At the recent International Astronautical Congress in Mexico, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk presented his plan for sending humans to and from Mars.
His plan, which is aimed at establishing a Martian colony, will rely on a huge, reusable rocket. Though the technology is at least 4 decades away, Musk hopes that it will cost as little as US$200,000 to transport each person.
“What I really want to try to achieve here is to make Mars seem possible, make it seem as though it’s something that we can do in our lifetimes,” said Musk.
His motivation behind the project is simple.
“History is going to bifurcate along two directions,” he explained. “One path is we stay on earth forever, and then there will be some eventual extinction event. The alternative is to become a space-faring civilization and a multiplanet species, which I hope you’ll agree that is the right way to go,” continued Musk.
