Elon Musk, founder of commercial spaceflight company SpaceX, say his firm's rockets and spacecraft could establish a human colony on Mars in the next decade.
Musk's prediction is at odds with what NASA is contemplating, with the space agency saying it could attempt to put astronauts on Mars in 2035, but only it is given the required funding and can successfully complete significant milestone mission between now and then.
Must, who is also the head of the electric vehicle company Tesla, has long promoted the concept of a colony on Mars.
"I'm hopeful that the first people can be taken to Mars in 10-12 years," Musk said earlier this week. "I think it's certainly possible for that to occur."
"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," he said.
SpaceX is gaining experience by launching cargo missions to the International Space Station using its unmanned Dragon spacecraft, under a contract with NASA, and is also launching satellites into space for a number of commercial customers using its Falcon 9 Rocket.
The Dragon spacecraft was envisioned from the start to also carry astronauts, and Musk says his company is currently modifying it to create a crew-capable Dragon V2 version that could ferry astronauts to the ISS as early as 2016.
Since the termination of NASA's space shuttle program, the space agency has had to book seats on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to get its astronauts to the space station.
If NASA does not choose the V2 as its next ISS crew carrier, it would slow SpaceX down, Musk admitted, but he said his company would continue to pursue its goals regardless.
"It's possible that we may not win the commercial crew contract. ... We'll do our best to continue on our own, with our own money," he said. "We would not be where we are today without the help of NASA."
For a mission to Mars, SpaceX would like use its planned Falcon Heavy rocket launch vehicle, a combination of its current Falcon 9 rocket with two additional boosters, and a future variant of its Dragon V2 crew capsule.
NASA's Mars mission plans revolve around the Orion crew spacecraft, just approaching the point of being readied for testing, and its proposed Space Launch System, still a few years way.
