If you heard that some electric car company would someday beat NASA to Mars a few years ago, surely you’d shrug that off with a chuckle. Nowadays, that possibility seems all too real. Billionaire Elon Musk already has a plan laid out for SpaceX’s trip to the red planet. It’s pretty certain they’ll beat the cash-strapped space agency. Whether they’ll be China, however, is something else entirely.
THE FUTURE LOOKS BRIGHT FOR SPACEX
SpaceX has a dream. That dream begins with their Dragon capsule and ends on Mars. The company plans to launch the Red Dragon, an offshoot of it’s current Dragon capsule, as early as 2018 using the Falcon Heavy as it’s guided. The Falcon Heavy will have 27 first stage engines compared to the current Falcon model. Falcon Heavy will be the most powerful U.S rocket to take off since NASA’s Saturn 5 moon rockets in the 1970’s. Despite this obvious show of dominance, it seems the space agency could be happier.
NASA SUPPORTIVE OF MUSK’S DREAM
The end game for Musk is to eventually land heavy machinery on Mars and after that, humans. Even NASA’s own Mars program isn’t that ambitious. Still, NASA has immediately offered a statement of support to Musk as well as offering technical assistance. As far as finances go, however, it looks like SpaceX is on its own. The U.S Senate has been urging NASA to get their Mars program off the ground yet strictly limiting their funds to do so. With this in mind, it doesn’t seem they will even get an unmanned craft up there anytime soon, nevermind any plans to send people. Although they may be out of the race, a new contender emerges from the far east.
CHINA CONFIRMS MISSION 2020
China has confirmed an ambitious plan of their own to send a rover to Mars by the year 2020. It’s just two years after SpaceX’s predicted date but delays always occur and it’s some that Musk’s company Tesla is famous for. China looks to one-up the competition by not only orbiting around the red planet but also landing on the surface and deploying a rover.China attempted a 2011 probe launch in collaboration with Russia, but the mission failed to leave Earth’s orbit. A few years later, armed with more technology and aspiration, China seeks to beat SpaceX and become the new leader in space exploration.
