Elon Musk has directed SpaceX employees to work on plans to establish a Mars city. Teams are designing dome habitats and spacesuits and researching human procreation on the Red Planet. Musk has reportedly offered his own sperm to help seed a Martian colony.
He now aims for one million people to be living on Mars within the next 20 years. This accelerated timeline contrasts with NASA’s statement that Mars remains an unbreathable environment for humans. NASA doesn’t expect to land humans on Mars until the 2040s.
Despite the challenges, Musk is determined to push the boundaries.
Musk’s accelerated Martian colony plans
He has expressed confidence that humans could land on Mars in less than ten years, with a city potentially established in 20 years and a secure civilization in 30 years.
SpaceX claims that Mars’ CO2-rich atmosphere could be manipulated to grow plants by atmospheric compression. Musk has even floated the idea of using Tesla-made steel-paneled Cybertrucks for transportation on the planet. He has also acquired the social media platform X to experiment with a citizen-led governance model that he hopes could be applied to a Mars colony.
You want to wake up in the morning and think the future will be great,” Musk is quoted on the SpaceX website. “And that’s what being a spacefaring civilization is all about. It’s about believing in the future and thinking that the future will be better than the past.”
Though ambitious and controversial, Musk’s aspirations highlight his relentless pursuit to ensure a future where humanity extends beyond Earth.
