Spaceships for Mars trips will be tested next year says Musk

SPACESHIPS designed to reach Mars could begin testing as soon as next year, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has announced.

The Tesla and SpaceX founder said ‘short’ trips in the new craft could begin in the first half of 2019.

And Mr Musk, 46, pictured, admitted that anyone thinking of joining the eventual Mars mission would have to accept they could die in the process.

‘We are building the first Mars, or interplanetary ship, and I think well be able to do short trips, short up-anddown flights, by the first half of next year,’ he said at the South by Southwest technology and culture festival in Texas.

He said the first humans to dare make the trip to the Red Planet would be risking a lot.

‘It will be far more dangerous – difficult, dangerous... good chance you will die,’ he said.

Mr Musk announced last year that SpaceX was working to send a cargo mission to Mars by 2022. He hopes this venture will help jump-start human colonisation of the planet.