Elon Musk: SpaceX CEO To Speak About Mars Colonization At 67th International Astronautical Congress [VIDEO]
Elon Musk plans to talk about interplanetary species during his keynote address at the 67th International Astronautical Congress on Tuesday, which would be held in Guadalajara, Mexico. The eccentric billionaire is set to deliver arguably his most important speech to date, titled Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species.
Musk has always been open about SpaceX's goal of landing a manned mission and ultimately building a sustainable human colony there. The private space exploration agency has taken huge steps in attaining that goal, with initiatives such as the Red Dragon mission set to be launched within the next couple of years.
As for his keynote on Tuesday, Elon Musk himself admits that the ideas he will present will probably be considered as pretty unconventional by many.
"I think it's going to sound pretty crazy," he said.
Nevertheless, Mars exploration has already left the realm of science fiction in recent years, with agencies like NASA taking the notion of manned Mars missions seriously and politicians such as Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton pledging that her administration would give full backing towards space exploration.
Even the world's largest aeronautical firms, such as Lockheed Martin, have jumped into the Mars bandwagon. Recently, the Lockheed Martin has acquired a contract to build a space station that would orbit the Red Planet.
Indeed, there are many plans and visions for the Red Planet. For Elon Musk, the reasons behind this are simple. If anything were to happen on Earth, Mars would be the closest planet that might be able to sustain human life.
Recent breakthroughs in Mars initiatives have helped push the envelope in the exploration of the Red Planet as well. Ashwin Vasavada, a project scientist at NASA's Jet propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and who works in the ongoing Curiosity mission, stated that Martian exploration is now a lot closer to reality than before.
"The enthusiasm and momentum for sending humans to Mars is higher than it's ever been. Technologically, it doesn't seem that far out of reach. We can see a path," Vasavada said.
"It just comes down to making the effort. In the 1960s, it was all about world politics-that's what drove us to get to the Moon. With Mars, we've struggled to find the driver that's going to make it worth the investment."
As for Musk, his keynote speech on Tuesday has to accomplish one very important goal. He has to be able to effectively convince the world that SpaceX has a viable plan to get people on the Red Planet. Doing so would allow him to acquire the necessary funding to push the Mars initiative further. If Musk is able to accomplish this in his keynote, an interplanetary world might indeed be well within the human race's reach.
