Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and an acknowledged billionaire, has publicly expressed his ambitions on several occasions to make humans a multiplanetary species. Mars colonization constitutes a significant element of this expansive vision. His captivation with the Red Planet extends far beyond mere interest; it is tied to a larger objective of ensuring humanity’s continuance in an unforeseeably long future.
In essence, Musk views Mars as a lifeboat for collective humanity. As he explains, Earth, our home planet, won’t remain habitable forever. As billions of years pass, our life-sustaining sun, in its natural progression, will grow and eventually engulf the Earth, leaving it desolate and unfit for life. In this catastrophic event, having a presence on Mars could be a lifeline for our species.
Although this scenario may seem too distant to concern us, for Musk, it constitutes a compelling reason to think ahead and establish a self-sustaining municipality on Mars. The celestial annihilation of Earth due to our sun’s expansion is a far future event, yet it seems to be a pervasive thought for Musk.
But, how long do we really have to figure out how to live on another planet before our own becomes inhospitable? Musk calculates that we have approximately 450 million years left. While this might seem like an eternity relative to human lifespans, it is only a moment in the vast timeline of the universe. According to NASA, the lifespan of our sun is approximately six billion years.
That gives Elon Musk and SpaceX sufficient time to proceed with the development of their colossal spacecraft, Starship, explicitly engineered for interplanetary journeys, with Mars as the primary destination. This vehicle comprises both a crewed capsule and a rocket, intended to make the dream of Mars colonization a tangible reality.
Despite rigorous and sustained efforts since 2023, the spacecraft has yet to undertake a mission to orbit the Earth. Undeterred by these challenges, Musk reiterated his aspirations for SpaceX in March; he declared his persistence towards launching Starship’s maiden exploration mission to Mars as early as 2026. Following this, the first manned missions could potentially embark as soon as the early 2030s.
Simultaneously, intimate contradictions seem to develop between SpaceX’s ambitions and NASA’s objectives. NASA’s longstanding plan, the Artemis program, aims at first getting humans back to the moon, and subsequently, to the Martian surface. Notably, no American astronaut has walked on the lunar surface since the historic Apollo missions concluded their run in 1972.
As SpaceX moves forward with its ambitious ventures, necessary preparations for Starship’s ninth flight test, ever since its inception, have been brought into effect. However, a definitive milestone for this endeavor is yet to be announced by the organization.
Meanwhile, SpaceX recently secured a critical regulatory approval which increases their annual Starship launches to 25 from their Texas launch site, solidifying their commitment to bolstering their presence in the space exploration industry.
Launching from SpaceX’s base of operations, known as Starbase, these Martian vessels will embark on their ambitious journeys. The Starbase is a company town, established nearly 23 miles from Brownsville in Cameron County, Texas, close to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Ever since its inception, the spacecraft made of a rocket and a crewed capsule remains in a development phase, undergoing steady enhancements through a series of demonstrations initiated in 2023. A clear testament to the trials and tribulations of space travel, the initial two flight tests of the newly dawned year 2025 concluded in spectacular explosions.