SpaceX News: Elon Musk Wants To Die On Mars, Send People To Red Planet By 2024 [VIDEO]
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk might be quite an eccentric, but there is little doubt that his visions for the future are starting to change the world one step at a time. From green cars that actually clean the atmosphere to reusable space rockets, Musk is intent on making his mark in this generation's tech history.
In a recent interview, however, the SpaceX CEO announced a couple of statements that are quite surprising, even for someone like Musk himself. For one, he expressed his desire to successfully send a manned mission to Mars as early as 2024, with the crew's arrival set to for 2025. That is not all, however, as Musk elaborated that SpaceX would be sending unmanned missions to Mars as early as 2018.
"We're going to send a mission to Mars with every Mars opportunity from 2018 onwards. And they occur approximately every 26 months." That's when Earth and Mars are the closest together in orbit," he said.
If the unmanned missions are indeed successful, the first manned expeditions to the Red Planet would be tasked to begin the construction of habitats for humans. According to Musk, sending a lot of people and a lot of hardware would be the beginning of the formal colonization of the Mars.
"I think what really matters is being able to transport large numbers of people and ultimately millions of tons of cargo to Mars. And that's what's necessary in order to create a self-sustaining, but a growing city on Mars," he said.
What's even more interesting, however, is the fact that Musk is actually open to the idea of living out his days and dying on the Red Planet. Thus, it would not be surprising at all if Musk would be one of the volunteers for the upcoming manned SpaceX Mars missions.
"I think if you're going to choose a place to die, then Mars is probably not a bad choice," he said.
The SpaceX CEO further stated that specifics of his Mars colonization plans would be revealed during the upcoming International Astronautical Congress in Mexico, which is scheduled for September.
