SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk caused a stir when he posted a cryptic tweet saying his new rocket can go "well beyond" Mars. This is in line with his private space company's plan to colonize Mars. But how exactly will SpaceX do it? Here are the things that the public knows so far.
"Turns out MCT can go well beyond Mars, so will need a new name," Musk said in a Tweet. The Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT) is part of SpaceX Mars mission designed to carry 100 crew members or 100 tons of cargo to Mars and back. But thanks to Musk's tweet, the people now know that MCT is more powerful than originally thought.
SpaceX is also planning to send people to Mars in 2025. The planned launch of the rocket will be in 2024 and will reach the red planet by 2025. If Musk's calculation about MCT is correct, MCT might as well be the rocket that will bring astronauts to Mars. But the commercial space flight service mogul will reveal more about his Mars colonization plan as he is expected to explain SpaceX master plan for the next few decades on Sept. 27.
The scientific community is all eyes on Elon Musk and SpaceX after a Falcon 9 rocket exploded in Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida that was supposed to bring Facebook's Internet satellite to the low-Earth orbit. But it looks like this incident did not affect SpaceX's Mars colonization plan even the slightest bit.
SpaceX will launch its first unmanned mission to Mars in 2018, providing there won't be any delays. Despite having powerful rockets such as the MCT, Musk earlier admitted that his ambitious colonization of Mars is not an easy task and he was quoted saying that the mission is "hard, risky, dangerous, difficult."
Another important SpaceX move, in order to achieve his plans of colonizing Mars, is the "Mars Payload" program where SpaceX rockets will transport cargo from Earth to the red planet and vice versa. With the development of Martian habitation system in mind, SpaceX will offer its services for anyone who needs to bring materials for building, science equipment or expandable habitats to the red planet. A feat no one has attempted to offer yet aside from SpaceX.
SpaceX is also working closely with NASA in order to develop technologies that will enable deep space exploration projects to the red planet. The company's affiliation with the U.S. premiere space agency gives it a front seat to when the gate of Mars opens to mankind.
Musk believes that reaching Mars is important to human survival that is why he is working hard to execute his dream of colonizing the planet. "I think there is a strong humanitarian argument for making life multi-planetary in order to safeguard the existence of humanity in the event that something catastrophic were to happen," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was quoted saying in an older interview.
However, the actual plan is still vague in nature, experts can only speculate by stitching pieces of SpaceX' Mars-focused projects in order to get a clearer picture of what Musk plans to do. But in a few days that will change when Elon Musk properly explain what he has in mind in order to colonize the planet Mars.
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