Mars: New human colony?

Nuclear weapons and artificial intelligence are two risks that can motivate people to cross the distance to Mars.

Mars will become a destination for people to build a new civilization if the ambition of American billionaire Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX Aerospace Company (USA), becomes a reality.

Ne war

Statement at Texas' South by Southwest (SXSW) exhibition in early March, owner SpaceX emphasized: "It is important to build a self-sustaining facility on Mars. In case broke out in the third world war, this facility is far enough away from the earth and is more likely to exist on the moon ".

The statement comes just days after US President Donald Trump announced plans to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to ease nuclear tensions. In addition to the nuclear threat, Musk is also concerned about the threat of artificial intelligence (AI). According to him, if not managed effectively and closely, AI is even more dangerous than nuclear weapons and can also push people into the Third World War. This further urged him to pursue the dream of bringing people to Mars.

Model of BFR system of SpaceX Company.(Photo: SPACEX).

To realize this ambition, SpaceX is developing a system longer than 100m called BFR consisting of 2 reusable parts - a rocket about 58m long and 47m spacecraft enough to accommodate 100 people or a weight of 63,500 kg goes into low earth orbit. According to Musk's explanation, this system can be supplied when entering orbit and then moving to the moon, Mars or elsewhere in the solar system.

Under the plan, BFR will have its first flight in the first half of 2019 and the first trip to Mars takes place in 2022, although Musk stressed that this timetable is somewhat optimistic. Once you reach the red planet, the system will release the device to collect water and CO2 from the air, then convert them to methane using solar energy. This fuel will be stored for re-loading for BFRs in the journey back to Earth. The next trip is scheduled to take place in 2024 and will carry astronauts.

Russia - America race

Even when things went smoothly, Elon Musk admitted that building a colony on Mars required huge financial resources. He also dismissed the assertion that what he did as "a plan to escape" gave the world a lot of money when pointing out difficulties, dangers and even the risk of losing the life of the mission. Because of such risks, Mr. Musk used his pocket money to pay for the project, not to let his friends invest because he did not want them to lose money. However, he hopes that if the BFR works successfully, others will believe that traveling to Mars is possible and join the race.

Musk's dream can get a boost from a new plan announced by the US Aerospace Agency (NASA). According to NASA, a new exploration robot is expected to be launched on Mars in 2020 on a mission worth $ 2.12 billion in the hope of finding a solution to the question of whether there is life on the planet. The robot is equipped with about 23 cameras capable of enlarging salt-sized objects. As planned, the autonomous robot will land on Mars in 2021 and spend at least 2 years on it to look for signs of bacterial life.

Billionaire Elon Musk.(Photo: CNBC).

Not wanting to stay out of the race, Russian President Vladimir Putin also announced that Moscow will carry out Mars missions as early as next year. According to The Sun newspaper, the Kremlin boss is planning to launch unmanned space ships - then later manned - into deep space as part of the moon and Mars exploration program. Russian scientists aim to land on the polar regions of Mars in hopes of finding water. Russia previously confidently claimed it could reach Mars within six weeks when the space race between the US, Russia and China was heating up every day.

Reacting to the Kremlin boss's plan, Mr. Trump immediately announced that Washington would take astronauts to Mars. The United States was the first country to take astronauts to the moon in 1969, six years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. While welcoming Mr. Kennedy's vision of moon exploration in the space race several decades ago, Mr. Trump now wants to go further with the intention of bringing people to conquer Mars.

The US leader even joked that he would set up defensive barriers to deal with threats from outer space."The universe is also a place of war, like land, air and sea," the White House owner said during a visit to the Miramar military base in California state on March 13.