Oolite Bulletins

SpaceX Inc of Hawthorne, California, USA, is aiming to build a colony on Mars!

CEO, Elon Musk formerly of PayPal Inc, and also the founder of the company, has the vision of building the colony and retiring there himself. They are currently competing with two other companies (Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corp) to get the contract to transport astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). They currently transport cargo to the ISS. Even if they do not win the astronaut contract, they still intend to build the colony [JazHaz: I expect it won't just be SpaceX building the colony, but other companies and nations too.].

The Dragon capsule version 2 has been designed for vertical landings under rocket power on land instead of the sea, and this technology could also enable landings on Mars.

Here's some relevant articles on Space.com and SpaceFlight Now.com:

SpaceX's Quest For Rocketry's Holy Grail - SPACE.com Exclusive Video (Space.com - undated but guessing early 2012)

Huge Mars Colony Eyed by SpaceX Founder Elon Musk (Space.com - November 23, 2012)

Elon Musk Says SpaceX Making 'Progress' Toward Mars Colony (Space.com - May 19, 2014)

SpaceX reveals new-look passenger spacecraft (SpaceFlight Now - May 29, 2014)

SpaceX Aims for Mars with Reusable Rockets, Spaceships (Space.com - June 06, 2014)

i voted maybe..... depends on how good the internet is... lol

Retire? No. Use as a kicking-off point for the Jovian moons, and further yet? Count me in.

Disembodied wrote:

Use as a kicking-off point for the Jovian moons, and further yet? Count me in.

I reckon you'd want to move on outward anyway, as the Chinese (and perhaps the Indians) will probably be all over Mars by then. All far too late for me, of course - I doubt I'll live long enough to even see the first manned landing on Mars. Forty years ago, I'd have sworn we'd have bases on the Moon and Mars by now - hey-ho! Go SpaceX!

Cody wrote:

...as the Chinese (and perhaps the Indians) will probably be all over Mars by then.

Well, at least the food should be good

make mine a chicken tika MARSala..... lol