Elon Musk, founder of the private space transport company SpaceX, earlier this month outlined plans for the colonization of Mars, something he says can get under way in the next 10 to 20 years with the first manned mission to the Red Planet. If the first settlement is designed to build and sustain additional settlements, colonization could proceed from there quite rapidly, he explained at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London, as reported by Space.com.
Following a first manned mission, Musk next envisions sending a small team of 10 people to Mars, along with construction supplies to build transparent domes.
Still, the process of building citylike colonies to sustain long-term habitation is expensive and challenging. Unveiling some of his planning specifics, Musk stressed the importance of a reusable rocket to keep costs down.
With initial systems in place, the first people to arrive would then begin to pressurize the domes with Mars' atmospheric carbon dioxide, infusing the soil with nutrients, which would then allow the early Martian migrants to grow Earth crops. Life would likely be hard early on, with high set-up costs to build the life-sustaining machines, he said. But over time the colony would become more established and self-sufficient, and more and more people would arrive -- up to 80,000, perhaps.
Initial equipment would include machines to harvest methane, oxygen, and carbon dioxide from Mars' atmospheric nitrogen, and devices for extracting water from the subsurface ice, Musk explained in London. Once food, water, and shelter are established and life is under way, you too can move to Mars.
But getting there will cost you. Tickets would run up to $500,000, Musk supposes.
All this planning for life in space isn't new. Back in the 1970s, when only a handful of people had ever ventured into space over less than two decades, NASA was envisioning where technology might take us.
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