Google, SpaceX, the Moon and Mars

So there was some news recently that provides one of the first steps to your dream of living on another planet. Read more to find out.



Google has a challenge called Lunar XPrize. The task is for a private company to send a spacecraft into space, land a robot on the moon, travel at least 500 meters, and transmit high definition video back to earth. The winning company will be awarded $20 million for research and development. Sounds like a large undertaking, right? Well there is another problem: laws. There is a treaty involving lunar activities that states that if a private company wishes to travel to the moon, they must work with their government to get permission to do so. Recently, one company has done just that. After 15 months of negotiations, Moon Express (or Moon Ex for short) has finally received the go ahead to leave the planet. This is huge news because it will be the first time a privately owned company has left the Earth's atmosphere. They plan to launch in late 2017. Moon Ex also has hopes of building the first permanent settlement on the moon.

In other news, there is a small little company known as SpaceX, you might have heard of them, who plans to go a little bit beyond the moon. After their recent breakthroughs in landing a rocket on a small tugboat, Elon Musk plans to launch a new mission in mid 2018. Titled "Red Dragon," the operation will be the first commercial landing on Mars. The first few missions will be unmanned (yes, the first few), but Musk has a goal of landing the first humans on the red planet by the year 2024.

With these two breakthroughs, your hopes of landing on the moon grow just a bit closer. How would you feel about living on a different planet? Would you want to live on a planet that isn't our own, or just vacation there? Would you rather just stay away from all planets instead? Tell us how you feel in the comments.