Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, believes humans could land on Mars by the year 2026. This would be around 10 years before NASA estimates it can accomplish the same goal.
If SpaceX is able to place a crew on the Martian surface in 10 years, several flights could leave for the red planet in the following decade. That would make a trip to Mars by NASA in the middle of the 2030s a moot point.
"We should be on a path to creating a self-sustaining civilization on Mars. It will ensure the continued existence of humanity and life as we know it if there is a calamity on Earth, and it will be the greatest adventure in history," Musk told CNBC.
Space Exploration Technologies, otherwise known as SpaceX, was founded by entrepreneur Musk in 2002. The aerospace company quickly became a leader in the developing private space industry.
SpaceX currently employs 3,000 people, and private, automated, space missions to the International Space Station (ISS) are already under way. The next step for the company will be sending human beings into orbit. When this is accomplished, it will mark the first time that feat has ever been accomplished by a private organization.
The year after founding SpaceX, Musk announced the opening of Tesla Motors. After more than a decade of developing new technologies for electric cars, Musk recently released all patents owned by the company.
The Falcon Heavy being designed by the group could soon be the most powerful rocket in the world. The vehicle will be able to deliver payloads up to 117,000 pounds into orbit. This is roughly the weight of a 737 jet aircraft, fully loaded with people, luggage and fuel. It is more than twice the maximum load of any rocket operating today, and the greatest developed since the Saturn 5 rockets of the 1960s and '70s.
"Its first stage is composed of three Falcon 9 nine-engine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate nearly 4 million pounds of thrust at liftoff," SpaceX officials wrote on the Falcon Heavy information Web page.
This lift vehicle will be essential to bring travelers from Earth to orbit for a trip to Mars.
Mars One, another private group intent on landing a colony on Mars before NASA's scheduled arrival, is planning on using the Falcon Heavy to deliver its equipment and crew into orbit.
Musk stated his belief that if our species does not establish a permanent residence on another world, we are merely marking time until an extinction-level event occurs, wiping out the human race.
