Space & Astronomy

Musk's Mars ambitions: 'we'll build 1,000 Starships every year'

By T.K. Randall
June 1, 2025 ·  30 comments

Is Musk biting off more than he can chew ? Image Credit: SpaceX We've known for a while that Musk, officially the world's richest man, has long had his heart set on not only sending humans to Mars, but building a permanent settlement there.

This is all well and good for a vision of the relatively distant future, but Musk seems to be under the impression that he can achieve it all within the next few years.

At a SpaceX event on Thursday, Musk explained that he would be sending Starship - the firm's flagship space vehicle - to Mars as early as next year with an Optimus robot as a passenger.

So far, Starship has been plagued by issues and has exploded numerous times during testing.

While SpaceX will no doubt iron out these issues, sending one to Mars so soon seems unlikely.

But Musk's ambitions don't stop there - a mere two years after this, he hopes to begin sending humans to Mars (or 'settlers' as he describes them) to begin colonizing the planet.Eventually, he argues, the SpaceX facility in Texas will be building 1,000 Starships a year to help ferry people to Mars in their millions - forming an entire off-world civilization.

This will include seeing 10 Starships launching for Mars every single day.

But here's the thing - none of this is going to happen. There is no way that Musk, or anyone else, can send settlers to Mars within the space of three years (or even ten years).

There is no infrastructure on Mars, no base, no resource or food production facilities and no life-support system capable of keeping multiple people alive for years on another planet.

There is also the very real problem of radiation exposure, both on Mars and during the trip there.

We will very likely get to Mars eventually - but there's no way it will happen when Musk is saying it will.

Source: Mail Online | Comments (30)

Tags: Elon Musk, Mars