Elon Musk is nothing if not venturesome, but the success of SpaceX’s vertical rocket landing on Monday may have taken his ambitions to new levels. The success of the landing is a major step towards the development of reusable rockets, and Musk claims that these rockets will be able to reduce the price of space travel to the point where sustaining a city on Mars isn’t outside the realm of possibility. Obviously this would be many years into the future, as there’s still a lot of work to be done before reusable rockets become commonplace, but it’s an interesting thing to imagine.
SpaceX’s audacious vertical rocket landing on Monday lays a critical foundation for reusable rockets that could help humans colonize Mars, according to the company’s CEO Elon Musk. “This is a critical step towards establishing a city on Mars,” he said, during a conference call with reporters after Monday’s launch. “Without [reusable rockets], it would be unaffordable – it dramatically improves my confidence that a city on Mars is possible, it’s what all this is about.” After successfully sending its Falcon 9 rocket into orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida on the satellite launch mission, the company landed a 15-story leftover booster rocket back on Earth. Musk noted that each Falcon 9 rocket costs $60 million, while the propellant for each launch costs around $200,000. “The potential cost reduction over the long term is probably in excess of a factor of 100.” Chris Carberry, executive director of Explore Mars, a non-profit organization that aims to advance the goal of sending humans to Mars within the next two decades, applauded SpaceX’s achievement.
