Elon Musk Reveals Plans For Cargo Route To Self-Sustaining City On Mars

Eccentric tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has revealed plans for a ‘cargo route’ to Mars ahead of his plan to land humans on the red planet in 2025.

The SpaceX and Tesla boss intends to begin unmanned flights to Mars in 2018, with subsequent flights taking place roughly every two years.

Speaking to The Washington Post, Musk compared the mission to the journey undertaken by colonists who crossed the Atlantic Ocean to settle in America.

The unmanned missions would serve as test flights and would also carry cargo and scientific equipment to Mars.

“It’s a regular cargo route. You can count on it. It’s going to happen every 26 months. Like a train leaving the station. And if scientists around the world know that they can count on that, and it’s going to be inexpensive, relatively speaking compared to anything in the past, then they will plan accordingly and come up with a lot of great experiments,” Musk told the Post.

Unlike the Apollo moon landings, Musk emphasised that the missions were not just about sending a few people, but about establishing ‘a self-sustaining city on Mars’ and establishing humans as a ‘multi-planet species’.

Musk admitted that lives would inevitably be lost as part of the audacious mission, but that it would be worth it.

“It’s dangerous and probably people will die—and they’ll know that,” he told the Post.

NASA has promised to provide technical support for the 2018 mission, but Musk will be bankrolling the endeavour through private aerospace company SpaceX.

The American space agency plans to land humans on Mars in the 2030s.

Image credit: SpaceX