Flying to Mars! For several years, many people have talked about the possibility of flying to Mars.
One of the problem with such a trip, however, has been the cost: US 10 billion dollars (US$10, 000,000,000) to send one person to the red planet. Elon Mask, a billionaire businessman, recently announced his plans to change this. He is the CEO of Space X, a company that he created, and he hopes to change the world by selling tickets to Mars for only US$200,000. How can he do this? The answer is technology. With new technology, he believes, his company will be able to make the long trip to Mars affordable. He plans to send the first human to Mars by 2025, and after that his company wants to send one million people to Mars in the next 40 to 100 years. To do this, Space X needs to build about
1, 000 space ships. Will his company be successful? “I think he will be able to put humans on Mars because he wants to do it,” says Robert Zubrin, the president of the Mars Society. “Right now NASA can’t do it because they don’t want to.”
How much do you understand?
According to the article, write “T” (True) or “F” (False) next to each statement.
People have already been travelling to Mars for several years.
It costs a lot of money, now, to send people to Mars.
Elon Mask bought Space X for only US$ 200,000.
Space X wants to send people to Mars within the next 10 years.
Space X wants to send people to Mars who are between 40 and 100 years old.
NASA doesn’t seem very interested in sending people to Mars.