Almost any competition generates a winner and, as history shows, significantly accelerates progress. Elon Musk has attracted the attention of the world community with his loud statements. His ambitions can be taken in different ways, but some eminent entrepreneurs certainly take Musk's goals quite seriously. Take, for example, the head of the famous Boeing company, Dennis Muilenburg, who decided to defeat SpaceX in the battle for the Red Planet.
Who will be the first to be able to deliver a person to the surface of Mars safe and sound? Several major players are currently participating in this competition. On the one hand, this is the famous space agency NASA, which is not as harsh in its statements as the young and purposeful Elon Musk. NASA plans to launch a manned spacecraft to Mars by the 30s of this century. Elon Musk plans to force things and do it much earlier.
Other countries, however, also do not sit still and come up with something there. For example, in Europe there is a plan according to which the first Europeans will land on Mars no later than 2033. Even India is hatching such plans, which, however, plans to implement its plans together with the United States and no earlier than 2050. Russia, on the other hand, has no plans to fly to Mars, focusing on closer objects like the Moon. And we still do not remember the crazy plans of companies like Mars One, which no one has taken seriously for a long time.
Let's get back to the topic of our news. Muilenbürg is confident that the first person to set foot on Mars will be an astronaut, delivered to the Red Planet by a spacecraft produced by Boeing. Speaking at a conference in Chicago, the head of the famous company told Bloomberg reporters that his engineers are actively working to create a powerful Space Launch System, aimed at the same plans as SpaceX's Interplanetary Transport System.
Boeing and SpaceX are long-standing rivals, especially when it comes to commercial contracts from NASA. At the moment, Boeing plans to receive at least $ 60 billion from NASA to develop a project to deliver a man to Mars. Actually, thanks to Boeing, NASA plans to carry out the first manned mission to Mars in the 30s of this century. Elon Musk wants to make interplanetary travel as cheap as possible. From his point of view, anyone in the future will be able to go to the Red Planet for only $ 200,000. Now all that remains is to be patient and find out which of the companies will end up first at the finish line.
SERGEY GRAY