NASA and SpaceX are working on a 2018 mission tentatively named Red Dragon.
Red Dragon would search for evidence of life buried in the Martian soil. The NASA science package would fly to Mars aboard a modified Dragon spacecraft equipped with the crew versions Super Draco landing thrusters. Cost is estimated at $400 million or less. No doubt the Falcon Heavy would be the launcher as it can easily send that much mass and more to Mars.
Using Dragon as a cargo transporter to Mars lines up with SpaceX's long-term plans. Musk recently told MSNBC "This would possibly be several tons of payload — actually, a single Dragon mission could land with more payload than has been delivered to Mars cumulatively in history."
Red Dragon would search for evidence of life buried in the Martian soil. The NASA science package would fly to Mars aboard a modified Dragon spacecraft equipped with the crew versions Super Draco landing thrusters. Cost is estimated at $400 million or less. No doubt the Falcon Heavy would be the launcher as it can easily send that much mass and more to Mars.
Using Dragon as a cargo transporter to Mars lines up with SpaceX's long-term plans. Musk recently told MSNBC "This would possibly be several tons of payload — actually, a single Dragon mission could land with more payload than has been delivered to Mars cumulatively in history."
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