Musk dreams to land his Starship on Mars as early as next year

Space X boss Elon Musk wants Starship to make its first trip to Mars by the end of 2026, with the humanoid robot Tesla Optimus aboard. He said three to five years later, he could follow flights with humans.

“The Starship will leave for Mars late next year, with Optimus on board. If landings go well, then human landings could begin from 2029, although 2031 seems more likely,” President Donald Trump’s billionaire and close friend posted on his X social network.

A man with a plan

Mars has fascinated Musk since he read Isaac Asimov’s 1951 science fiction novel ‘Foundation’ at the age of 10. More than that, his vision of establishing a new civilization on the red planet underlies most of the six companies he runs or owns.

Tesla? Of the one million people he says will live on Mars in about 20 years, quite a few will ride in a version of its Cybertruck. X, the social media platform he bought? He would have done so only to test how a citizen-led government governed by consensus might work on Mars. The Boring Company, his private tunneling company? That would have been created in part to prepare equipment to dig beneath the surface of Mars.

Mega rocket

Texas-based space technology company SpaceX is the most practical vehicle for realizing Musk’s ambition of traveling to the Moon and Mars. SpaceX’s “showpiece” is the Starship, the most powerful and the largest rocket in the world at 123 meters.

SpaceX must first prove that the mega rocket is reliable, safe, and capable of refueling in space, which is essential for distant multi-planetary missions. On March 7th, however, the company suffered another setback during its latest test flight.

In January, the Starship’s second stage exploded. The first stage, nonetheless, was able to land safely on Earth. Aviation regulator FAA has since subjected the resumption of launches to an investigation by SpaceX.

Thanks to the many subsidies

NASA is also awaiting a modified spacecraft version for its Artemis program, which aims to put astronauts back on the Moon this decade. According to an analysis recently published by The Washington Post, Musk’s companies would have received at least 38 billion dollars in government support.

NASA has invested more than 15 billion dollars in SpaceX, and Tesla has collected 11 billion dollars in subsidies to bolster the EV industry.

Ironically, Musk himself is one of the greatest beneficiaries of taxpayers’ money, given that Trump has given him a special assignment to work with the advisory board DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) to embark on a massive cost-cutting effort to make the federal government “more efficient and less corrupt,” according to them.