SpaceX said it might spend up to $320 million to send its unmanned Red Dragon spacecraft to Mars by 2018 at the earliest, an amount 30 percent cheaper than what NASA plans to spend for its two-decades long program to land people on the Red Planet.

It gave the estimate to the NASA Advisory Council, which found the figure relatively cheap compared to the billions of dollars it spent on some of its past missions to Mars. The SpaceX mission cost also compares favorably with the planned Mars 2020 rover mission with a projected cost of $2.1 billion.

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And what will NASA spend to land humans on Mars? NASA affirms this cost will nowhere be near $1 trillion, a mythical figure it derided as an urban legend.

An expert's panel convened by NASA in 2014 placed the total cost of a 20-year program ending in a manned mission to Mars in the range of $80 to $100 billion. NASA currently spends some $4 billion a year on its exploration programs.

Most of this amount is being spent on developing the Orion spacecraft that will house NASA astronauts on their way to Mars and the new Space Launch System rocket that carry these astronauts to Mars or to other deep-space destinations such as asteroids.

NASA also spends nearly $4 billion ever year on operating the International Space Station (ISS).

Dr. Harley Thronson, a member of the expert panel, said NASA and commercial space companies have gotten better at building and operating rockets for less money. Dr. Thronson is Associate Director for Advanced Concepts and Planning, Astrophysics Science Division at NASA.

NASA, however, has finally publicly given its support for the Mars mission of SpaceX, its staunchest competitor for the historic right to be the first organization to send humans to land on the Red Planet. SpaceX hopes to achieve this feat by 2025 at the earliest. On the other hand, NASA expects to get there by 2035.

NASA said it will provide SpaceX with advice and technical support. It will also exchange data with SpaceX but won't support Elon Musk's company financially.

TagsSpaceX, Red Dragon, Mars, v, NASA, Elon Musk