{"id":19484,"date":"2016-01-28T23:59:18","date_gmt":"2016-01-28T15:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacexs-elon-musk-wants-to-go-into-space-by-2021-and-start-mars-missions-by-2025\/"},"modified":"2016-01-28T23:59:18","modified_gmt":"2016-01-28T15:59:18","slug":"spacexs-elon-musk-wants-to-go-into-space-by-2021-and-start-mars-missions-by-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacexs-elon-musk-wants-to-go-into-space-by-2021-and-start-mars-missions-by-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX\u2019s Elon Musk wants to go into space by 2021 and start Mars missions by 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Image:
Elon Musk flashes a smile during the StartmeupHK Festival in Hong Kong. (Credit: InvestHK via YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SpaceX founder Elon Musk says he has his heart set on going into space himself, perhaps in the next four or five years, and organize the first flights to Mars by 2025.<\/p>\n

Musk\u2019s travel timetable came out this week during Musk\u2019s chat at the StartmeupHK Festival in Hong Kong. The 44-year-old billionaire said he\u2019d unveil his detailed plan for sending settlers to Mars in September at the International Astronautical Congress in Mexico. That means the SpaceX fans who have been buzzing about the Mars Colonial Transporter may have to just keep buzzing for another eight months or so.<\/p>\n

The StartmeupHK talk was as wide-ranging as Musk\u2019s interests, which take in electric cars (as Tesla Motors\u2019 CEO), solar power (as Solar City\u2019s chairman) and the potential uses and misuses of artificial intelligence (as a backer of the OpenAI foundation). That\u2019s all in addition to his focus on spaceflight and humanity\u2019s interplanetary future.<\/p>\n

Musk introduced yet another theme: the prospects for creating brain-computer interfaces that would let you store and retrieve images and other information directly from implants in your head.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would never forget anything,\u201d he said. \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t need to photograph.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not the first to come up with the idea, of course: Science-fiction author William Gibson spoke of such devices, which he called \u201cmicrosofts,\u201d in his 1984 novel \u201cNeuromancer.\u201d More recently, physicist Michio Kaku predicted the eventual rise of an interconnected \u201cBrain-Net\u201d in a book titled \u201cThe Future of the Mind.\u201d The fact that Musk is talking about the concept could get still more people talking about it.<\/p>\n

<\/span> Maybe going to the space station would be nice.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the shorter term, SpaceX is working hard to make its Dragon 2 space capsule suitable for sending astronauts to the International Space Station by the end of next year. Musk said he\u2019d like to take a ride as well, \u201cmaybe four or five years from now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe going to the space station would be nice,\u201d he told the session\u2019s moderator, CNN International\u2019s Kristie Lu Stout. Then Musk said he was hoping to start flights to Mars around 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh my goodness, that\u2019s just around the corner,\u201d Stout said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, nine years,\u201d Musk replied. \u201cSeems like a long time to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Stout asked whether Musk had gone through zero-G training, he replied that he\u2019s experienced weightlessness on parabolic flights.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you must be reading up and doing the physical testing to get ready for the ultimate flight of your life,\u201d Stout said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUmmm, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s that hard, honestly,\u201d Musk said. \u201cJust float around \u2026 it\u2019s not that hard to float around.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a SpaceX fan, you\u2019ll enjoy the show, beginning at around the 27:45 mark in the YouTube video:<\/p>\n