SpaceX says it wants to launch a Mars mission within 2 years

SpaceX/Flickr (Public Domain)

SpaceX just announced that it plans to send a Dragon spacecraft to Mars as soon as 2018.

The mission would lay the groundwork for Elon Musk's goal to land humans on Mars.

Previously, Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin told Tech Insider that we'll need at least 25 years and cooperation between three rival nations to make a crewed Mars mission happen.

Musk, the tech billionaire who founded SpaceX, had previously said he expected to do it in 11 or 12 years.

That sounds ambitious because it is.

On April 27, the SpaceX Twitter account teased the company's upcoming plans:

SpaceX confirmed the announcement by email with Tech Insider.

"These missions will help demonstrate the technologies needed to land large payloads propulsively on Mars," SpaceX confirmed. "Red Dragon missions to Mars will also help inform the overall Mars colonization architecture that SpaceX will reveal later this year."

A grand vision

Earlier this month, on Friday, April 8, Musk's vision for humanity crept significantly closer to reality. That's when SpaceX landed part of a rocket on a wobbly ship at sea, the first such feat in human history.

Not to miss the historic moment, US President Barack Obama took to Twitter to congratulate the company:

That same day Musk said that his detailed plans for Mars domination will go public this fall, according to Chris Welch of the Verge:

It's a big deal that SpaceX has proven its self-landing rocket scheme can work. The feat could soon lead to dramatic reductions in the cost of access to space.

A recyclable rocket is just part of the equation, though. SpaceX is also developing a whole suite of spacecraft destined for the Red Planet.

For example, models of its Dragon space capsule — a vessel designed specifically for shuttling cargo and eventually astronauts to the International Space Station — have enjoyed a round of successful tests in the past few years.

But if Musk has his way, a more advanced model, called Red Dragon, will carry the first humans to Mars.

The SpaceX tweet implies this first Red Dragon launch will "inform overall Mars architecture," probably scouting and doing necessary groundwork before sending a later crewed mission.

We're not sure what Musk's full plans are, and we may have to wait until September 2016 to see them.

Until then, you can peruse a storm of Instagram posts that Musk published in September 2015. They highlight a few illustrations of Red Dragon and what it would look like landing on Mars.

After traveling millions of miles, the Red Dragon would finally enter Mars' orbit.

Illustration of Dragon in Mars orbit

A photo posted by Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on Sep 14, 2015 at 2:56pm PDT

Then it would plunge into the Red Planet's atmosphere, traveling so fast that it will need to withstand temperatures of around 3,800 degrees Fahrenheit.

Entering the atmosphere

A photo posted by Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on Sep 14, 2015 at 2:57pm PDTSep 14, 2015 at 2:57pm PDT

Once it nears the surface of the planet, Red Dragon would fire its supersonic thrusters to line itself up for the landing.

Supersonic retro thrusters firing

A photo posted by Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on Sep 14, 2015 at 2:58pm PDTSep 14, 2015 at 2:58pm PDT

The capsule would then touch down on Mars.

Touching down

A photo posted by Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on Sep 14, 2015 at 2:59pm PDTSep 14, 2015 at 2:59pm PDT

And the humans inside would step out onto Martian soil.

Red Dragon on Mars

A photo posted by Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on Sep 14, 2015 at 3:00pm PDTSep 14, 2015 at 3:00pm PDT

SpaceX has already successfully tested Dragon and Dragon 2. The Red Dragon could be on its way sooner than we think.

Musk is certainly optimistic. He thinks we'll see the first humans on Mars in 11 or 12 years.

NASA

Kelly Dickerson contributed to this post.