Elon Musk wants to bring a million human beings to Mars, and could do so by 2060

Elon Musk, an ambitious billionaire creator of Paypal and space space agency Space X, plans to colonize Mars.

His goal is to make man a multiplanetary species, since it is the only way we have to save us. "Man has two choices in front of himself: learning to live on other planets, or resigning to the distant but inevitable extinction of his species."

The first spaceships to Mars will start, according to Musk, already around 2024 and will initially ship 100 crew.

Musk does not deny that it will be very dangerous journeys: "The first part of colonization will require courage and determination. It will be extremely dangerous. Do you think you might die? Then this business is for you. "

The first missions will carry small crews, and will serve to establish a provisional basis on the Red Planet; Ships and tons of fuel will be shipped to form a deposit that will ensure some safety for subsequent trips.

In order to guarantee the autonomy necessary for the journey (which will last around 120 days), a second vessel will be sent to orbit together with the former, with the sole purpose of supplying fuel for departure.

Ships will be re-usable at least 12 times, and thousands will be produced; Musk intends to exploit the ideal time window for the mission to Mars, offered by the orbits of the planets every 26 months.

It is the time when Mars and Earth are closer, and the shortest journey. Thousands of missions will depart for Mars over the course of 40 years: Musk predicts that between 2024 and 2060 a million people will arrive on Mars, with a total of about 10,000 flights.

The roadmap is really ambitious, and since Space X has already postponed several missions in the past, it has generated some skepticism.

The costs of a trip to Mars? At present, exorbitant: $ 10 billion per person. But Elon Musk's goal is to bring the cost around $ 180,000 (the average cost of a home in USA) as fast as possible, making travel more accessible to more and more people.

And it will not even be a one-way ticket, says Musk. "It's important to give people the option to go back." A very different approach from the missions that planned the Mars One project (now apparently set aside), which would have been "one-way" because of the costs.

And once on Mars? The colony will have to aim to become self-sufficient; You will also need to learn to grow on the red planet, to get water (and perhaps methane) from the ice fields (of which the planet is rich), and even create an artificial atmosphere by spreading greenhouse gases (perhaps burning fuels) .

Who is on board? :P

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