SpaceX founder Elon Musk made some bold predictions about human life on Mars in a series of social media posts on Saturday.
Writing on X, Musk made the prediction in response to a post by Bill Ackman promoting a “Make America Healthy Again” ad posted by Robert F. Kennedy's former vice presidential candidate Nicole Shanahan.
“Without our health and that of our children, we have nothing,” Ackman wrote, “and there is no more important initiative for those who care about our economy, our national debt, and our deficit.”
Musk used Ackman's tweet as a springboard to discuss how colonizing Mars would advance humanity.
“The first spacecraft to Mars will be launched when the next travel period between Earth and Mars begins in two years.” Musk explained. “These are unmanned vehicles, and we'll be testing their reliability to see if they can land on Mars intact.”
“If the landing goes well, the first manned flight to Mars would be four years from now.”
The entrepreneur added that the idea of building a sustainable human settlement on Mars within 20 years is not impossible.
“From there, the rate of flight will increase exponentially, with the goal of building a self-sustaining city in around 20 years,” Musk continued. “Having multiple planets will greatly extend the lifespan of consciousness, because literally and metabolically, all the eggs will not be on one planet.”
The Starship spacecraft is designed as a “fully reusable transportation system designed to carry crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond.” SpaceX's website states that Mars is one of Earth's “closest habitable planetary neighbors” and has “ample sunlight.”
“It's a bit cold, but we can heat it up,” SpaceX states on its website. “The Martian atmosphere is primarily carbon dioxide, with some nitrogen and argon, as well as other trace elements. This means that we could grow plants on Mars simply by compressing the atmosphere.”
“From there, the rate of flight will increase exponentially, with the goal of building a self-sustaining city in around 20 years,” Musk continued. “Having multiple planets will greatly extend the lifespan of consciousness, because literally and metabolically, all the eggs will not be on one planet.”
The Starship spacecraft is designed to be “a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond.”
SpaceX's website states that Mars is one of the closest habitable planets to Earth and has “ample sunlight.”
“Mars' gravity is about 38% of Earth's, allowing you to lift heavy objects and fly around,” the site continues, “plus, the daylight hours are remarkably similar to Earth's.”
