For years now Elon Musk and SpaceX have talked about their Mars plans. But to many it was just that - talk. Now things start to shape up. I will continue to give updates when events happen.

In September on the International Astronautic Congress in Mexico Elon Musk will give detailed infos on his Mars architecture. A launch vehicle, a Mars vehicle that will land cargo and Crew on Mars and some plans to build a permanent base on Mars. An endeavour he is willing to fund all by himself, maybe with a little help from his friends.

He has a bet running that he will land people on Mars in 2025. There is little doubt that he will lose that bet. Though presently he is working under a schedule that is supposed to meet that deadline. If everything goes well, but things never go that well. But around 2030 seems possible. That would be 10 years earlier than present proposals by NASA. Unfortunately those NASA proposals are yet unfunded by Congress and it looks like funding is not coming any time soon. So their plan for the end of the 30ies seem uncertain to say the least.

In April this year he dropped the first bombshell on his Mars plans. He is planning to send a private mission with a Mars lander in the next Mars launch window in 2018. There is a SAA - SpaceActAgreement with NASA. NASA is confirming those plans. It is unfundend, meaning no money is changing hands. SpaceX will fund the mission. NASA will contribute with data on the Mars atmosphere and providing data transmission from Mars with their DSN - Deep Space Network. NASA will gain information about the EDL - Entry Descent and Landing phase of the mission.

NASA would need those data if they ever do their own Mars mission and doing their own mission to get those data would require ~ 2.5 billion $ according to a former NASA employee who worked on potential mission profiles. So NASA will profit massively from participation in this project.

More details are coming soon on this thread.