Plans To Announce Mission At AIC Meeting In Guadalajara, Mexico

On the second day of the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) being held next month in Guadalajara, Mexico, Elon Musk is scheduled to present a special keynote address "Making Humans a Multiplantetary Species."

Musk (pictured) has talked in the past about SpaceX rockets journeying to Mars. The speech planned for the IAC will look at some of the technical challenges that must be overcome to make such a colonization mission possible, according to a report appearing in Scientific American.

SpaceX is planning to send an unmanned spacecraft to Mars as soon as 2018. One of the possible goals for the Red Dragon mission may be to deploy hardware on Mars that could manufacture propellant for a return to Earth.

In a speech August 9, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said that the Raptor Engine, which will be test-fired "soon" is one of the keys for a Mars mission by the company. She also said the ability to manufacutre propellant for a liftoff from the Martian surface is essential. "I need my spaceship back to take more people to mars. The return trip is free." she said.

Shotwell said in the August speech that the company still has a lot of details to work out about getting "stuff" carried aboard Dragon out onto the Martian surface, "but we're working on it."

(Image from file)

FMI: www.spacex.com