Tech billionaire Elon Musk has said ‘almost anyone’ can afford a $100,000 ticket to Mars.
Musk hopes to have sent 1 million people to Mars by 2050 with the help of his aerospace company SpaceX, and has now commented on the ‘doable’ price of a one way ticket.
Speaking to Chris Anderson, the head of TED conferences, on 14 April, Musk said ‘everyone can save up $100,000’.
The Tesla CEO and richest man in the world commented: “If moving to Mars costs, for argument’s sake, $100,000, then I think almost anyone can work and save up and eventually have $100,000 and be able to go to Mars if they want.”
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Musk added: “We want to make it available to anyone who wants to go.”
In 2019, Musk first insisted that a $100,000 shuttle ticket was totally feasible, writing on Twitter: “I’m confident moving to Mars (return ticket is free) will one day cost less than $500k & maybe even below $100k.
“Low enough that most people in advanced economies could sell their home on Earth & move to Mars if they want.”
Across the next decade, Musk hopes to have built 1,000 SpaceX Starships so more than a million people can be rocketed to Mars by 2050.
Last month, Musk was asked on Twitter when he thinks the first humans will land on the Red Planet and he responded with simply: “2029.”
Very dependent on volume, but I’m confident moving to Mars (return ticket is free) will one day cost less than $500k & maybe even below $100k. Low enough that most people in advanced economies could sell their home on Earth & move to Mars if they want.
In December 2021, Musk was named TIME magazine’s person of the year, and the outlet billed him as ‘a madcap hybrid of Thomas Edison, PT Barnum, Andrew Carnegie and Watchmen’s Doctor Manhattan, the brooding, blue-skinned man-god who invents electric cars and moves to Mars’.
Speaking in his cover interview, Musk described his Mars mission as ‘a futuristic Noah’s ark’.
He explained: “The next really big thing is to build a self-sustaining city on Mars and bring the animals and creatures of Earth there.
“Sort of like a futuristic Noah’s ark. We’ll bring more than two, though, it’s a little weird if there’s only two.”
Interplanetary travel plans aside, Musk also spoke about his $41.39 billion offer to buy Twitter at the TED2022 conference in Vancouver last week.
“I am not sure that I will actually be able to acquire it,” Musk admitted to the event’s audience.
His comments came in the wake of reports that Twitter’s board was considering using a ‘poison pill’ method to prevent him from purchasing the social media giant.
The very first space walk was achieved on March 18 1965 when Soviet astronaut Aleksey Leonov floated in space for 12 minutes.
Since then, space walks have become a common part of astronauts’ trips up into space.
Crew will go on space walks to conduct research or to carry out maintenance on the International Space Station (ISS).
On February 7 1984 US astronaut Bruce McCandless II became the first person to take a hair-raising space walk without a tether connecting him to the capsule.
A picture shows McCandless II floating out by himself surrounded only by the curvature of the Earth and the inky void of space.
While the crew of the SpaceX ship will be staying firmly tethered to the craft, they will be the first civilians to carry out a space walk.
Previously all space walks have been carried out by people working as part of a government-sponsored programme.
The SpaceX mission, called ‘Polaris Dawn’ blasted off today (September 10) with four private citizens on board.
It is setting off on a five-day-long mission which will take the capsule out into high orbit.
In fact, the aim is to take the capsule into the highest orbital altitude reached by humans since the last Apollo mission to the Moon more than 50 years ago in 1972 – a staggering 870 miles above the surface of the Earth.
The launch had been due to set off in late August, but was pushed back following a helium leak at the launchpad.
It then saw a further setback due to averse weather conditions off the coast of Florida, which is where the capsule would land when it returned to Earth.
Now, however, the mission is finally underway with the four-person crew on board.
This includes billionaire Jared Isaacman, retired Air Force Lt Col Scott ‘Kidd’ Poteet, and SpaceX engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis.
Isaacman, who has an estimated net worth of $2 billion, is also funding the mission in partnership with SpaceX.
The billionaire has also previously flown in the first all-civilian mission to orbit in 2021.
He and Gillis will exit the spacecraft on a tether on the third day of the mission.
However, the craft itself does not have a pressurised airlock, meaning that the entire craft will need to be depressurised for the duration of the walk.
The astronauts will be wearing and testing newly designed space suits for the mission.
