SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is optimistic about colonizing Mars by 2024. Speaking at Recode's Code Conference, he hinted that he would like to live on Mars too. Earlier this year, SpaceX announced that its plans to send an unmanned spacecraft to the red planet by 2018.

Musk elaborated on his company's near-term plans. He stated that their Falcon Heavy launch program is likely to be completed by the end of the year. SpaceX is also looking to reuse a couple of its rockets in the coming months. The company is planning to run the second iteration of Dragon Mission in 2017. The mission will have the capacity of send up to seven astronauts into space.

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Talking about the Dragon V2 mission in 2018, Musk said, "I wouldn't recommend traveling to Mars in that. It has the interior volume of an SUV. This will be a very big rocket. And it also doesn't have the capability of getting back to earth. We'll put that in fine print."

Musk is expected to present a detailed blueprint of his Mars plans in September this year. He said SpaceX will launch missions at every available opportunity from 2018 onwards. This would entail sending a mission every 26 months as this is the time when Mars and the Earth are closest to each other.

"It's not being a single planet species and moving planets, it's about being a multi-planet species and have life extend beyond the solar system and ultimately to other star systems," Musk stated.

TagsSpaceX, Elon Musk, Mars, falcon 9 rocket, Dragon V2