Humans could go to Mars by 2022 - as long as they’re ‘prepared to die’

“Are you prepared to die? If that’s okay, then you’re a candidate for going,” billionnaire tech dreamer Elon Musk told a convention while outlining his plans to make travel to Mars a reality.

The first travellers will face a high risk of fatality, Musk warned, as he argued that setting up a human outpost on the red planet is essential to the human race’s survival.

Speaking at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, on Tuesday, the SpaceX founder outlined the two potential paths he sees facing the human race:

“One is that we stay on Earth forever and then there will be an inevitable extinction event.

“The alternative is to become a spacefaring civilization, and a multi-planetary species.”

Hence his interest in setting up a functioning city on Mars, which he plans to populate by launching volunteers on reusable rocket boosters powering ‘megashuttles’ that can carry 100 passengers and measure the length of two Boeing 747s.

The reusable rockets will be like larger Falcon 9s - seen here taking off in June [Spacex/Planet Pix via ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock]

There will also be refueling stations orbiting the Earth, making the prospect of further space exploration more viable.

But the whole thing will not come cheap and the tech to make it happen hasn’t quite been perfected yet. Regardless, Musk reckons he can get people over to Mars by 2022, three years before previous estimates.

The downside is that the trip will take at least 80 days (Musk plans to reduce it to 30 in the long run), and it will cost approximately $10 billion per person.

Musk says he wants the cost to drop to a similar level as buying a house - around $200,000 per person - in the future.

But quite how the whole project will be funded is yet to be properly laid out.

“What I really want to try to achieve here is to make Mars seem possible – like it’s something we can achieve in our lifetimes,” Musk added.

“The reason I am personally accruing assets is to fund this. I really have no other purpose than to make life interplanetary.”

Your new home town? (Getty)

Nasa released a statement welcoming Musk’s seemingly outlandish plans.

It said, “NASA applauds all those who want to take the next giant leap - and advance the journey to Mars.

“We are very pleased that the global community is working to meet the challenges of a sustainable human presence on Mars.

“This journey will require the best and the brightest minds from government and industry, and the fact that Mars is a major topic of discussion is very encouraging.”

Lead image: EYEPRESS/SIPA/REX/Shutterstock