Elon Musk's SpaceX Mars Colonization Plan to Have a New Partner Moon Express

By Precious Gem de Peralta
SpaceX logo
Space exploration company Moon Express is willing to work with SpaceX in its goal of colonizing Mars. Its founder Naveen Jain admitted that he has talked to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk about teaming up. Though he did not share further details about their conversation. Steven Straiton via Flickr

Elon Musk has been a force to reckon with in the tech industry. The billionaire and CEO was recently named the most admired tech leader in a poll, beating Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg. A lot of this has something to do with his goals in advancing space and transportation. Now, a space exploration company's founder has expressed his desire to work with Musk and SpaceX in colonizing Mars.

Moon Express founder Naveen Jain told CNBC that his company is willing to team up with Musk. In fact, he revealed that they have already talked about working on a project together. Though he did not elaborate details of that conversation. Jain's company base is actually in Cape Canaveral, the same place where both Musk's SpaceX and its rival Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin are located. It seems that he would pick SpaceX over Blue Origin. "It's very complimentary as a matter of fact... Elon will build the rocket and we do the rover. Essentially, he lays the cables and we do the last mile," Jain shared.

However, don't expect Moon Express to be doing just that anytime soon. Jain admitted that his company is currently focused on getting to the moon. The US government has granted permission for Moon Express to explore the moon for resources. However, they are required to disclose information about their mission.

The start-up wants to take a robotic rover to Earth's neighbor by 2017. Though this is the case, Jain pointed out that the mission on the moon will be significant in dealing with the restraints of possibly living in Mars. He added that the problems in the moon are similar to that in Mars. Among these issues that have to be addressed are the high radiation and vast temperature difference.

Jain referred to the moon as the "first training ground and the first stepping stone". He mirrored Musk's view of Mars as the "right place to be ultimately". SpaceX is planning to send an unmanned spacecraft to Mars by 2018. Musk want to establish a colony in the famous Red Planet by 2024.

On the other hand, Jain is equally ambitious as he believes that going to the moon will only cost $10,000 in the next ten years. Aside from the price, people will be able to get there in four hours, according to Tech Times. He described it as "faster than going from New York to London". He also boasted that as traveling get cheaper, couples would want to go there for their honeymoon.

Moon Express is the first private company to be allowed to travel to the moon.

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