Mars ship set by ’19, Musk says

TO MARS . . . and beyond?

SpaceX founder Elon Musk said Sunday that the rockets he’ll eventually send to Mars will be ready by 2019.1

“We are building the first ship, or interplanetary ship, right now,” Musk said during a surprise Q&A session at South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas.

“And we’ll probably be able to do short flights, short up-and-down flights, during the first half of next year.”

Last year, Musk said he hopes to land his Big Falcon Rocket on Mars in 2022, so the time frame has moved up considerably, even though he even admitted to being optimistic.

While the tech icon has frequently been forced to deny plans to name himself ruler of the red planet, he already has ideas for “entrepreneurial opportunities” including “iron foundries and pizza joints.”

He also warned that a colony on Mars wouldn’t be an “escape hatch for rich people,” but rather a new frontier.

“For the early people that go to Mars, it will be far more dangerous,” he said. “It kind of reads like (Ernest) Shackleton’s ad for Antarctic explorers: Difficult, dangerous, good chance you’ll die. Excitement for those who survive.”