Space & Astronomy

Humans will land on Mars within 5 years, Elon Musk predicts

By T.K. Randall
December 21, 2021

Image: Elon Musk at the SpaceX CRS-8 post-launch press conference
Credit: Kim Shiflett / (PD) NASA It's no secret that Musk has big plans for Mars; through SpaceX, he intends to not only land humans on the Red Planet, but also to build an entire self-sustaining colony there.

While this might sound like the stuff of the far future, Musk intends to achieve this within our lifetimes.

"I'll be surprised if we're not landing on Mars within five years," he told Time.

"The next really big thing is to build a self-sustaining city on Mars and bring the animals and creatures of Earth there. Sort of like a futuristic Noah's ark.""We'll bring more than two, though - it's a little weird if there's only two."

To say that Musk's predictions are a little ambitious would be an understatement - earlier this year, space policy expert Prof Greg Autry predicted that Musk wouldn't reach Mars at all until 2029 at the absolute earliest - and that in itself is quite optimistic.

NASA, meanwhile, doesn't expect to put humans on the Moon until at least 2025 ( and this is with the help of SpaceX which has been awarded the contract to build the lunar lander. )

There is certainly no doubt that Musk intends to get humans to Mars as soon as possible, however when it comes to the practicality, five years just isn't going to be enough time.

Source: CNBC

Tags: Elon Musk, Mars