Elon Musk just suggested that the price for a trip to Mars and back could be as low as $100,000. He added the qualifier that the price depends on volume. So it looks like the price is anything but astronomical.
In a tweet on Sunday night, Musk had this to say:
Not everybody’s buying it, of course. It seems pretty optimistic. One Twitter user was particularly succinct in his skepticism:
In case you missed it, the Fyre Festival was a failed music festival, a luxury music festival in fact, that was going to be held on an island in the Bahamas. It was promoted by people with big names in entertainment and social influence.
The problem with the Fyre Festival was that many of the famous celebrities and social media influencers had actually been paid to promote the festival, but hadn’t disclosed that info. In the end, the Festival was an abject failure. People paid big money but didn’t receive what they promised. Right now the Fyre Festival is the subject of several lawsuits, and the founder was convicted of fraud, sentenced to prison for six years, and fined $26 million. Netflix even made a documentary about it.
But enough about that fiasco. Back to Mars.
Musk is no dummy, and he knows that his statements will be met with healthy skepticism. In a follow-up Tweet, he seems to be banking on his track record of openness to counteract the skepticism.
It’s a little unfair to compare Musk’s statements about trips to Mars to the Fyre Festival. The Fyre Festival was a scam, while Musk has delivered on many of his projects. While the Starship program seems so futuristic and science-fictiony that it’s kind of hard to believe, his track record with rocketry and space flight speaks for itself.
It’s fascinating to think that we’re on the verge of private citizens travelling to Mars for a few hundred thousand dollars.
What do you think? Is it realistic? Would you do it?
Now that’s spending the kids inheritance!
Hope he does it before I get too old!