When Elon Musk’s SpaceX venture launched a car into space last month, it was blasting David Bowie’s “Life on Mars?” from the stereo. The song wasn’t randomly chosen for its spacey theme, otherwise “Starman” or “Space Oddity” would have done just as well. The space-suited mannequin strapped into the front seat was in fact dubbed Starman, but the whole purpose and long-term goal of SpaceX is to get people to Mars, and Tesla founder Musk now seems to be suggesting that goal might be a whole lot closer.
SpaceX founder says interplanetary craft could make test flights next year
Speaking at a surprise question and answer session at the South by Southwest (SXSW) tech and cultural festival in Texas on Sunday, Musk said that his proposed BFR interplanetary rockets could make their debut test flights as early as next year.
“We are building the first Mars, or interplanetary ship, and I think we'll be able to do short trips, flights by first half of next year,” he told the audience.
Aware that he does have a penchant for setting unrealistic deadlines on occasion, he added to general laughter: "Sometimes my timelines are a little... y’know."
The wide-ranging session touched on a number of different areas, including Musk’s now well-publicised fears of rampant artificial intelligence, Tesla and the Boring Company. He also revealed that his inspirations were apparently Fred Astaire and Kanye West, but the talk kept circling back to Mars.
Musk on Mars pioneers and government
At one point he talked about the first crop of pioneers that he envisaged heading for the Red Planet, saying: “For the early people that go to Mars, it will be far more dangerous. It kind of reads like (Ernest) Shackleton’s ad for Antarctic explorers: Difficult, dangerous, good chance you’ll die. Excitement for those who survive.”
He even painted a picture of how Mars might be governed, adding: "I think most likely the form of government on Mars would be a direct democracy, where people vote directly on issues. Everyone votes on every issue and that’s how it goes."
While colonists and the structures that they would inhabit would eventually play a major part in any programme, Musk said that “in the short-term, Mars is really about getting the spaceship built.”
He also hoped that if his project did lift off (pun definitely intended), it would act as a spur to others – both private companies and government agencies.
"The biggest thing that would be helpful is just general support and encouragement and goodwill," he said.
"I think once we build it we'll have a point of proof something that other companies and countries can go and do. They certainly don't think it's possible, but if we do they'll up their game."
Musk might be the most prominent Mars pioneer in the West, but he’s not the only one working towards colonising the planet. The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre is working on an entire hi-tech city in the UAE that will recreate conditions on Mars and work on colonisation solutions.
