SpaceX: The Future of Mars Exploration?

SpaceX, one of Elon Musk's entrepreneurial ventures, appears to be skyrocketing (pun intended) to fame for its alleged Falcon Heavy rocket, which puts most other #space inventions of the past to shame. Aside from the Apollo rockets that were launched, successfully landing the first humans on the moon from 1969-1972, Falcon Heavy will likely be the most powerful rocket in contemporary times. Due to NASA's defunding by the Obama administration in early 2010, SpaceX has rapidly emerged as the front-runner in exploring the outer reaches of our solar system. With this in mind, Musk is intent on sending the first mission to #Mars in the next few years.

The birth of the Falcon Heavy rocket emerged from the desire of Musk to create a powerful, fuel-efficient, and cheaper rocket than what the rest of the world had to offer, namely Russia. The first Falcon Heavy prototype was a successful conglomeration of three 9-engine booster rockets together to make the Falcon 9, which successfully launched and flew in 2008, a mere three years following its imagining. This only reinforced the idea that a very heavy rocket could in fact be both fuel-efficient and have the necessary acceleration to boost it out of the atmosphere and into space, where it would follow a trajectory to Mars.

That being said, SpaceX has made it clear that no matter the setbacks or difficulties they face in constructing the perfect rocket, they plan to launch in Fall 2017. If successful, this would mark the first attempt on sending a team to Mars and the very beginning of our future as an interplanetary species.