Elon Musk's Mars colonization plan published for all to read

Here’s the plan: SpaceX billionaire CEO Elon Musk wants to make humans a “multiplanetary species” by colonizing Mars.

Musk first revealed the plan at the 67th annual International Astronautical Congress held in Mexico in September 2016. Now the Mars colonization paper can be read by all on News Space until July 5.

The paper is essentially a transcription of Musk’s talk and vision. SpaceX also previously posted a general outline of the plan at SpaceX.com/mars.

"Publishing this paper provides not only an opportunity for the space- faring community to read the SpaceX vision in print with all the charts in context, but also serves as a valuable archival reference for future studies and planning,” New Space editor in chief Scott Hubbard said in a statement.

SpaceX's founder has never been shy about the fact that Mars is his ultimate goal and that acquiring launch contracts is a means to fund that long-term mission. Two private citizens recently bought seats on a lunar orbit mission aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft.

Musk tweeted on Friday that a second version of the plan is “coming soon" and added that the plan would address “the most fundamental flaw in V1: how to pay for development and operation of giant rockets.”

Musk said the cost is roughly the same as sending two astronauts to the International Space Station on board the Dragon 2. NASA currently pays Russia $82 million per seat.

Eventually, Musk said, a sustained colony on the red planet could include 1 million people, and trips could take as little as 30 days in the more distant future.

The paper breaks down the broad plans for the Interplanetary Transport System, the way future Martians could create propellant with ingredients that already exist there and how much each trip could cost.

The first reusable Interplanetary spaceship will be named the Heart of Gold, a tribute to the "Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy," reported the New York Observer last year. Read what Musk said during a Reddit AMA about that first mission here.

Musk said he wants to make interplanetary travel affordable to “almost anyone who wants to go.”

“We are looking at a cost per ticket of (less than) $200,000, maybe as little as $100,000 over time, depending upon how much mass a person takes,” Musk said.

Musk said he imagines propellant depots will be set up not only on Mars, but beyond to Saturn, Jupiter or even on Pluto.

“This system really gives you the freedom to go anywhere you want in the greater solar system,” Musk wrote.

Since SpaceX accomplished its goal this year of launching and relaunching rockets from Kennedy Space Center, essential to the Mars plan, the paper includes a timeline of next steps.

Musk called the timeline “fuzzy” but wrote that Mars flights could potentially begin in 2023.

“We are going to try to make as much progress as we can on a very constrained budget, on the elements of the interplanetary transport booster and spaceship,” he wrote. “Hopefully, we will be able to complete the first development spaceship in maybe about 4 years, and we will start doing suborbital flights with that.”

In the meantime SpaceX is stepping up its launch rate, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell told reporters earlier this year that the company wants to start launching every two weeks.

Listen to Musk's full talk from Mexico below and read the full paper in New Space here.