After the Moon Landing in July, 1969 — it was real, guys — humanity's next great feat has been the red planet of Mars. While robots have been exploring the planet since the late 90s, humans have yet to touch ground on the planet. However, with a little help from SpaceX, we might get there very soon.
SpaceX president says humans are close to Mars
In an interview with CNBC, SpaceX president and chief operating officer, Gwynne Shotwell, explained that the company has solid targets for its Mars Landing mission. As the first planetary landing in history, this momentous occasion is hotly anticipated by space travel fans.
SpaceX’s target for landing on Mars has long been the early 2030s. However, after years of waiting, fans have been told that the landing will now happen just before the 2030s. (That means it'll happen around 2029.)
Shotwell told CNBC that the company “should put people on the surface of Mars within a decade." However, it will still take about half-a-decade until the company is certain when its astronauts will be able to land on the planet.
"I think we need to get a large delivery to the surface of Mars, and then people will start thinking harder about it," she told the outlet. “Then, I think within five or six years, people will see that that will be a real place to go."
Read More: NASA is sending human nudes into space to attract aliens
Living on Mars will not be fun
One of the biggest parts of SpaceX’s Mars Landing plans is the possibility of colonising the red planet for humans to actually live extraterrestrially. However, as you can expect, living on the planet pre-terraforming would be rather hellish.
Via Labroots, Mars is simply not made to support human life. Due to the planet’s vastly different atmospheric pressure, an unprotected human will only last two minutes on the planet’s surface before their organs ruptured. Now, we don't know about you, but that doesn't sound fun at all.
It will take hundreds of years to make Mars a decent home for humans, and even then protection will be needed outside. Mars isn't made for us, as cool as it appears, but we'll make our way there anyway.