Elon Musk challenges Boeing to beat him to Mars

Elon Musk has challenged Boeing to beat him to Mars, if it can.

The challenge posted on Twitter, came in response to Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg's statement on Thursday that the aerospace giant would transport the first humans to Mars. ''Eventually we're going to go Mars and I firmly believe the first person that sets foot on Mars will get there on a Boeing rocket,'' Muilenburg told CNBC's Jim Cramer last morning.

Responding to a tweet from the ''Fortune Tech'' Twitter account linking to Fortune's news article about Muilenburg's bold bet, Musk simply wrote, ''Do it.''

Muilenburg had made the same proclamation a tech conference last year.

But Musk plans to not only reach Mars, but to colonise the Red Planet, which has firmly linked his name with the idea of Mars exploration in the public imagination according to commentators.

Musk outlined SpaceX's strategy for reaching Mars in October. He also outlined his goal of settling large groups of people on the planet as part of his vision of making humans into a ''multiplanetary species.''

Musk believes that SpaceX could start landing spaceships on Mars as early as 2022, while Muilenburg said yesterday that Boeing's own next generation rockets would be tested starting in 2019.

Meanwhile, Boeing is already developing the Space Launch System (SLS) in collaboration with US space agency NASA.

The SLS, a Space Shuttle-derived heavy expendable launch vehicle will replace the space shuttle program. It would also likely be the most powerful rocket ever built.

Talking about the SLS project, Muilenburg said, ''This is a rocket that's about 36 stories tall, we're in the final assembly right now, down near New Orleans. And we're going to take a first test flight in 2019 and we're going to do a slingshot mission around the moon.''