In a world where technology is growing at an extremely fast rate, competition is always consistent - making it not so surprising for Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing CEO, to say that he is going to take the lead in bringing human beings to Mars.
With such confidence, Muilenburg said, "The first person to step foot on Mars will arrive there riding a Boeing rocket," during a conference in Chicago. According to Tech Crunch, a heavy-lift rocket project branded as Space Launch System is already in progress.
This project has an identical goal with SpaceX's Interplanetary Transport System, the details of which were publicized by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk during his keynote presentation at the 67th International Aeronautic Convention (IAC).
The Key Details
Boeing is said to provide about $60 billion for the development of the project before NASA executes a human-crewed Mars mission in 2030 - while its competitor will try to reduce their cost per candidate to be around $200,000 to make it more manageable.
Musk also said during the IAC that SpaceX could already start delivering Dragon capsules, which are unmanned, to Mars as early as 2018 and 2020, based on a report published by Science Alert. He also ambitiously said that he will land the first people on Mars in 2022.
How SpaceX Replied
Though Boeing, being the bigger company, may win the race, Musk humbly reacted that it is not about winning. "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," Musk said in the IAC.
He simply was happy that competition actually brings better results and progress. "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," Mark said.
No matter how the two companies play in this competition, it will still bring in bountiful benefits for humanity. The goal is the same, to colonize and give man another giant step that will echo through history.
