When thinking of retiring in the sun, do you imagine yourself in Spain, Greece or the Caribbean? Well, soon you might be able to add Mars to that list.

Yesterday Sir Richard Branson reached the edge of space on his Virgin Galactic rocket plane.

The billionaire’s flight was hailed as a landmark moment for the whole commercial space industry.

Branson beat out rival Jeff Benzos by nine days, who is set to launch his Blue Origin’s New Shepard spaceship on July 20.

The commercial space sector also faces competition from fellow billionaire Elon Musk, who through his SpaceX company, is yet to travel into space.

When can you go to space?

Michael Jones, Professor of Experimental Cosmology at Oxford University, said although this is the “very beginning of things which are purpose built for passengers as opposed for astronauts” tickets are going to be “extraordinarily expensive” and “millionaires only” for a long time.

Tourists can expect to fork out 250,000 US dollars (£180,000) for a spaceflight on Virgin Galactic, which includes four minutes of zero gravity.

Professor Jones believes we are slowly working towards a future where space flight can become much more commonplace. This is being led by Musk’s plans at SpaceX to take hundreds of people into space at once.

He said: “They are doing this to colonise Mars and he [Musk] sees a future in which hundreds of thousands of people will get on his spaceships and go to Mars and build a colony there.

“He it wants it to be like the colonisation of the Americas was. Where if you are prepared to sell your house and invest the money in a new life then that will buy you a ticket to Mars.”

“He wants that to be happening in twenty years, or less, from now.”

Professor Jones points out this kind of space travel would not be like going on holiday but would be like moving to a new country.

He likened travelling to Mars as people travelled to Australia in the nineteenth century, where voyagers got on a ship and travelled for a few months to reach their destination and new life.

He said: “The idea is people will go there for years, work and built a colony. He [Musk] sees a future in which that is something you can do with your life if you want; sell up, move and go to Mars.”

Looking decades into the future, Professor Jones does not dismiss the idea that backpacking on Mars could be a possibility in the future.

He said: “Someone who is a child now could imagine going to Mars, coming back and that would not be a ridiculous idea.”

Would you sell up and go to Mars in twenty years? Let us know in the comments.