Billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, never one to rest on his laurels, recently laid out the opening move in his long-term quest to land people (himself included) on Mars.
The plan begins with a Dragon capsule, similar to one of the cargo ships now parked at the International Space Station, blasting off for Mars aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket as early as 2018.
The Falcon Heavy, which will have 27 first-stage engines, compared to the nine aboard SpaceX's current Falcon rocket, is scheduled for its first flight before the end of this year. Falcon Heavy will be the most powerful U.S. rocket to fly since NASA's Saturn 5 moon rockets of the 1970s.
More at:
http://www.space.com/32773-will-spacex-get-people-to-mars-before-nasa.html
