If you have a spare $10 billion and at least another 40 to 100 years left in life, you might just be able to move to the Red Planet. On Tuesday afternoon, Tesla god and designer of very phallic-looking rockets, Elon Musk, revealed his SpaceX plans to make humans a multi-planetary species.
Here’s his plan:
Step 1: Get funding. That’s right, there’s not quite funding for this yet. But Musk has an “if you build it, they will come” strategy for his space fleet.
Step 2: Build the rockets. Musk projected that he would test the spaceship boosters by 2019 and complete the first development of the spaceship in just four years.
Step 3: Send people to Mars (affordably). Musk said flights to Mars could start as early as 2023, or within 10 years. During that time, his goal is to decrease the cost of flying to Mars by 5 million percent, to around $200,000 per person.
Now, we just have to find people who, as Musk himself said in the Q&A section, “are okay with dying.”
Other things to know:
- Ships will have a restaurant, cabins, and games. “It will be really fun to go. You’ll have a great time,” Musk said.
- Ships will be reused for up to 1,000 trips
- Up to 1,000 spaceships will be in the fleet
- Up to 200 people will be able to fly on each trip
- A trip would take around 80 days