James Dean

Florida Today

MELBOURNE, Fla. — SpaceX on Wednesday said it could launch an unmanned mission to Mars as soon as 2018, furthering development of systems that could help colonize the Red Planet.

Concept images released by the company showed a Falcon Heavy rocket launching a Dragon capsule from what appears to be Kennedy Space Center's pad 39A.

The long-awaited Falcon Heavy, with a first stage consisting of three Falcon core stages firing 27 engines, could make its debut late this year with a launch from KSC. The Dragon already flies cargo to the International Space Station and is being upgraded to fly astronauts there as soon as next year.

The upgraded Dragon's eight engines are designed to let the capsule perform powered landings on land instead of ocean splashdowns under parachutes.

A Red Dragon mission would use those same thrusters to control the Dragon's plunge through the Martian atmosphere, which is too thin to rely on parachutes, before a landing on legs.

The test missions would aim to prove the Dragon can land large payloads on Mars as precursors to human missions in the 2020s, advancing the design of SpaceX's Mars Colonial Transporter system that CEO Elon Musk plans to outline in September at the International Astronautical Congress in Mexico.

"I thought that would be a good venue to describe what we think would be a good approach, something that would be effective for establishing a city on Mars," Musk said earlier this month at Kennedy Space Center. "I think it’s going to sound pretty crazy, so it should be at least entertaining."

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SpaceX envisions using a bigger rocket and something more than just the Dragon to give astronauts a comfortable ride on the roughly eight-month trip each way to Mars. The Dragon itself only offers the interior room of a sport utility vehicle.

"Wouldn't be fun for longer journeys," Musk said on Twitter.

SpaceX did not immediately disclose any more details about its first Mars mission or who would pay for it.

The company studied the feasibility of a Red Dragon mission with NASA as far back as 2011, estimating that the rocket and capsule would cost no more than $190 million. Potential science missions could include drilling into water ice to look for evidence of past or present life, or returning a surface sample to Earth.

NASA has near-term plans to launch a robotic lander and another rover to Mars in 2018 and 2020, respectively.

The space agency promotes its own human exploration program as being on a "Journey to Mars" that could reach the Red Planet in the 2030s, utilizing a rocket and crew capsule now under development and targeting a first launch of a crew by 2023.

In a blog post Wednesday, NASA deputy administrator Dava Newman said the agency had an agreement with SpaceX to provide technical support for the Red Dragon mission in exchange for data SpaceX collects about the Dragon's entry, descent and landing at Mars.

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