Billionaire space pioneer announces plan to colonise Mars with 80,000 people in two decades

Elon Musk will take passengers to Mars for the princely sum of $500,000

An ambitious billionaire has revealed his plans to colonise Mars - and charge 80,000 brave souls $500,000 to be flown there.

Elon Musk, the billionaire founder and CEO of the private spaceflight company SpaceX, has announced his vision for life on the Red Planet.



He says the settlement plan would start small, with a pioneering group of fewer than 10 people, who he would take there on a reusable rocket powered by liquid oxygen and methane.

Musk, already the first private space entrepreneur to launch a successful mission to the International Space Station this spring, says what would begin by first sending less than 10 people could blossom 'into something really big.'



Scroll down for video

Big plans: SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has announced plans to colonize Mars in the coming years and with his plans 80,000 paying pioneers

Our future: A futuristic design of a protective dome on Mars shows a similar idea to Musk's that would be transparent and pressurized with CO2 allowing Mars' soil to grow life-sustaining crops

PIONEERING THE RED PLANET: One-way tickets would cost $500,000 (£312,110)



First batch of pioneers would build sustainable housing of transparent domes pressurized with CO2



CO2 would allow Mars' soil to grow crops



Eventually population would reach 80,000 - a number estimated from belief that one out of every 100,000 would desire to go into deep space



Project estimated to cost $36 billion



Says government funding of 0.25 or 0.05 per cent of nations' gross domestic product would be sufficient in aid

Calls plan 'life insurance for life collectively'

'At Mars, you can start a self-sustaining civilization and grow it into something really big,' he told the Royal Aeronautical Society in London last week while awarded the s ociety’s gold medal for his contribution to the commercialization of space.

Laying out precise details and figures to his 'difficult' but 'possible' plans, the space pioneer says the first ferry of explorers would be no more than 10 people at a price tag of $500,000 (£312,110) per ticket.



'The ticket price needs to be low enough that most people in advanced countries, in their mid-forties or something like that, could put together enough money to make the trip,' he said.

Rather than lounging around on an interplanetary vacation, the passengers would be sent to work, carrying with them equipment to build sustainable housing on the dusty and currently barren soil for future generations.



Immediate ground work would focus on building transparent domes pressurized with CO2 while possibly covered in a layer of water to serve as protection from the sun.

Step one: The first step for colonizing Mars according to Musk would be getting man physically on the Red Planet, a feat he expects within the next 15 to 20 years with a SpaceX Dragon capsule seen landing in a drawing

Step two: Musk says building a vertical landing rocket described as 'rapid and reusable' is already underway in SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, pictured, that is estimated to achieve its marks in the next year or two

With the CO2, Mars' soil would be capable of growing crops for food, he said.



Additional equipment carried over could also produce fertilizer, methane and oxygen using the atmosphere’s natural elements of nitrogen, carbon dioxide and its surface of ice water.



Musk believes one person out of every 100,000 people would be interested in making the journey with 8 billion expected on Earth by time his plans become reality.

Still, the first step is getting man to the Red Planet, a mission he expects to be completed in the next 15 to 20 years.



Once that's established, phase two would require a SpaceX design of a 'rapid and reusable' vertical-landing rocket, calling this: 'the pivotal step to achieving a colony on Mars.'

Test flights: An aerial view of Grasshopper test rocket is seen with the prototype having already made two short flights that will gradually increase in altitude and speed until launched into orbit and back again

Such a design is currently underway in his Falcon 9 rocket, he said, with it currently undergoing testing for vertical take-off and landing.



Named Grasshopper, the prototype has already made two short flights but they plan to 'gradually increase the altitude and speed' over the next few months until it’s launched into orbit and back again.



'And it will take a while, I’m not sure how long it'll take but I’m hopeful that we can start to bring back the first stage in the next year or two,' he said while light-heartedly admitting: 'Those could be famous last words.'



Estimating his project to in all cost $36 billion, he’s calculated in both private profits along with government aid of approximately .25 or .05 per cent of a nation’s gross domestic product to make it a reality.



He says the project would be a ‘fun adventure to watch even if you don't participate,' much like the lunar landing was in 1969.

But essentially, with its end result, he calls it: 'life insurance for life collectively.'

WHO IS ELON MUSK?

Elon Musk, a world-famous entrepreneur and inventor, is best known for founding SpaceX, co-founding Testla Motors as well as PayPal.

Musk's early work oversaw construction of the first battery electric sports car with Tesla Motors. SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft made history in May when becoming the first commercial vehicle in history to dock at the International Space Station. NASA awarded SpaceX a $1.6 billion contract for operating 12 cargo flights to the space station and back in 2008. Since then in 2011 it began work to carry astronauts under a NASA award. Musk, originally from South Africa, earned a physics degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a business degree from Wharton. The 41-year-old has a networth of 2.4 billion according to Forbes.



Watch the video here: