On Friday, Elon Musk made a surprise appearance on a livestream with XPrize Chairman Peter Diamandis to talk about SpaceX’s plans to settle humans on Mars. Dressed casually in a t-shirt and jeans, the tech billionaire even went barefoot during the chat.
“Exploring Mars is not an escape route for the rich. Explorers may face death, so only volunteers will go, with no coercion whatsoever.” Last week, SpaceX won a major NASA contract to be the sole provider for lunar landings.
Previously, SpaceX aimed to send humans to Mars by 2024 and establish a colony by 2050. They recently completed a successful mission sending four astronauts to space aboard a reused Falcon 9 rocket. The International Space Station (ISS), where NASA and global space agencies have developed long-term life support technology, plays a key role.
However, this differs from NASA’s Advanced Life Support (ALS) program. While the ISS recycles water and supports short-term stays, Musk’s Mars plans require sustainable life support for long-term habitation, not just rotating crews from Earth every few months.
If the Mars colony project takes root, it will need to provide food, shelter, medical care, and mental well-being for its entire population.
Landing humans on the moon by 2024 is within reach
It’s been 51 years since Armstrong first set foot on the moon in 1969. On April 17, NASA confirmed SpaceX as the exclusive service provider for its lunar return mission, awarding a $2.7 billion contract.
For Elon Musk, this marks another major achievement for SpaceX. For NASA, it’s a crucial step toward reviving a long-delayed moon landing plan. Musk believes SpaceX can help NASA reach this ambitious goal by 2024.
At 18:49:02 Hanoi time on April 23, SpaceX successfully launched the Crew Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket carrying four astronauts to the ISS, arriving after 23 hours. This was SpaceX’s second commercial crew launch and the fourth Crew Dragon mission overall.
So far, SpaceX has completed three crewed missions: DM-2 on May 30, 2020, Crew-1 on November 16, 2020, and Crew-2 on April 23, 2021. A total of 10 astronauts have flown to space on these missions. Right after the Crew-2 launch, Musk said, “I think the moon return mission can be done.”
“It’s been nearly half a century since humans last walked on the moon. That’s too long. We need to go back and build a permanent base there. Then build a city on Mars, become a spacefaring civilization, a multiplanetary species,” the billionaire emphasized.
Elon Musk’s Mars Dream: Spreading Life Across the Galaxy
Elon Musk is known for his big ideas and bold statements. In an interview with Business Insider, when asked when humans might arrive on Mars, Musk said, “Maybe in 6 years, or 4 years. For me personally, maybe 2 or 3 years.”
The SpaceX CEO has a special passion for Mars and founded the organization Life to Mars to promote exploration of the planet. “If you get buried somewhere, being born on Earth and dying on Mars would be amazing,” Musk said.
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“Eventually, life will spread throughout the entire solar system, and then beyond to other star systems. Otherwise, we’ll stay on Earth forever until extinction happens.” One of Musk’s biggest goals is to help humanity become an interplanetary species and leap from Earth civilization to space civilization, making SpaceX crucial.
During Friday’s livestream, Musk also announced a $100 million prize for inventors who find ways to fight global warming by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or oceans. This is the “largest prize in history” and will run for four years.
“The sun will grow bigger and evaporate the oceans. So at some point, we need to do something better. Mars is a real planet, so we can build a civilization there,” Musk said with hope.
