How crazy is Elon Musk's mission to bring people to Mars?

Elon Musk recently announced his ambitious plan to bring people to life on Mars. And he not only wanted to bring 1-2 people up there but a whole bunch of people in the belief that people would build a new civilization on this planet . Listening to this story is like science fiction, because everyone knows that living on Mars is not an easy thing due to extreme weather, lack of air, and no cultivation of plants and pets like Earth, not to mention dusty and not want to be able to fly back to Earth.

At first glance, Musk's plan seems to be the three-word word of a dream-rich man. We see many render images of the new spacecraft, the new missile, see the renderings of people coming out of the airship door and setting foot on Mars, along with the estimated cost figures for a Space travel (Musk says the cost will be about $ 200,000). But looking closely, we have not heard of any specific deadline, or any specific steps towards the dream of flying across the planet. In other words, Musk's words are now just . words.

In addition, we do not know who will pay for all the research and bring people to this space. It is clear that the Interplanetary Transport System that Musk has just revealed will never become a reality without a huge amount of investment from the world community.

The unmanned spaceship is being researched by SpaceX with technical support from NASA.

This is what we already know: SpaceX's long-term dream of sending robots to Mars over the next few years is perfectly possible. This mission, called Red Dragon , is also the name of the unmanned spacecraft being studied by SpaceX with technical support from NASA (pictured above). The goal of this project is to check whether the propulsion technology used to land on the Martian surface is good when it must slow down, adjust the tilt and slowly descend gently.

Up to now, all missions to Mars use parachutes to respond and do not need complex deceleration systems. Therefore, the development of an alternative to preparing for a passenger flight is a must, and must be done as soon as possible. Musk himself said on stage that his spacecraft would land slowly similar to how rockets landed on the ground.

It is unclear how much SpaceX will fly the Red Dragon to Mars, not knowing how much money these test flights will cost. In July this year, Jim Reuter, deputy director of space programs at NASA, said he thought SpaceX would spend about $ 300 million on the Red Dragon project. Anyway, this number is definitely not small, assuming that SpaceX found a better way to avoid rocket explosions like the last accident. Not to mention, the company will have to work harder to catch up with the launch plan in 2018.

NASA will also contribute to the project, primarily in technical advice and Reuters estimates that the advisory period is equivalent to $ 32 million in four years. In return, NASA will have access to valuable data recorded when the Dragon took off, dropped altitude and landed. These are important data to help NASA develop its own plan to send people to Mars, somewhere around 2030 according to the agency's vision.

NASA will also contribute to the project, mainly in technical advice.

According to an unnamed official in the space industry, he believes SpaceX can do it because "It is technically possible - anyone with enough money can shoot something on Mars". Bobby Braun, a space technology professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said: "I think SpaceX can completely launch a Dragon ship on Mars between 2018 and 2020".

But going from a small spacecraft containing robots to an "Interplanetary Transport System (ITS)" capable of carrying hundreds of people at the same time is not easy, and one Again, not cheap. This ITS system will have to meet the demand for those hundreds of people in a long flight of up to 80 days in good technology conditions, and 150 days if people go there yet to invent a technology fast enough. Elon Musk shared on the ship that there will be restaurants, weightless games and many other things for users to entertain, but do not know how they will have to fight against gravity or how to train keep healthy.

Musk himself admitted: "Obviously this will be a big challenge when it comes to investing in something like this. We are currently trying to grow as quickly as possible with the resources available at hand. will continue going forward ". He has spent a lot of his money on SpaceX, and is still continuing to generate revenue for the company through satellite launches or supplies to the ISS international space station.

However, even if Musk threw all his assets into the project, his money was likely to only produce a prototype rocket + a 122mm high ship with a diameter of 12m only. It will be difficult to afford enough to create a complete product. Musk needs help - be it from government agencies, or from large venture capital funds. NASA is an obvious partner, but so far NASA has not yet expressed its intention to support Musk's crazy plan. They only confirmed their advice to the Red Dragon. And maybe, a lot of people in NASA themselves are laughing at this plan.

NASA spokesman said: "NASA welcomes all who want to take the next big step - a trip to Mars. We are happy to know that the global community is working to solve the challenges related to bringing people to life in Mars ". Talking about the new missile system, NASA only said that "this SpaceX-led initiative is in the design phase and the idea. When it grows, NASA can find things that we might be interested in." ". In other words, NASA will still open all possibilities for future cooperation. That's right, because the plan to bring NASA astronauts to the ISS international space station with SpaceX missiles is now about a year behind the original.

It will be interesting when we can watch SpaceX's steps every day in launching missiles on Mars.

But even if SpaceX doesn't attract NASA, maybe other space agencies will jump into the game with the billionaire's vision. The list of countries with "footprints" in space is still getting longer, so even small countries like Luxembourg can find something they are interested in to support the risk project. High but brings many benefits. And don't forget that there are still many other billionaires who like the idea of ​​space travel, so they will pour money into SpaceX with Elon Musk to realize this travel program.

Musk said positively that we could send the first person to Mars in the next 10 years. In fact, SpaceX never brought anyone into orbit or anything on Mars. SpaceX's rockets occasionally explode for unknown reasons .

Honestly, it will be interesting when we can watch SpaceX's steps every day in launching missiles on Mars. But right now, there are still too many questions that need to be answered, and the answer will definitely not be available overnight. Even if SpaceX is not worried about money, achieving these achievements will be a long way.

Musk said positively that we could send the first person to Mars in the next 10 years.

Musk must not be an idiot: he knew that it was not easy to achieve what he proposed. The problem of the presentation was that he did not talk about what SpaceX could do and do alone, instead, he wanted to show the world that SpaceX was completely deserved.

And who knows. By 2050, maybe we will run happily on Mars, go back to the market or even weekend to fly to Mars and then Sunday to fly to Earth? With humans, they can make things that make their own people surprised. Remember that a few dozen years ago airplanes were still a difficult thing to reach, now the chance to fly to the sky has come to many people. Wait and see .