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"We'll probably put a first man in space in about three years," Elon Musk told the Wall Street Journal Saturday. "We're going all the way to Mars, I think... be
by szany 15y ago
"We'll probably put a first man in space in about three years," Elon Musk told the Wall Street Journal Saturday. "We're going all the way to Mars, I think... best case 10 years, worst case 15 to 20 years."
He didn't say it's necessarily man on Mars.
- hugh3 15y agoNow a SpaceX probe on Mars in ten years, that I can definitely believe.
- rbanffy 15y agoTen years for an orbiter? Feasible. For a lander? Very, very hard. They can do it, but they'll need some luck.
- Devilboy 15y agoCould they not simply purchase existing technology?
- hugh3 15y agoDo you think so? A Martian lander is an easier job than an Earth lander, and they've already built one of those. In fact, there was the story here the other about how a Dragon can theoretically land on Mars, so if they just manage to build a big enough booster it should be well within their capabilities. Still very expensive, of course... they'd need to talk someone into paying for it.
- JshWright 15y agoWhy would a Martian lander be easier? On earth you get to use parachutes. The Martian atmosphere is too thin to use parachutes for any significant payload. I know SpaceX is planning on a thrust-based landign system for Dragon, but the "lander" they've "already built" relies on parachutes.
- InclinedPlane 15y agoIt's pretty obvious from the context though. SpaceX's vehicles are capable of putting robots on Mars right now and will probably due so as part of some future NASA, ESA, etc. contract within the next 5 years, easily.