 10,000.” [1:43:19]

While there is still much work to be done before fully realizing these breakthroughs, Musk mentioned that SpaceX has made significant strides in making rockets reusable. He acknowledged that issues like engine and heat shield damage need to be addressed but affirmed that they are close to achieving full and rapid reusability.