Elon Musk, Space X CEO and lead designer, brought up a major announcement as he announced the Mars Colonization Plan during an address at the International Astronautical Congress meeting in Guadalajara, Mexico on Tuesday.
It came out less than a month after SpaceX was upheld due to an unknown explosion, which caused Falcon 9 to be into flames on the Launchpad. Musk now reveals his plan to establish a self-sustaining city on the Red Planet.
"I don't have an immediate doomsday prophecy. But I only know to paths for that. One path is to stay on Earth forever, and there will be some extinction event. The alternative is to become a multi-planetary species, which I hope you will agree is the right way to go," Musk said while explaining the plan.
A back-up for the announcement, SpaceX released a mini-preview of its new Interplanetary Transport System. It was previously called the Mars Colonial Transporter. Later on, however, Musk changed the name after suggesting that this transport system could only take us not only to Mars but to other destinations in the solar system.
Moreso, the plan is not so light to take as to the way it was announced. A major concern is the cost which was estimated at about $10 billion. Musk, however, is still positive believing a ticket to Mars would become a possible purchase for many people comparing it similarly to a house. These methods include using reusable rockets, refuelling the spaceship in space, and using a methane fuel instead of traditional rocket fuels. Finally, that methane fuel could be harvested on Mars itself.
With this factor to consider, Musk hinted that he would personally be allocating his assets to this project. Moreover, while explaining about the project's cost, Musk did not go further into details on what key infrastructure is to be built for the establishment of this he called "self-sustaining city". Unto that, SpaceX proponent continued to emphasize that the company will be of more focus on transport system for the meantime.
See Now: OnePlus 6: How Different Will It Be From OnePlus 5?