SpaceX has entered into an agreement with NASA for a Dragon mission to Mars, set to take place as early as 2018. Known as “Red Dragon”, the variant of the Dragon 2 spacecraft will be launched by the Falcon Heavy rocket, ahead of a soft landing on the surface of Mars. The spacecraft is set to carry a suite of scientific instrumentation as part of the NASA agreement.
Red Dragon: SpaceX’s Martian ambitions are well known, although this year will finally see an outline of the ambitious roadmap that it hopes will eventually result in a human colony on the Red Planet. SpaceX CEO and Lead Designer Elon Musk is expected to reveal his plans for the Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT) – and associated architecture – this summer at the International Astronautical Conference in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Red Dragon was always seen as the first step towards that eventual goal. On Wednesday, SpaceX’s announcement pointed to the completion of the main phase of an agreement with NASA, likely via a Space Act Agreement (SAA), to work together on a mission to Mars.
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