Elon Musk has finally revealed his ambitious plans to colonise the red planet. Musk had previously promised that his plans would be ‘mind-blowing’ and he has upheld his claim. Musk astounded more than 100,000 online viewers with his stunning and staggering simulations of the Mars Spaceship based on CAD design.
The announcement was made at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico. Musk’s talk titled ‘Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species,’ outlined the plans for a self-sustainable city on the Red planet. Given the closeness of Mercury to the sun and the high-pressure conditions on the Venus, Mars in the only inhabitable planet in the solar system.
Musk believes that the similarity in the duration of days (on Mars, a day is 24.5 hours) and the high probability of the plant life growth on Mars make it an ideal candidate for the humans to inhabit.
Musk outlined the intense support and funding that the company would need to realise its dream of the ‘SpaceX city on Mars.’ Musk also presented the cost breakdown for the complete project.
How much would it Cost for One Human to move to Mars?
Musk estimated the cost of sending one human to Mars based on the cost of the first landing on the Moon. The estimates suggest that a trip to Mars would cost a whopping $10 billion for one person. Musk put forth the price point of a $200,000 per person ‘Ticket to Mars.’
He elaborated that technical difficulties made it impossible to bring down the cost of human interplanetary travel. Albeit the challenges, Musk believes that the price of the ticket would eventually fall below $100,000 once the first base camp is operational and the spacecraft is reused.
Humans on the Red Planet
Musk’s grand plan for colonising Mars hangs on the successful development of a massive, reusable rocket and a ginormous spaceship, large enough to carry the necessary cargo as well as the human passengers.
SpaceX propulsion just achieved first firing of the Raptor interplanetary transport engine pic.twitter.com/vRleyJvBkx
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 26, 2016
Musk emphasised the need to reuse the rocket including the features like refilling in orbit and regenerating fuel on Mars to propel the rocket.
SpaceX has uploaded the video of the interplanetary transport engine, Raptor, being test fired. Musk explained that the design of a spaceship to Mars requires the development of 42 Raptor engines.
When will the Humans land on Mars?
Earlier this year, Musk announced that he intended to send an unmanned ship named the Red Dragon to Mars in 2018. He believes that SpaceX will touch down on the Red Planet in 2023.
So it won’t be far when we see the first spaceflight to Mars becoming a reality!