8 Ways We're Getting Ready To Go To Mars

1. So Who's Driving?

When you think of space exploration, you tend to think of big, government space programs like NASA, but these are hard economic times and the state-funded space behemoths are giving way to the up and coming private aerospace companies.

Companies such as SpaceX and Mars One have both expressed their desire to stick a human on Mars before the century is out, and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has stated that he will be retiring to the red planet when he gets the chance (whether he's taking the rest of us, or just wants some peace and quiet remains to be seen.)

One of SpaceX's major innovations is the development of reusable rockets that can guide themselves onto a landing pad and negate the need to jettison oneself into the upper atmosphere of a planet and free fall into the sea. Getting the damn things to land properly is still in the prototype stage, but these reusable craft could be used to ferry humans around the solar system.

Whether it will be a government agency, a private company, or a collaboration of the two that gets us to Mars, rest assured that there are plenty of people on the case.

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