There is no known life on Mars, but if Elon Musk has his way there will be in the near future. Last week SpaceX’s Falcon 9 landed on drone ship, Of Course I Still Love You. This may not seem like much, but it brings Musk and SpaceX closer to his vision of a colonized Mars.
Putting a City on Mars
SpaceX was founded by Elon Musk in 2002, with the purpose of putting a city on Mars. Musk has made people rethink the way they pay with Paypal and made the electric car popular with Tesla Motors, but his latest mission is his most ambitious endeavor yet. He believes that his company will shuttle a million people out to Mars for colonization by 2035.
SpaceX and Reusable Rockets
The first step toward leaving Earth for redder pastures is developing reusable rockets. With successful vertical landings, SpaceX can reuse rockets for traveling between the planets, which saves them the time and money required to build a new rocket. Reusable rockets are still in the works, but with a successful vertical landing in 2015, and another one occurring last week, SpaceX is one step closer to making space travel cheaper.
The Race to the Red Planet
Musk and SpaceX now find themselves in a race to colonize Mars. The Netherlands organization, Mars One has plans to put the first humans on Mars by 2027. To accomplish this, they are focusing on the permanent settlement and pushing the thoughts of return trips to the backburner. Four astronauts will make the first voyage to the red planet in 2027, and prepare the settlement for the arrival of a second crew in 2029. The astronauts that make up the second crew will arrive with gear for the third crew, which they will then set up for the third crew’s arrival in 2031. This process will continue every two years. There’s no telling who will get there first, but the race is on.