Elon Musk’s 'Mars Plan' Revealed: Full 90 Minutes Address By Tesla, SpaceX CEO

The occasion was the 67^th International Astronautical Congress, and Elon Musk, the CEO and founder of SpaceX, Tesla Motors and more, made full use of the 90 minutes of his podium time. Elon Musk spoke on everything from his Mars plans to solar city and more. Musk also announced long-term plans that will involve refueling stations around the entire solar system for the benefit of his upcoming Spaceships. But, let us now focus on the numbers that are indeed mind- boggling.

Elon Musk Reveals Mars Plan

Ballpark estimate by Elon Musk puts the cost of sending humans to Mars by 2033 by NASA at $10 billion for every person. In contrast, the Congress is worried that the cost of NASA's mission, the way things are progressing now could edge up to as much as $500 billion.

The ultimate goal of Elon is to colonize Mars and at $10 billion per head, this could simply remain a dream. So, the prices have to drop deep into the fathoms and peg around the $200,000 mark to make the project viable for the ordinary humans.

Elon Musk is still confident

According to Musk, his initial plan is to create a spaceship that can transport 100 humans in the initial phase and gradually ramp up the numbers to 1,000,000 colonists. The first of such spaceships, targeted to take off in 2020 could be making a solo trip.

Later, Elon Musk has plans to colonize Mars in the Caravan style. When and if this happens, 1,000 spaceships will be orbiting the earth and dispatch 100,000 colonists to Mars. These spaceships will then make their way back to earth to take a refill. 

According to these plans, the total colonization of Mars could consume about 100 years, assuming SpaceX can ramp up to 1,000 space ships. as reported in Huffington Post.

Biggest Revelation By Elon Musk

Last week, Elon made a mention of $10 billion and he was speaking of what it could cost to send one human to Mars with the technology currently available to NASA. Musk says that is exactly the amount of money that he would need to take his Mars Mission off the ground and prepare to send 100 colonists to Mars.

To achieve this, he will also have to build massive infrastructure including the gigantic spaceships, and the refueling stations as he calls it. All these could consume that neat little pile of money and perhaps more.

Only time will tell, how much of what Elon Musk has said will turn into reality with SpaceX's project Mars.