Elon Musk, speaking to CNBC about how the future of humankind is rather closely tied to our ability to get off this planet, is "hopeful that the first people could be taken to Mars in 10 to 12 years" -- with SpaceX rockets and spacecraft, of course. This lines up with some of his previous comments about establishing a Mars colony in the 2020s. Meanwhile, NASA recently announced that it would try to put a human on Mars in 2035 -- and only if it can secure the necessary funding and carry out a number of important milestone missions beforehand. Tantalizingly, Musk also spoke about SpaceX going public on the stock market -- perhaps to raise the necessary funds to fly (and establish a colony?) on Mars.