Summary of Elon Musk's plan to send 1 million people to Mars

Elon Musk announced his upcoming goal is to build 1,000 Starship spacecraft and send 1 million people to Mars by 2050. A trip to the planet named after the ancient Roman god of war was warned by Musk. It would be very dangerous, cramped, difficult and arduous.

'You're probably going to die,' the SpaceX CEO said.

In an interview with computer scientist Lex Fridman at the end of December 202, billionaire Elon Musk was asked, when will SpaceX send humans to Mars?

Musk didn't respond immediately, but took nearly 20 seconds to think, after which he said that in the best case, it would be about 5 years, and in the worst case, 10 years.

To date, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has stated his upcoming goal is to build 1,000 Starship spacecraft and send 1 million people to Mars by 2050.

'It's been half a century since humanity last set foot on the moon. It's been a long time, and I think it's time for us to go back and establish a permanent base. We also need to build a city on Mars to become a space civilization."

You might die

SpaceX aims to land Starship on Mars by 2030, but the world's richest man admits that building the first self-sufficient base on the Red Planet to put people on is what really difficult. This ambition will require a million tons of materials taken from the Earth.

In February of this year, SpaceX released a graphic video, thereby revealing the expected journey to Mars of the Starship spacecraft from its rocket base in Texas.

In the video, at dusk, the Starship is seen parked on the launch pad. Steam is emitted from the vehicle and gradually dissipates into the surrounding space. As the Sun rose, the Starship rocket began to launch, reaching orbit and flying away from the Earth. The ship then headed towards Mars while the Earth was seen getting smaller and smaller behind.

The end of the video describes an imaginary image of the future Mars city. Musk envisions the base will include a giant glass building and multiple Starship launch pads, helping settlers conduct scientific research and exploration.

The South African billionaire did not forget to warn that the trip to the planet named after the ancient Roman god of war would be dangerous, cramped, difficult and strenuous.
'You're probably going to die,' Musk said in an interview with Ted Talk's Chris Anderson.

Life on Mars is said to be extremely harsh. This planet has an average surface temperature of about -62 degrees Celsius, lower than Antarctica, the coldest area on Earth. Antarctica has an average temperature of about -57 degrees Celsius.

Mars has a rocky surface, with many volcanoes and canyons. The planet has a third of Earth's gravity and a thinner atmosphere, making it impossible for humans to breathe. According to scientists, a person without special equipment would die within minutes on Mars due to too low atmospheric pressure.

Therefore, Elon Musk's dream is to build a city in a glass cage on this planet. Musk estimates the cost to build the city up to 10 trillion dollars. The calculations are based on the assumption that such a city would need up to a million tons of goods taken from Earth to function at a minimum.

While it is not possible to estimate exactly what needs to be transported to Mars from Earth, Musk said it will require a lot of food, water, building materials, tools and life support systems. The CEO of SpaceX also said that to migrate to Mars, it would probably take nearly 1 million people to ensure enough human resources to exist on this planet.

'This is the first step in the 4.5 billion year history that Earth has made possible. We need to seize the opportunity as quickly as possible," said the billionaire who once said he wanted to die on Mars.

Noah's Ark of the Modern Times

Of course, the journey to transport life to Mars will not be complete without Starship - the ship is being targeted by Elon Musk to launch an average of 3 units per day in the future to serve anyone who has a need to go to the Planet. Red. The train ticket price is about 100,000 USD. Musk said on Twitter.

'Anyone can go if they want to. We also assist with loans to those who have no money. There's a lot of work to be done on Mars'

According to Business Insider, 1,000 reusable Starship ships are being built by SpaceX for the next 10 years. If truly successful, Starship will become the most powerful rocket launch system ever created. With each launch, the ship can carry 100 people into orbit at once.

Because of its reusable feature, SpaceX claims that its Starship is the most powerful and unique rocket ever. The cost of orbiting will therefore be significantly reduced, specifically saving about 10 million USD for every 100 tons of materials put into space.

Over the years, SpaceX has conducted a series of test flights that put Starship into orbit. The May 2021 flight was Starship's only successful landing test, with most of the rest exploding on the ground or in flight.

So to get into orbit, SpaceX says Starship will need to successfully test the giant Super Heavy booster. The booster is powered by dozens of Raptor rocket engines running on liquid methane and liquid oxygen – far more powerful than past engines.

Once assembled, the Starship will be about 120 meters tall, which is taller than the Statue of Liberty. The first part of Starship is a 70 meter high Super Heavy booster. The second part is the Starship spaceship, 50 meters high, placed on the bow of the first part. Starship can withstand tremendous heat, carry large volumes of cargo, and is said to have nearly twice the power of Saturn 5, the rocket that sent American astronauts to the moon half a century ago.

Essentially, 'those are modern day Noah's Arks,' Musk said in a June 5 tweet.

Noah is the legendary ark mentioned in the Book of Genesis in the Bible. The story is about how Noah built this ark according to God's will, to save him and his family, and all living creatures from being destroyed by God's punitive flood.

'Some people hate humans, but I love humans very much,' Elon Musk said in another tweet.

Through these tweets, it can be seen that Musk seems to have revealed more details about his Mars program.

Doubts

Of course, Elon Musk's claims are not without their doubts and controversies. A major indicator of this is that the claim of the richest man in the world is inconsistent with NASA's Mars program.

While Musk says SpaceX will send 1 million people to Mars by 2050, NASA only aims to send the first humans to the Red Planet — likely with SpaceX's own backing — in the 2030s and 2040s.

NASA recently announced 50 key goals it hopes to achieve, before and during the first Mars mission. The plan outlines and highlights the extreme obstacles they will face, such as the astronauts will experience muscle degeneration to the point that it may be difficult to walk on their first visit to Mars.

Even so, Elon Musk is still optimistic. After a simulation video of Mars colonization was played during the closing event, Musk shouted: 'Make it real!'

The SpaceX CEO told Ted Talk's Anderson that Starship's first orbital launch could happen 'within a few months', pending regulatory approval.

'Success isn't guaranteed, but there's certainly excitement,' Musk said.

Confronting China

In fact, SpaceX also went through a lot of failures before becoming the successful private rocket manufacturer it is today. In 2008, the company almost collapsed, after three failed rocket launches. 'One more time and it's over,' Elon Musk recalls this difficult time while attending a conference in Australia in 2017.

According to Rick Fisher, a senior fellow at the 'International Accounting Standards Committee' (IASC), writing in The Epoch Times, thanks to democracy and the free trade regime of the United States, in less than 20 years ago, Elon Musk was able to build SpaceX to become a leading global innovator, producing more and more reusable space-launched transport rockets, greatly reducing the cost of discovery. space.

The strong success of Elon Musk and SpaceX is closely related to the interests of the US Government. In the space sector, Musk and China are big rivals. The ambition of the two sides will determine who will control the Earth-Moon-Mars system.

"It appears that China is viewing Elon Musk as a formidable challenger in the space sector, replacing Tesla's previous priority of stealing electric vehicle technology," Fisher wrote.