Summary of Elon Musk's Masterplan to Mars - How to make Humans a Multiplanetary Species ?

SpaceX's goal is to provide an affordable Interplanetary Transportation System for peoples who want to go to Mars with a target cost of  $140,000/person by early 2030's

The Key elements of the Mission Architecture (see video bellow) are:

Fully reusable Booster:

• Mission: up to 1,000 uses to launch Mars Transfer Vehicle into Earth parking orbit, and to send Cargo Vehicles for refueling spaceships in orbit. 
• Carbon-fiber primary structure / Densified CH4/O2 propellant / Autogenous pressurization
• Lift-off thrust: 128 MN (For comparison: SaturnV lift-off thrust was 35 MN and Ariane 5 ECA 14 MN)
• Expandable LEO Payload up to 550 tons which is more than the mass of the ISS (300 tons in full reusable mode)
• 42 Raptor Engines (sub-cooled liquid oxygen and methane, chamber pressure at 300 bar, Vacuum Isp = 382s, thrust about 3,000 kN)

Mars Transfer Vehicle (Ship)

• Mission: up to 12 uses to transport 100+ passengers/ship to Mars and return to Earth. (Launched without the propellant in a Earth-parking orbit waiting for refueling before departure to Mars)
• Sizing: 49.5*17 meters; dry mass: 150 tons; propellant mass 1,950 tons
• Solar arrays: 200kW of Power
• Propellant production on Mars (CH4/O2)

Tanker

• Mission: In-orbit propellant filling of the ship with CH4/02

Cargo to Mars

• Mission: send cargo to Mars

SpaceX's Mission Architecture in video

Credits: SpaceX, IAC 67th

Fundings

• Launch Satellites, Send Cargo and Astronauts to ISS, Kickstarter, Profit, Global Interests and support to Mars Colonization project

Timeline

• Development (structure and propulsion): 2019
• Ship testing (2020), Booster testing (2021) Orbital testing (2023)
• First Mars flights: 2024
• Self-Sustainable civilisation on Mars: about 1,000,000 peoples by 50 to 100 years from 2024 (100+ people per ship, 1,000 ships (10-12 times reusable) over 20 to 50 total Mars Rendez-vous each 26 months)

Full video of Elon Musk's Announcement at the 67th International Astronautical Congres, Mexico

Credits: SpaceX, IAC 67th