OREANDA-NEWS Sending people to Mars in the current conditions will cost one trillion dollars. This was stated by the head of "SpaceX", Elon Musk, in Lex Friedman's podcast published on the Youtube channel.

"We can't colonize Mars because it's too expensive right now. At the moment, sending people to Mars will cost one trillion dollars. The fact is that one rocket is not enough, people need medical equipment, means of communication," Musk said.

He noted that it would take five years at best and ten years at worst to carry out a human landing on Mars. At the same time, according to Musk, the Starship rocket has already passed static fire tests.

The first flight is scheduled to take place until March 2022, but it may be postponed in order to make changes to the spacecraft in order to reduce the cost of delivering people and cargo.

Musk also said that he wants to build self-supporting colony cities on Mars using underground hydroponic farms that will run on solar energy. This technology will provide all the conditions for growing plants in artificially created environments without soil.

If successful, Musk plans to build 1,000 Starship rockets and deliver a million people to Mars, sending three spaceships a day.