Rocket to Mars – level 2

03-10-2016 07:00

Elon Musk talked about his plan to colonise Mars at Mexico’s International Astronautical Congress. He explained that SpaceX is working on a rocket to transport people to Mars.

The biggest problem is getting the cost for one ticket low enough. The first flights would be expensive, but the plan is to sell them from 200,000 dollars to 100,000 dollars.

SpaceX plans to fly to Mars about every 26 months when Earth and Mars are closest. Musk said that he would like to land people on the planet as early as 2024.

Musk said that it would be a challenge to fund the project. The rocket development costs alone are at 10 billion dollars over the next few years.

Mars is typically around 225 million kilometres from Earth, and the journey would take 6 to 9 months. There would be no guarantee of survival.

Difficult words: fund (finance, pay for, sponsor), development (developing something – making it work), no guarantee of survival (you do not know if you are going to live or die).

You can watch the original video in the Level 3 section.



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