Why Xinjiang Is Suddenly So Critical to China's Mars Strategy

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If you're current on your reading, you know that liftoff for a SpaceX rocket consumes about 5 million lbs of TNT. Or, about 2 million kg or 2000 tonnes or 2 kilotonnes of TNT. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Yup! A nuclear blast kind of energy release.

Sure, it doesn't, can't happen on the same timescale as a weapon of mass destruction, but, that's exactly what *has* to happen to get a useful enough (there must be a critical mass of useful material per mission to Mars) launch for a Mars mission. Or, why don't they just figure out a way (get help from Wal-Mart) to get truck loads of one thing at a time to Mars and then start building once you get there.

What am I saying? Traditional rocket engines aren't going to cut it for sending a space-ship to Mars. Think about it - if you need 27 rocket engines to send something to the moon, how many do you need to get to Mars?

So? Explode a nuclear weapon, and find a way to harness that energy over a reasonable duration to accelerate a massive rocket to escape velocity. This way, the rocket only carries minimal fuel for steering and entry-descent-and-landing.

So, why Xinjiang? Because that's where there's the Lop Nor nuclear weapons testing site - where you can be sure there isn't a soul around for 50 miles at least. Coz that's what you need if you're going to be blasting nukes to save humanity from a mass extinction event. 

So, now, how much uranium do you need? Work it out - you need to get 100 tonnes to escape velocity with a rate of acceleration that's safe for the crew. That tells you the time for which you need to apply the first - and, more importantly, the distance.

So, when the nuke goes off, underground, instead of wasting the energy heating earth and rock, you're going to have to find a way to compress fluids or save it in potential energy in a way that can be harnessed mechanically to lift a rocket - and accelerate it - so it shoots out of the ground at a high enough velocity so that it needs to use as little fuel as possible to get to EV. If it comes out at EV, so much the better.

That being said, is it possible for Russia to play spoil sport and put a few canons on Mars that can shoot down any incoming cargo? That way they could hold Trump and Xi and Musk hostage and get around sanctions with a nice ransom?