Thursday, March 28

Elon Musk sharpens his predictions: he sees humans landing on Mars in 10 years at worst


We are ten years away – or possibly less time – from seeing how Starship lands with humans on Mars. It is not something we say, but it is another of the many predictions of the founder and CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk.

During the last years, the tycoon of South African origin the date of a possible colonization of Mars has been changing. Elon Musk was betting on the year 2024 in case he was “lucky” and also envisioned a very possible scenario in 2026.

With a margin of between five and ten years

However, the realization of the first objective of the largest SpaceX mission could be extended until about 2031, according to the employer’s comments in the Episode 252 from Lex Fridman’s podcast released Tuesday.

The host of the show asked Elon Musk when he believed SpaceX would bring humans to Mars. After about 20 seconds that he took to think, the guest replied: “The best case is around 5 years; worst case, 10 years“.

To back up that prediction, the Tesla CEO also noted that the determining factors for reaching that milestone include the starship ship design, which “is the most complex and advanced rocket ever made.”

He also said that optimization of the Starship space transportation system is key. To reach Mars with humans the cost per ton to orbit must be minimized and ultimately the cost per ton on the surface of the red planet.

Recall that the Starship project has been struggling lately. Elon Musk himself asked to “step on the gas” to solve a series of setbacks in development of Raptor engines, otherwise SpaceX would risk bankruptcy.

Images | Flickr



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