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SpaceX on Wednesday announced its intentions to send its unmanned Red Dragon landers to Mars by 2018.

The Hawthorne, Calif.-based聽company headed by Elon Musk says it will work with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to complete its goal of probing the Red Planet in an unusual partnership between a US government agency and a private entity.

The partnership 鈥渋s more similar to what you might have with a government to government agreement,鈥� former NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver told The Washington Post. 鈥淸I]t is breaking new ground, and I think it鈥檚 a good sign that NASA is even a partner. It shows there are people at NASA who are as excited about this as a lot of us are.鈥�

A NASA blog post by its Deputy Administrator Dava Newman confirmed the agency鈥檚聽provision of 鈥渢echnical support鈥� on the Red Dragon project. The space agency expects that SpaceX will be able to offer 鈥渧aluable entry, descent and landing data to NASA for our journey to Mars, while providing support to American industry,鈥� an administration spokesperson told CNBC on Wednesday. SpaceX and NASA currently work together with a "no transfer of funds" policy.

"As the saying goes, 'spaceflight is hard.' Sending astronauts to Mars, which will be one of the greatest feats of human innovation in the history of civilization, carries with it many, many puzzles to piece together. That鈥檚 why we at NASA have made it a priority to reach out to partners in boardrooms, classrooms, laboratories, space agencies and even garages across our country and around the world," Dr. Newman wrote.

Mr. Musk, who founded SpaceX on a platform of commercial space travel, said via Twitter that the Red Dragon mission would be a 鈥渇irst test flight鈥� for his manned Dragon 2 landers, in effort to prove they can 鈥渓and anywhere in the solar system.鈥�

NASA鈥檚 desire to further explore Mars and send humans there by 2030, coupled with Musk鈥檚 鈥渂ravado鈥� and desire to push space travel forward while stretching the 鈥渓imits of feasibility鈥� could make the 2018 target date a possibility, especially without the added complication of providing for astronauts, according to聽George Washington University space historian John Logsdon.

鈥淣ASA has more expertise in getting to and landing on Mars than any other organization in the world,鈥� Mr. Logsdon said. 鈥淪o if a US company wants to try it on a no-exchange-of-funds basis, why not?鈥�

Actually getting the SUV-sized,聽seven-ton Red Dragon聽successfully to Mars is no small task, even with support from relatively experienced NASA.

SpaceX will be the first non-governmental organization to attempt a Mars landing, and will provide more information on the NASA partnership and its overall designs on Martian travel at a September aeronautics conference, according to Reuters. Musk already announced his intentions to send humans to Mars in the 2020s, nearly a decade ahead of NASA鈥檚 schedule.