In February 2017, SpaceX announced a mission to head beyond the moon. They’ll take two private, paying customers to finance the trip, and they’ll launch in late 2018.

This marks the beginning of Elon Musk’s dream of populating Mars, giving Earthbound folk a second shot at coexisting on a planet all their own.

The linked document is a very readable blueprint for this dream. Will it happen? Not clear. Could it happen? Read the paper. Seems doable, with the right dreamer at the helm.

UPDATE: There’s been a lot of argument about the feasibility of a ship to Mars, mostly focused on the radiation shielding problem (a lot of radiation, and shielding is heavy/costly to propel). Here’s a good thread on the subject, and the solutions being proposed. [H/T Alex Satrapa]