Elon Musk’s plans for Mars getting larger and larger (science news).
Elon Musk announced at the U.S. Air Force startup pitch day that building his first sustainable city on Mars will take 1,000 Starships and 20 years.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been thinking about the possibility of building a city on Mars for decades. So far, his grandiose plans have mostly been written off as impractical.
But with SpaceX’s announcement earlier this year that it plans to fly people to the space station, and with NASA’s budget for space exploration increasing significantly under the Trump administration, Musk’s plans for a city on Mars are being given renewed life.
Speaking at the U.S. Air Force startup pitch day this week, Musk said that, despite being more than 2,000 times further from Earth than the Moon, Mars could eventually be more hospitable for life (after centuries of terraforming).
SpaceX could eventually fly 10-20 times more cargo per year than the largest commercial carrier, the United States Postal Service, after they develop effective methods of moving goods into orbit.