Elon Musk has long dreamed of reaching Mars, and now, he's accelerating SpaceX’s plans to make a Martian colony a reality. Internal documents and interviews reveal a significant shift towards concrete planning, including dome habitats, advanced spacesuits, and research on human reproduction on Mars.
A New Martian City
For over twenty years, Elon Musk has focused SpaceX, his rocket company, on reaching Mars. Recently, he’s ramped up efforts on what life will look like once we get there. Musk, 53, has directed SpaceX employees to drill into the design and details of a Martian city. According to insiders and documents reviewed by The New York Times, teams are working on:
- Dome Habitats: Plans are being drawn for small dome habitats, considering the materials needed to build them.
- Spacesuits: Designing suits to combat Mars’ hostile environment.
- Human Reproduction: A medical team is researching whether humans can have children on Mars. Notably, Musk has volunteered his sperm to help seed a colony.
These initiatives, still in their early stages, mark a shift towards more concrete planning. While Musk predicted in 2016 that it would take 40 to 100 years to establish a self-sustaining civilization on Mars, he now expects 1 million people to be living there within 20 years.
“There’s high urgency to making life multi-planetary,” Musk said in a publicly posted video. “We’ve got to do it while civilization is strong.”
The Vision for Mars
Musk’s ambitions for Mars are extraordinary and, to some, may seem absurd. No one has ever set foot on the planet, and NASA doesn’t expect to land humans there until the 2040s. Mars is a barren terrain with icy temperatures, dust storms, and unbreathable air.
Despite these challenges, Musk’s vision for a civilization on Mars has driven nearly every business endeavor he has undertaken on Earth. His vision underlies most of the six companies he leads or owns, each potentially contributing to an extraterrestrial colony.
Supporting Ventures
- The Boring Company: Musk’s private tunneling venture was partly started to ready equipment for burrowing under Mars’ surface.
- X (formerly Twitter): Musk purchased the social platform to help test how a citizen-led government by consensus might work on Mars.
- Tesla: He envisions Mars residents driving a version of Tesla's steel-paneled Cybertrucks.
Elon Musk’s plans for Mars are ambitious, pushing the boundaries of what seems possible. Whether it’s through SpaceX or his other ventures, he is relentlessly driving towards making life on Mars a reality.