Would you consider yourself average if you can spend half a million bucks on a Mars trip? Well, then you surely don’t think like the SpaceX CEO, which plans to send people to the red planet through Nasa’s new commercial partners. Elon Musk has created a setup consisting of the Falcon 9 launcher and the Dragon vessel to take cargo and crew to the space station. Later this year, or early 2013 we can expect a first full demonstration of their capabilities on an unmanned sortie to the orbiting outpost.
With the ticket priced at about half a million dollars, the maker describes the cost of a ticket will fund “a mature system that had been operating for about a decade.” However, voyagers may have to wait for a good 10-15 years for the dream to become a reality.
[BBC]
