Elon Musk, CEO and CTO of SpaceX and CEO and Chief Product Architect of Tesla Motors, is expecting to send first humans on Mars in next decade.

"I'm hopeful that the first people could be taken to Mars in 10 to 12 years, I think it's certainly possible for that to occur", affirmed Musk. The only issue he thinks would arise in the long-term is to have a self-sustaining city on Red Planet.

Musk's expectation to put first humans on space by the next decade puts him ahead of NASA's plans. NASA is planning to take humans on Mars by 2030s and that also if they are able to get sufficient funding and build a rocket big enough to accomplish the task.

SpaceX Falcon Heavy booster is scheduled to fly by next year. It will carry enough payloads that will allow assembling a Mars spaceship. It might appear to be a competition for others but not to Musk, who is quite thankful to NASA.

As per Musk, without the extraordinary work done by the space agency, SpaceX would not have been able to go as far as it has. He said they are happy to work with NASA, delivering cargo up to the International Space Station.

Musk is also expecting to win a contract to take crew in the Space X updated Dragon capsule. Even if the company does not win the contract, Musk said then also he would be able to make it to Mars.