Just last week after SpaceX creator Elon Musk gave insights about his master plan to get people to Mars, a competing aerospace firm has claimed that it plans to beat Musk (and everyone else for that matter) in the race to reach Mars. Nevertheless, Elon Musk is undoubtedly okay with that. Dennis Muilenburg, the CEO of Boeing (Boeing aerospace company is one of SpaceX’s major competitors) informally loosed the comment during a meeting of The Atlantic’s "What’s Next?" session.
Muilenburgsaid, "I’m convinced that the first person to step foot on Mars will arrive there riding on a Boeing rocket," Boeing has is quite a reliable firm like SpaceX. The proof for this is that it was the company that assisted building the ultra-powerful Saturn V rocket, which carried Apollo-era gear and astronauts to the Moon and back. NASA has also signed a contract with Boeing to construct its equally huge Space Launch System (SLS), which should ultimately be capable of transporting up to 20 metric tonnes (approximately five large, completely grown elephants) to Mars after it debuts in 2018.
In the meantime, SpaceX also plans to debut its most powerful rocket yet – Falcon Heavy- in early 2017, regardless of a recent Launchpad detonation and continuing enquiry. Falcon Heavy is designed to be able to lift about 13 metric tons to Mars.
Musk revealed his grand plan last week during a keynote speech at the 67th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Guadalajara, Mexico, and it is expected that, SpaceX could start transporting uncrewed Dragon capsules to Mars in 2018 and 2020, then ultimately land the first people on the Martiansurfacein 2022. But apparently Musk wouldn’t not mind if Boeing uses SLS to beat SpaceX.
Musk said during his recent talk "I really don’t have any other motivation for personally accumulating assets, except to be able to make the biggest contribution I can to making life multiplanetary,"
When someone from the audience during his last speech asked the billionaire if would be the first person on Mars, Musk expressed some uncertainty. He said
"I think it’s good for there to be multiple paths to Mars … to have multiple irons in the fire. I think it’s actually much better for the world if there are multiple companies or organizations building these interplanetary spacecraft. You know, the more the better. Anything, I think, that improves the probability of the future is good. And so multiple companies doing it, I think, would be great. So I wanted to come describe the architecture actually in the hopes that this would encourage companies and organizations around the world to perhaps do something like this."
In a statement replying to news about Musk’s vision, the Boeing space agency wrote "NASA applauds all those who want to take the next giant leap - and advance the journey to Mars. We are very pleased that the global community is working to meet the challenges of a sustainable human presence on Mars. This journey will require the best and the brightest minds from government and industry, and the fact that Mars is a major topic of discussion is very encouraging. At NASA, we’ve worked hard over the past several years to develop a sustainable Mars exploration plan, and to build a coalition of international and private sector partners to support this vision. And we’ve made extraordinary progress implementing this plan, working with a number of international and private sector partners."
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