Musk Sets Timeline for Mars: First Uncrewed Missions in Two Years, Then Build A City By 2044
1min read Elon Musk's best-known Mars colonization plan is being advanced, and Musk has recently set a preliminary timetable for this ambitious project.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted on social media platform X on Saturday that SpaceX will launch the first uncrewed Starship spacecraft to Mars in two years.
These spacecraft will be unmanned, to test the reliability of a complete landing on Mars. He added that if they land successfully, then SpaceX will launch the first crewed spacecraft to Mars in four years, which will be a key milestone, as the launch rate of spacecraft will increase exponentially from then on.
Musk also looked forward to saying that his goal is to build a self-sufficient city on Mars in about 20 years.
In April of this year, Musk said that the first uncrewed spacecraft to land on Mars would be achieved within five years, and the first humans would land on Mars within seven years.
Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, standing about 400 feet (about 122 meters) tall and generating 16.7 million pounds of thrust at launch, almost twice that of NASA's Artemis lunar program's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.
This big guy consists of two parts: the first stage is the Super Heavy booster, and the second stage is the 165-foot-high upper spacecraft Starship, both of which are reusable.
So far, Starship has conducted four test missions, in April and November 2023, and March and June of this year. In the fourth test flight in June, Starship performed well, with the first and second stages successfully separating and falling into the Gulf of Mexico and the Indian Ocean as planned.
SpaceX is preparing for the fifth flight of Starship, which is expected to take place soon. Currently, the company has conducted separate test firings of the super heavy booster and the Starship that will perform the mission.
If everything goes as planned, the fifth flight test will see an exciting turning point. After the fourth test flight, SpaceX said it plans to use a mechanical arm to grab the huge booster or spacecraft and bring it back for a precise landing on the launch pedestal at Starbase, achieving launch pad capture and recovery.
Musk said that if this bold strategy is successful, it will increase the flight rhythm of the Starship, allowing the booster to be inspected, refurbished, and re-launched more quickly.