ELON MUSK: Good Chance First People On Test Flights To Mars Will Die, Excitement For Those Who Survive
By Fox Business // March 13, 2018
Early 2019 set as tentative launch date for first Mars flights
ABOVE VIDEO: Billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk says his company SpaceX is close to sending passengers on test flights to Mars, but with a catch: the trip will likely be deadly.
(FOX BUSINESS) – Billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk says his company SpaceX is close to sending passengers on test flights to Mars, but with a catch: the trip will likely be deadly.
Musk told attendees of the South by Southwest tech and pop culture festival that SpaceX is aiming to launch an interplanetary shuttle to Mars by the first half of 2019. The Tesla founder said the trips would be “up and down flights” using reusable rockets, with flights likely costing less than $6 million.
However, he warned that flights to Mars would not simply be a luxury excursion for the rich and famous.
“For the early people that go to Mars, it will be far more dangerous,” Musk said. “It kind of reads like [explorer Ernest] Shackleton’s ad for Antarctic explorers: difficult, dangerous, good chance you will die. Excitement for those who survive.”
While Musk identified the first half of 2019 as a tentative launch date for the first Mars flights, he conceded that his timelines for new innovations have been “optimistic” in the past. SpaceX conducted a successful launch and retrieval of its reusable Falcon Heavy rocket last month.
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