Elon Musk 'Confident' SpaceX Would Realize Human Settlement On Mars

SpaceX founder Elon Musk is confident about his company's plans to establish a human settlement on Mars and believes that people in first-world countries would be able to afford the trip to the planet. Here's what we know about SpaceX's plans for their Mars settlement project.

On Musk's Twitter, the CEO said selling your Earth home would be enough to cover the $500,000 ticket to Mars if you wish it. However, Zillow noted that the current average cost of houses in the United States is almost half of this ticket price at around $223,900. As of now, the SpaceX spaceflights are mostly test runs for their rockets for sending both cargo and people out of the Earth's orbit.

Currently, Musk and SpaceX have to solve their spaceflight launch issues as its Crew Dragon DM-1 and Falcon Heavy flights have met some schedule snags. Previously, the Crew Dragon was originally planned to be launched in February but it was pushed to March. However, the Falcon Heavy flight will also supposed happen in March, which puts SpaceX in a tight spot until they solve this one and put some confidence into their Mars missions.

According to Business Insider, their first mission to Mars would be to send cargo to the planet first by 2022. After that, they intend to send Japanese artist Yusaku Maesawa and his team of artists to Mars by 2023. Potentially, the Mars colony and other extraterrestrial real estate offers may come after those years.

To make the citizen trips possible, SpaceX has been preparing the Starship rocket. This super rocket is expected to be space vessel for the Mars colonization. As of now, this one is still under development and has yet to be tested for space flight. Meanwhile, the Falcon Heavy is also expected to bring people up to the Earth's low orbit.

For now, we'll have to see how SpaceX manages its test flights before we can see them becoming the world's first airline or "spaceline" company to send people into outer space.