Elon Musk has a huge plan to colonize Mars, you know, the Red Planet that sits close to our own, Earth. Humans have been thinking about setting up a colony on the planet for decades, but it now seems as if we are at that point where it is indeed a possibility.
Nothing is simple though, as getting there with humans onboard will be a huge challenge that could go wrong on several levels. Musk knows this, and in fact, everyone on Earth should know this. However, Musk felt the need to outline his plan along with the warning that some first-time travelers could lose their lives.
If we look at the amount of times we have sent humans into space, we can see that several lives were lost in the process. The Russians lost cosmonauts, the U.S. lost astronauts along with teachers. It's a dangerous journey, especially when doing it for the first time.
"The first journey will be very dangerous, and the risk of fatality will be very high," Musk said at the International Astronautical Congress. "Are you prepared to die? Then you are a candidate for going."
Musk is a smart guy, but let's face it, his SpaceX program, which will provide the Interplanetary Transport System to bring humans to Mars, hasn't been going in the right direction as of late.
A Falcon 9 rocket blew up earlier this month and destroyed a Facebook satellite. The problem is, this isn't the first time a SpaceX rocket blew up before accomplishing its goals. That's an issue Musk and his company need to fix before moving to the next step.
As for the Interplanetary Transport System, the first rocket was test fired recently, and everything was successful. If everything goes according to SpaceX's plan (PDF), the company should be able to ferry 100 humans to Mars. The trip should take at least about 80 days to complete, which is enough time for things to go wrong.
Bad things could also happen after landing on the planet. However, we can only hope these things never happen.
The rocket itself should be capable of being reused up to 1,000 times. That's all a theory for now, but Musk hopes his plan can save costs on space travel instead of making it more expensive than it already is.
The expense is one of the main reasons why NASA is finding it hard to send humans to the moon again, and why it must rely on companies such as SpaceX to move forward with its plans.
If everything goes according to plan, then Musk will get the chance to create a human colony on Mars. According to the SpaceX CEO, he wants to do this as fast as possible, which is worrisome, but also interesting at the same time.
