I need these pallets delivered fast – to Mars!

If you think the next step in air freight transportation is airships for general freight and hyperloops for express, you haven’t been paying attention. Sure, Lockheed Martin’s Hybrid Airship is about to enter commercial service, and Elon Musk’s Hyperloop One is in test phase… But, really, that’s all so last decade.

What’s important now is getting these five pallets to our Mars warehouse on time.

But don’t worry, because Lockheed Martin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX are both working on that. So are a lot of other aerospace and aviation companies, but for today, here are a few videos from Lockheed Martin and SpaceX, explaining their plans to transport people and cargo to the colonies on Mars that they view as the inevitable next step in our journey from caves to the stars.

We’ll start here on earth, where “next-day” is no longer fast enough. The first video is of the SpaceX Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) concept, which will get you, or your packages, from New York to Shanghai in 39 minutes. Then we’ll move on to pushing the BFR to Mars, but first, a reminder that while we might one day hold the annual Cargo Facts Symposium on Mars, this year, still on earth, we’ll be in Miami next week. I look forward to seeing you all there (and if you haven’t registered, there’s still time: just go to CargoFactsSymposium.com.

Now, onward to Shanghai

Then to Mars. Here SpaceX founder Elon Musk explains his plan to have the first cargo ship land on Mars in 2022 – yes, just five years from now.

Now let’s hear from Lockheed Martin, starting with their Mars Basecamp concept, then a look at the lander that will move cargo and people between the orbiting Basecamp, and the surface.

Here’s the Basecamp