Joining the Thrillionaires 320
Projectabout an expedition to Mars. His idea was to build
ten spaceships in space in a similar way as when the
International Space Station was constructed. 950 rockets
had to be launched from Earth to get the parts and fuel up
to space. Von Braun found inspiration for this project from
the large Antarctic expeditions. Between 1946 and 1947, an
army of 4 700 men, 13 ships, and 23 airplanes participated
in the expedition Operation High Jump. No satellites were
available at the time, so the Antarctic explorers were iso-
lated from the world in a similar way as the Mars explorers
would be.
These earlier attempts to reach Mars remained at the
project stage. What the visionaries would have needed
was capital and experience from large technological enter-
prises. Elon may have experience from large technological
enterprises, but lacks the capital. But as SpaceX’s rockets
improve, they will make more money by launching cargo,
satellites, astronauts, and tourists, so in the end there will
be a mission to Mars.
The organization Mars One has the vision to establish
a permanent human colony on Mars. To help them get the
material and astronauts to Mars, they say they will use
rockets from SpaceX. Their idea is to launch the first rocket
with supplies in 2016, and then will more rockets launch
with supplies until the first humans arrive in 2023. In 2033,
the colony will have 20 settlers. The money needed to pay
for this mission will come from sponsors and a reality
television series. As of 2013, more than 100 000 people have
applied to be a part of this mission.^390