Visionary or dreamer?
That was a question on the lips of some observers who attended the talk by Elon Musk at the International Astronautical Congress at Expo Guadalajara in which the SpaceX CEO expanded his plan to 
develop a transport system to take people to Mars and build a sustainable human colony of a million people on the airless planet.
Musk believes the colonization of Mars is the only viable way to guarantee the existence of the human species, which he predicted could be wiped out by a catastrophic event on earth within 200 years.
Although Musk had previously announced his intentions to send people to Mars, he took the opportunity at the Guadalajara congress to show a splashy video to around 3,000 attendees that illustrated the reusable rocket engines, launch vehicles and space capsules that he plans to use in his Interplanetary Transport System (ITS).
His goal is to create a fleet of “megashuttles” – each the length of two Boeing 767 airplanes – capable of transporting at least 100 people at a time to Mars. The aim is for the trip to take a maximum of 80 days, at around US$200,000 a pop.
Musk said he believes the first manned flight to Mars could be ready as soon as 2022, although the technology for anything less than an eight-month journey does not exist at the moment.
Musk did not elaborate on how his plan might be financed, but presumably it could only be achieved with substantial government backing. Generating international interest in his project was one of the main reasons for giving his presentation in Guadalajara this week, he acknowledged.
Since its creation 14 years ago, SpaceX has received millions of dollars in contracts from NASA and the U.S. government for providing launch services. However, the California-based company currently allocates just five percent of its budget for the Mars program and there is no indication it runs at a profit. SpaceX recently tested one of its new Raptor “interplanetary transport engines” which will be used for the Mars missions and NASA has expressed its admiration for Musk’s innovative drive.
Musk said the goal of colonizing Mars can be achieved in our lifetime, although he doesn’t want to be the first man on Mars as he would like to see his children grow up.
Such was the interest generated by Musk’s eagerly anticipated talk Tuesday, the start was delayed to allow more people into the lecture hall.