Elon Musk unveils plans for Mars travel

The owner of SpaceX presented his next ambitious proposal, as he aims to make humans a multi-planetary species by establishing a functional city on Mars

According to SpaceX founder’s opinion, presented at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, mass travelling to the Red Planet will be possible and available within the next 100 years. 

Musk’s ambition to colonize Mars comes to fulfill his goal of making humans an interplanetary species and to also ensure the survival of humankind in the imminence of an apocalyptic scenario for planet Earth.

Yet in its preliminary stages, the project could become sustainable in 40 to 100 years from now, as the company aims to send almost 200.000 people on Mars, with a cost of $100,000 per person and without signing up for a one-way journey.

The 1.000 rockets planned to be used as the Interplanetary Transport System for achieving this futuristic goal will be powered by a booster with 42 methane-based propellant engines and will be fully reusable, this way making sure that the colonizers will be able to return from Mars if willing to.

The ITS would feature zero-gravity rooms, cafeterias and movie theaters and it would carry up to 100 passengers and cargo, with low fuel expenditures.

While all of it may sound like a SF movie, Musk insists that it is possible and that re-usability is the key to make the colonization of the Red Planet a sustainable-price reality.

Funding for Musk's plan will be supported in the future by SpaceX revenues, public and governmental funds and donations.

For now, if using traditional traveling methods, the cost for one person per travel is huge: almost $10 billion.