Mars Colony

The founder and CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk, hopes to establish a colony on Mars of up to 80,000 people, which he announced to the Royal Aeronautical Society in London, on Friday. The pioneering group would theoretically consist of 10 or fewer people and the trips would be made aboard a reusable rocket powered by liquid oxygen and methane. Musk suggested that the trip would most likely cost upwards of $500,000 for a ticket. This price is based on what Musk thinks is affordable for citizens "in advanced countries, in their mid-forties" that want to go. He also estimated that the entire program would cost around $36 billion dollars. The founders of the colony would establish large transparent domes pressurized with atmospheric CO2 so that Earth crops could be grown in the Martian soil.

Elon Musk hopes to ferry 80,000 civilians to The Red Planet

This prospective trip marks huge stepping stones and a large paradigm shift in multiple fields. However, the adjacent possible doesn't seem to be large enough that this trip is currently possible. The rocket to be used will be an evolution of SpaceX's Falcon 9, but according to Musk, "It's going to be much bigger [than Falcon 9], but I don't think we're quite ready to state the payload." The prospect of mass colonization hasn't been considered by Americans in many years, so it will be interesting to see how many people are eager and willing to make this voyage and join the colony. The problem of global overcrowding will definitely play a factor in how important and potentially necessary this trip will become in the coming years. This also marks a shift toward practical fuel sources other than gasoline. Using methane will reduce the costs compared to kerosene, and it is much less risky than using hydrogen. The prospect of using a reusable rocket marks another paradigm shift and will add many considerations to the development of the rocket and the entire project.

http://news.discovery.com/space/mars-colony-spacex-121126.html