Mars has always been a goal of exploration from the day we landed on the moon. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX believes that the planet can be inhabited by humans within 7 years. Musk, who has been avidly building his privatized space company, announced that he would pursue sending people into space and eventually to colonize Mars.

The idea has been met with tons of opposition and many are calling Musk’s ideas ludicrous dreams at best, and say that many of his ideas will not be completed in time or under budget. Pricing for one explorer alone “will cost 10bn dollars per person” says Musk. Making his goal of 40 explorers costing close to the tune of half a trillion dollars.

That’s a huge price to pay for curiosity. Although, this isn’t the first time Musk has been given the chance to prove opposition wrong. In 2009, Musk began building the world’s first gigafactory. The building, located in California, is expected to complete in 2018 as a production plant for Tesla Motors.

Musk may be able to complete his Mars mission but not without a huge amount of funding and possible government assistance