SpaceX founder Elon Musk on Tuesday night (local time) said his planned manned mission to Mars can be achieved by 2022, three years ahead of his earlier estimate. Outlining his vision to establish human habitation on the red planet, Musk said humanity had only two options today – to stay on Earth forever and face "inevitable extinction", or become a "spacefaring civilisation and a multi-planetary species", according to The Guardian.
His plan includes a completely reusable transportation system, which would ferry 100 people to Mars in 80 days. This duration would eventually be reduced to 30 days. The spaceship would be refuelled with methane and oxygen in the orbits of both planets. Speaking at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, Musk explained that each ticket to Mars could cost $200,000 (around Rs 13.3 crore), and to make this possible, the spaceship needs to be reusable.
The Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX, tested its Raptor rocket engine, which it intends to use to send humans to Mars, on September 25. This next-generation rocket engine will be used to power SpaceX’s Mars Colonial Transporter.
The California-based aerospace manufacturer's first Mars-bound spacecraft will be named "The Heart of Gold" after a starship in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, Musk said. It will be launched from pad 39 of Nasa's Kennedy Space Centre, which was used for the Apollo missions, BBC reported.
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