Elon Musk Says SpaceX Will Send People to Mars in 10 to 12 Years

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SpaceX CEO and founder commented recently that he thinks his company could send humans to the red planet by 2024.

A
s SpaceX, vies against established players such as Boeing for a big NASA contract, CEO and founder Elon Musk said his firm will just keep going, even if the contract falls through. He noted that SpaceX's progression would be slowed down if the U.S. government doesn't choose the company's new Dragon V2 as the next crew carrier to the International Space Station.

SpaceX recently unveiled the Dragon V2, a spacecraft that it hopes will carry NASA astronauts to the International Space Station as soon as 2016.

"It's possible that we may not win the commercial crew contract. ... We'll do our best to continue on our own, with our own money," Must said. "We would not be where we are today without the help of NASA."

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For now, he says the company is focused on creating technology that with enable large groups of people to travel to Mars.

"I'm hopeful that the first people could be taken to Mars in 10 to 12 years, I think it's certainly possible for that to occur," he said. "But the thing that matters long term is to have a self-sustaining city on Mars, to make life multiplanetary."

"The thing that matters long term is to have a self-sustaining city on Mars, to make life multiplanetary."

He acknowledged that the company's plans were too long-term to attract many hedge fund managers, which makes it hard for SpaceX to go public anytime soon.

"We need to get where things a steady and predictable," Musk said. "Maybe we're close to developing the Mars vehicle, or ideally we've flown it a few times, then I think going public would make more sense."

Even with NASA and Mars on SpaceX's horizon, serial entrepreneur Elon Musk is also being a major disruptive force at electric car maker Tesla, where he recently opened up all of the company's patents to the public and at Solar City, where that the company plans to acquire Silevo, a solar panel technology and manufacturing company whose modules have “demonstrated a unique combination of high energy output and low cost. The later announcement was recently made in a press release.

"I'll continue to be involved with Tesla as far into the future as I can possibly tell...," he said during an interview recently. "I feel good about being able to produce a compelling mass-market car in the next three years."




SOURCE  NBC

By 33rd Square

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