Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, and one of the world’s leading rocket and spacecraft manufacturers, believes that in order for the human race to survive the life threatening possibilities of the future it must become a multi-planet species.

Thus, Musk looks to have humans land on Mars in seven years and colonize the planet in stages. Initially, a small habitat will be set up for humans to live in as well as enough greenhouses to support the colony, which will use algae as a fertilizer to grow different types of crops.

According to SpaceX, the main goal of the first mission is to create a solar powered factory on Mars that utilizes the water and carbon dioxide in the air combined with the soil of the planet to generate fuel for the rocket, which has been engineered to consist of methane and oxygen. Thus, the rocket will be able to travel to Mars and be refueled for the trip home.

With more trips, and further expansions of the build, according to coaxicom.com, the colony on Mars will grow to become a fully sustainable domed city by 2050 and self governing by the 2080s.

In the beginning, SpaceX attempted to land the Falcon 1 by parachute, but the parachute burnt up during the re-entry into the atmosphere. Eventually, SpaceX switched its focus to develop a powered descent landing system which involves strategic uses of the engines and steering fins in order to land the rocket.

In the Falcon Heavy mission, on Feb. 6, 2018, SpaceX successfully launched and landed the structurally strengthened Falcon 9 rocket core as well as the two strap-on boosters.

According to National Geographic, through the creation of a new rocket, which has been nicknamed the “Big Freakin’ Rocket” by Musk, humans and supplies will be able to be sent to Mars. The rocket’s boosters dwarfs those of the “Falcon 9”, and Musk has already begun designing a slightly smaller version of the “BFG” called “BFG 2.0,” which can hold a cargo load roughly eight stories tall,  and will be constructed within the next year.

Through the creation of the reusable launch system, SpaceX has taken a huge step in transforming the expensive one-trip-only rocket industry to more closely resemble the commercial aircraft industry on earth. According to SpaceX, the main expense of space missions is spent on the creation of rockets, but if new rockets did not need to be manufactured for each mission, like SpaceX envisioned, the cost of space travel would be significantly reduced.

Many ask what the reason for prioritizing a mission that is not guaranteed to be successful and costs billions of dollars. According to National Geographic and Lucianne Walkowicz, the chair of astrobiology at the Library of Congress, the main motive for the expedition is to gather information and progress current knowledge of how to transform inhospitable places like Mars into places in which humans can thrive as well as to further our ability to preserve the environment on Earth through new strategies.