SpaceX and Tesla boss, Elon Musk plans to take humans to Mars for a while and also has a timeline for it.
Sradha Subash A
Elon Musk | credits: Wikipedia
Elon Musk has mentioned that he plans to take humans to Mars for a while and also has a timeline for it. SpaceX and Tesla boss, Elon Musk appeared on the exclusive audio-only Clubhouse app Sunday night, joining The Good Time Show to talk about Mars, memes and monkeys playing video-games in their heads. About Mars, this is for the first time ever, Musk has mentioned a timeline "five and half years" to take humans to red planet. Musk told this to hosts Sriram Krishnan and Aarthi Ramamurthy at the beginning of the show, as reported by CNET.
While that's not a hard deadline. Musk indexed a number of cautions and he further added that there are a lot of technological advances that must be made in the coming years. The important thing is that they transform Mars as a self-sustaining civilization.
The remarkable thing is the deadline may be a little determined, as even USA's leading space agency, NASA, had a much more different date, one which is seven years later Musk's time. Perseverance uncrewed rover will land at the end of this month on red planet to take rock samples and search for signs of ancient life - but the first humans aren't the ones who arrive on a NASA funded rocket until at least 2033.
That will be part of the Artemis - to the Moon and Mars - mission that will first see a sustainable presence established on the lunar surface. Musk also answered other questions about Mars. He told that over time we can make Mars similar to that of Earth by terraforming the planet by warming it up.
When he was asked whether he would allow his children to go to Mars on a future rocket trip he said, "if we're talking about the third or fourth set of landings on Mars, I'd be ok with that", adding that, "so far none of them are jumping to go to Mars". This is not the first time Musk has spoken about 'civilization on Mars'.
According to a report in November 2020, SpaceX would not be recognising any international law on Mars and would instead follow a set of “self-governing principles” that would be laid down during the Martian settlement.
Elon Musk seems to have very delicately slipped in a clause in the terms of agreement of Starlink satellite broadband services that SpaceX would make its own set of rules on Mars. The Starlink terms of agreement says: “For services provided on Mars, or in transit to Mars via Starship, or other colonisation spacecraft, the parties recognise Mars as a free planet and that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities. Accordingly, disputes will be settled through self-governing principles, established in good faith, at the time of Martian settlement”.
Maybe with its own laws, Musk wanted to beat NASA in reaching the red planet from the beginning itself. If that's the case then he is right about his time - to get there much ahead of NASA.