Elon Musk charging $500,000 for trip to Mars

According to Elon Musk, the number of people going to Mars each year in the Mars Exile series is extremely conservative. In a speech to the Royal Aeronautical Society in London, he suggested that 80,000 (Yes that is eighty thousand) people could go to Mars each year. In his grand vision for Mars, he would be using recyclable spaceships. It is this that allows him to set the half million dollor price tag!

Presumably, he is not talking about sticking them in a plastic bag and putting them outside the front door for the Council to collect.

Current rocket technology is hideously expensive because in almost every launch, you have to throw away bits, which usually end up getting destroyed in various wonderful ways or worse: taken apart and refurbished. Even the Space Shuttle did this. The Orbiter had to be re-tiled after every landing!

So SpaceX's vision of reusable rockets is on the right lines to bring down costs. People landing on Mars is probably not as distant as some think. There are, believe it or not, more vexing questions to this interplanetary hop than the cost of the spacecraft. We wait with bated breath as Elon and his team dream up solutions to those problems.

Original eBook now available for FREE

A short story about the characters from Mars Exile is now avilable for download for free.

Click here to get your copy

Three astronauts on their way to Mars are concerned about the one thing they cannot control: The Sun!

New Pioneers ebook now widely available

The follow up to Second Chances is now available as an eBook from

Lulu.com (where you can also buy the Paperback)

Note: Lulu.com have a 20% discount offer going until 16 Nov 2012!

iTunes for the iPad

Amazon (for the Kindle)

I will let you know when the paperback hits Amazon.com. As before, the hardback will be available from Lulu.com only. All before Christmas!