Commercial space-flight mogul Elon Musk has quipped that he would like to die on Mars ? just not on impact. The quote highlights his desire to build reliable, affordable spacecraft that could one day carry the first people to land on the Red Planet.
Musk may have the technological prowess to make it happen. Last week his company SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, lofted its Grasshopper rocket a record 80 metres into the air, where it hovered for a few seconds before gently landing on hydraulic legs.
It's not high compared with the distance to space but the ability to take off, land and then take off again, like the vehicles of science fiction, brings a reusable rocket a step closer. That could be one part of making interplanetary travel affordable, not to mention less polluting. Today, all rockets are single-use and discarded once their payload reaches orbit.
Martian dreaming
Musk isn't the only one dreaming of interplanetary travel. Two weeks ago, multimillionaire Dennis Tito announced Inspiration Mars, a plan to send a married couple on a round-trip fly-by past Mars by 2018 using SpaceX technology. However, the crew would stay in their craft for all 501 days.
To be the first to set foot on Mars may mean becoming a reality TV star. The Mars One project is in the running to send astronauts to the Red Planet in 2023, with the $6 billion mission paid for by selling global TV rights to their adventures, says Bas Lansdorp, the Dutch entrepreneur behind the plan.
It sounds wackier even than Inspiration Mars, but Lansdorp is serious. This week, he announced that Paragon Space Development of Tucson, Arizona, would design Mars One's space suits and life-support systems. Paragon is also on the Inspiration team, and the firm has completed life-support projects for NASA and some of its major suppliers.
Mars One doesn't have a contract with SpaceX, but, like Tito, its plans rely on the firm's vehicles. The team want to use a raft of SpaceX's Dragon capsules. These have so far only made it to the International Space station, uncrewed, but a version is being designed for a planetary landing. They would be expanded from the current 3.6-metre width to a more livable 5 metres. "SpaceX says this modification is probably possible," says Lansdorp.
Dragon connection
According to the proposed timeline, Mars One will send a lone cargo-filled Dragon capsule to Mars in 2016, to test its ability to land safely using rockets
in its sidewalls. Rovers launched in 2018 and 2021 will corral five more uncrewed capsules, placing all six in a row that the first four astronauts can connect into a habitat when they arrive. All being well, four more crew members will join the colony in 2025.
This trip is one way, as getting back to Earth is too difficult, and it means displaying your life on primetime TV. Crew selection begins this year. "We want people who have a fulfilling life on Earth but who want to explore a new planet," says Lansdorp.
Just one person will get to make the first bootprint on Mars ? the TV audience will decide who. "The people must decide, because in 1000 years people will still know who the Neil Armstrong of Mars was," says Lansdorp. If Musk wants the title, he had better start campaigning.
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