Human Life On Mars? Google, Fidelity Join SpaceX Mission To Establish Human Settlements On Red Planet

Rio Rose Ribaya Saturday, January 24, 2015

An exterior of the SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. | REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

SpaceX founder Elon Musk is inching closer to achieving his dream of establishing a human settlement on Mars following a company announcement that it has raised about $1 billion in a new financing round with the entry of two new investors – Google Inc. and Fidelity.

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) said the additional funding would help in its research on space transport, reusability, and satellite manufacturing.

Google and Fidelity will collectively own just under 10 percent of SpaceX, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

The new Space X investors will join backers Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Founders Fund, Valor Equity Partners and Capricorn, according to Reuters.

Google already has a presence in the aerospace sector following a few high-profile acquisitions, including satellite company Skybox Imaging that it bought for $500 million in June, the Guardian said.

SpaceX's announcement came around the same time San Francisco-based private satellite operator Planet Labs said it raised $95 million to help build its business of selling satellite images and data to customers.

Earlier, Musk said he will hire several hundred to a thousand people in building a fleet of small satellites, which he earlier said are crucial in the planned establishment of human settlements in Mars.

Costing less than $1 million to produce, each satellite would fall in size between traditional communications satellites weighing several tons and the tiny shoebox-sized alternatives favored by modern startups.

The satellites would generate revenue that would go toward Musk's dream of colonizing Mars and teaching his team the details of space communication.

Aside from creating Space X, the Canadian-American engineer and inventor also co-founded the PayPal e-commerce website that was acquired by EBay Inc.

The South African, who received American citizenship in 2002, is also the CEO of Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) and chairman of SolarCity Corp., the biggest installer of rooftop solar panels in the U.S.