Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, is very much keen on getting what he wants. And what he wants could be one of the greatest achievements in the history of mankind that is to put a man on Mars. And in order to achieve that his company, SpaceX, is willing to spend a whopping $300 million as an initial down payment.
According to National Aeronautical Space Administration, on its Red Dragon Mars lander mission, SpaceX is willing to spend $300 million. And the fact is this is just a down payment on the company’s long-term ambitions for human Mars missions.
Jim Reuter, the deputy associate administrator for programs in NASA’s space technology mission directorate gave an overview of NASA’s contract with SpaceX. He said that the both the company plans for an zero-crew Mars landing mission that is expected to launch somewhere mid-2018.
NASA will be spending around $32 million in four years to help SpaceX for the mission. But that contract does not include any exchange of funds between NASA and SpaceX.
In a very indirect way, Jim Reuter said that the SpaceX’s investment was 10 times than NASA’s share. “They did talk to us about a 10-to-1 arrangement in terms of cost: theirs 10, ours 1,” he said.
But when it comes to SpaceX, the company has yet to announce about the financial aspect of the mission.
Although this Red Dragon mission is the initial step towards Mars, as far as the first human mission is considered, Elon Musk said that it could launch as soon as 2024, landing on Mars in 2025.
It is expected that at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico later this Septemper, Elon Musk may reveal the details about Mars mission.
But as of now there are no talks beyond Red Dragon mission with SpaceX and NASA. “We’ve not had any discussions at all with them on that,” Reuter said.
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