ELON Musk expects to see another giant leap for mankind not just in this lifetime, but in this decade.
The SpaceX CEO tweeted that he predicts humans will touch down on the Mars in 2029.
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The SpaceX Starship, a 400 foot reusable rocket equipped with one of the most powerful engines ever built will be the vessel that brings humans to the red planet.
Since 2020, iterations of the Starship have completed four test launches and landings, reaching heights of over 10 kilometers on each trip.
Plans to take a crewed mission on a trip around the Moon in the Starship are slated for 2023.
The SpaceX site has dubbed the mission dearMoon and Japanese billionaire and space tourist Yusaku Maezawa will be among the crew.
The Starship vessel, being an asset of a private company, comes with a user guide so customers can find out if working with SpaceX is right for them.
The guide explicitly states “SpaceX was founded with the goal of making life multi-planetary”.
Musk told Business Insider that he expects a ticket for a Starship ride to be as low as one million dollars, depending on the destination.
Currently, a ride on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is roughly $62million.
Musk, Mars and Nasa
Musk’s passion for interplanetary travel is long documented – it’s a big part of his public relations appearance as a trailblazer.
The billionaire came under fire for undermining renowned scientist Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot, a book about Earth as the only known planet that can harbor life and our need to cherish and protect it.
Musk recited a portion of Pale Blue Dot while on the Lex Fridman podcast, but then concluded: “This is not true. This is false, Mars.”
Some criticized Musk harshly for characterizing the work of one of Nasa’s greatest minds as inaccurate.
But it seems like Musk is genuinely concerned with prolonging the existence of humanity, and he views Mars as the key.
While speaking with Lex Fridman, Musk said “I wonder how many dead one-planet societies are out there in the cosmos. Probably a lot.”
Musk is a guiding figure in seeing that humans aren’t Earthbound forever – or even for the rest of the decade.
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