Elon Musk to Boeing on Race to Mars: 'The More, The Better'

Elon Musk and his commercial space flight company SpaceX is consistent in working for his dream of sending the first humans to Mars in 2025. But Musk found himself a competitor with Boeing, another commercial space flight company, who's CEO recently announced that he plans to beat Musk to Mars. The question now is, whose human-carrying rocket will make it to Mars first?

"I'm convinced the first person to step foot on Mars will arrive there riding a Boeing rocket," Boeing CEO Deni Muilenburg said in a statement during a conference in Chicago.

Not only Musk's SpaceX is targeting Mars, being the next frontier. Other organizations such as ESA, ISRO and the China Space Agency are also planning to reach Mars as soon as possible. But the forerunner in sending humans to Mars are NASA and its Journey to Mars mission that intends to send humans to Mars in 2030 and Musk's SpaceX mission to Mars in 2025.

SpaceX made news when CEO Elon Musk announced that the first batch of humans to land on Mars would leave Earth on 2024 and reach the red planet by 2025. However, Boeing contested by saying that the first humans to reach the red planet will arrive there using a Boeing spacecraft.

In order to send humans to Mars, these space flight companies need to build the most powerful rockets capable of deep space explorations. NASA is currently building its Space Launch System (SLS) with the help of Boeing while SpaceX takes pride in its Mars Interplanetary Transport System (ITS).

NASA claims that the SLS will be the most powerful rocket ever built while the Mars ITS is threatening to take the title away from NASA's rocket. Boeing intends to become a vital player in colonizing Mars and with NASA's SLS, it might be possible.

Elon Musk accepted Boeing's challenge and seems to welcome the competition. "I really don't have any other motivation for personally accumulating assets, except to be able to make the biggest contribution I can to making life multi-planetary," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in a statement. "I think it's actually much better for the world if there are multiple companies or organizations building these interplanetary spacecraft. You know, the more the better."

Sending humans to Mars is not an easy feat, and the way the majority of the public and the scientific community see it, whoever built the most powerful rocket and whoever reach the red planet first, will make a mark in history; not only will their achievement be a win for the company but also a milestone for the human race.