Elon Musk, the entrepreneur behind successful ventures such as Tesla and SpaceX, wants a human settlement on planet Mars and is looking forward to hiring up to 1,000 employees for an engineering office in Seattle that could make this a reality.
In an interview, the 43 year old billionaire said that the efforts of his space transport services company SpaceX to build a commercial satellite business will provide it with the infrastructure and know-how that could make it possible to send spacecraft and even build a human colony on the Red Planet.
Musk also said that he wants to hire as many as 1,000 employees for the engineering office that will be in charge of building this. Musk and former Google executive Greg Wyler, who is also founder of WorldVu Satellites, first made the announcement of the preliminary plans to build 700 satellites in November last year with Musk saying that they are attempting to do with satellites what they have done for rockets.
Each of the satellites costs less than $1 million to produce and individually weighs less than 250 pounds. Musk said that he will be in Seattle on Friday to reveal more details about the operation.
The entrepreneur’s company has already opened a local office and anticipates hiring 60 staffs in the short run, which could increase to as many as 1,000 employees after three or four years. At the moment, SpaceX’s website has six job openings for the Seattle office under “Avionics — Hardware Design.” The Seattle office will be focusing on satellites but Musk said that SpaceX may possibly also get some top rocket engineers.
Musk has been open about his Mars ambitions. In 2012, he promoted the idea of a colony on the Red Planet. He told the Royal Aeronautical Society in London that his vision is a human settlement in Mars that is inhabited by up to 80,000 people.
In his Reddit’s Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Jan. 5, Musk also said the SpaceX Mars Colonial Transporter project will use a fully reusable rocket system that is capable to take humans to Mars. He also said that further details about this spacecraft that would carry the first batch of humans to Mars in the mid-2020s would be revealed by the end of this year.
"Am hoping to present that towards the end of this year," Musk said.
