Elon Musk Gives New Timeline for Humans on Mars Saying When Starship Will Launch
upstart writes:
SpaceX founder has said humans will be able to go to Mars in just four years:
The 53-year-old businessman made his predictions on a series of social media posts this weekend. He said the next "Earth-Mars transfer window" opens in two years, which is when the first Starships to the "Red Planet" will launch. Musk said the Starships will be uncrewed at first "to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars."
But if everything goes well and the landings are successful, just two years later the first crewed flights to Mars will start departing from our planet. Musk said once the first crewed flights depart, their rate will "grow exponentially", adding that his company has the goal of "building a self-sustaining city in about 20 years."
[...] "Being multiplanetary will vastly increase the probable lifespan of consciousness, as we will no longer have all our eggs, literally and metabolically, on one planet." Many people were excited by Musk's latest claims as one wrote: "This is huge!!" Another added: "What a time to be alive!" One more commented: "The mission to make life multi-planetary really begins."
Founded in 2002, Musk's SpaceX became the first private company to develop a liquid-propellant rocket to reach orbit and the first to send a spacecraft and astronauts to the International Space Station. A year earlier, he had announced the development of Mars Oasis - a project bidding to land a greenhouse and grow plants on Mars.
The stainless-steel Starship is made up of a first-stage booster called Super Heavy and a 165-foot-tall upper-stage spacecraft known as Starship. The spacecraft is designed to be "a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond."
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