SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said many times that he wants to send a manned rocket to the red planet. Thanks to successful rocket tests, SpaceX has earned NASA\’s trust, and NASA is now helping the private company find a suitable landing site. After all, NASA has one of the largest data databases on the known universe.

SpaceX is developing a special rocket, called the Starship, for a trip to Mars. The company hopes to make its first mission to Mars in the mid-2020s, unmanned for the time being, with a manned mission possibly beginning around 2025. Selection of a suitable landing site is currently underway. According to available information, at least nine sites are being considered that are close to frozen water hidden beneath the surface and have the lowest risk of landing. The University of Arizona has provided new, detailed photographs of these locations, which experts are studying to prevent accidents.

Starships are two-stage rockets and must be large enough to carry 150 tons of supplies and up to 100 people to Mars at a time. In fact, the trip to Mars would take several months, so astronauts would need to carry all their equipment from the start. Once the base is established, more supplies would be sent from Earth. Therefore, it is also important that there is frozen water just below the surface of the landing site, which humans should be able to extract using robots. The water could be used not only as drinking water, but also for oxygen production and rocket fuel.
Other features of the potential landing site include a flat surface with no large rocks and an average temperature that is rather warm and not too disruptive for instruments, equipment, and humans. In addition, there is ample sunlight, which plays an important role in solar energy generation. After landing, the starship rocket must be able to re-fly, which should reduce the cost of space flight by up to a factor of 100. Fuel production would require the use of a process that converts oxygen and carbon dioxide extracted from Martian water into methane.

Elon Musk has missed deadlines many times in the past.