In just a few days SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity CEO Elon Musk will at last let loose his plans for colonizing Mars in the next decades and how he plans on doing so. Musk has been a proponent of colonizing the Red Planet for years now, although it has seemed mostly a pipe dream. Until now.
Elon Musk To Announce Massive Plans for SpaceX
On September 27th, at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Guadalajara, Mexico, Musk is expected to talk about the technologies needed to bring people to Mars, and what it will take to build a long-term settlement there.
According to the event description on the IAC’s website, the announcement will cover a broad range of issues:
“[D]uring a special keynote entitled “Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species,” Musk will discuss the long-term technical hat need to be solved to support the creation of a permanent, self-sustaining human presence on Mars. The technical presentation will focus on potential architectures for colonizing the Red Planet that industry, government and the scientific community can collaborate on in the years ahead.”
“I’m certain that success is one of the possible outcomes for establishing a self-sustaining Mars colony, a growing Mars colony,” the SpaceX boss said in a recent interview with Y Combinator. Musk added that until very recently, he would not have been able to make the same claim.
Musk stated that “a meaningful number of people” to Mars “can be accomplished in about ten years, maybe sooner, maybe nine years.”
Mars Plans Coming To Fruition For SpaceX
The SpaceX exec revealed hints as to his ambitions during his statement earlier this year at Code Conference: “I think, if things go according to plan, we should be able to launch people probably in 2024, with arrival in 2025.”
He continued by explaining that “the basic game plan is we’re going to send a mission to Mars with every Mars opportunity from 2018 onwards. They occur approximately every 26 months, We’re establishing cargo flights to Mars that people can count on for cargo.”
These comments have certainly taken away any remaining doubt that Mars is the goal for SpaceX.
Musk will reveal his plans on a live video feed of SpaceX’s big announcements on Tuesday, September 27 at 2:30 p.m. EDT.
