Elon Musk Is ‘Confident’ A SpaceX Ticket To Move To Mars May Eventually Cost Less Than $500,000

In what is surely wonderful news for those who would like to one day be early pioneers on Mars, Elon Musk has suggested that he is fairly “confident” that making that leap and moving to Mars may “one day” cost travelers less than $500,000 for a SpaceX ticket, with the even more exciting revelation that costs incurred may even be less than $100,000 at some point in the distant future.

As CNBC has reported, Musk noted that the price of obtaining a SpaceX ticket to Mars is one that is obviously “very dependent on the volume” of fellow travelers that will also be heading to the red planet.

However, Elon believes that over time the price of moving to Mars will eventually be “low enough that most people in advanced economies could sell their home on Earth and move to Mars if they want.” And with the average house price in the United States currently listed at $223,900, according to data obtained from Zillow, a SpaceX ticket to Mars may truly be reachable for many Earthlings in the future.

Elon Musk’s recent comment on Twitter about the cost of traveling to Mars was part of a longer thread originally started to discuss the Raptor engine, which will be responsible for actually taking people to Mars in the end. Excitingly, it has also been announced that this engine has now reached the “power level needed for Starship and Super Heavy.”

Raptor just achieved power level needed for Starship & Super Heavy pic.twitter.com/NcqnAVWc35

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 7, 2019

The Starship will be the rocket that, when combined with seven Raptor engines, will be ferrying passengers to Mars one fine day soon, with the Super Heavy booster which launches the Starship containing an additional 31 Raptor engines.

It is hoped that in 2022, the Starship will make its first trip to Mars carrying only cargo on its maiden journey, while the year 2024 will see a crew added along with the cargo for the rocket’s next mission. As the SpaceX website has noted, the prime objectives for the first mission to Mars are to establish the most important things that will be necessary for humans to travel to the red planet, which include, of course, making sure that there are adequate water resources.

“The objectives for the first mission will be to confirm water resources, identify hazards, and put in place initial power, mining, and life support infrastructure.”

Once the first mission has been successfully completed, the second SpaceX mission to Mars will have the “primary objectives of building a propellant depot and preparing for future crew flights. The ships from these initial missions will also serve as the beginnings of the first Mars base, from which we can build a thriving city and eventually a self-sustaining civilization on Mars.”

Elon Musk has previously suggested that the cost of purchasing a ticket to Mars will be very similar to buying a home, having noted that in the future, it is very likely that many should be able to save the necessary funds to head to the red planet. Now, with Musk’s most recent comments about the estimated costs of traveling to Mars, the future of space travel seems even brighter.