Tesla CEO Elon Musk outlined his vision for governance on Mars, advocating for a self-determined society. When asked on X (formerly known as Twitter) whether Mars would follow Earth-style governance, Musk replied, "The Martians will decide how they are ruled. I recommend direct, rather than representative, democracy." Aiming to establish a human colony on the Red Planet, Musk has often shared ideas about the principles that could guide Martian society.
“Uncrewed Starships landing on Mars in ~2 years, perhaps with crewed versions passing near Mars, and crewed Starships heading there in ~4 years are all possible,�?he further added.
“I believe the timeline you mentioned here is possible, but my only long term concern about Starship are the heat tiles, they are far from being reusable,�?replied one user to Musk. the world’s richest individual answered stating “I am confident that we will figure out a fully reusable (technically, a high multi-flight reusable) heat shield in 2025�?
Elon Musk says human civilization on Mars by January 2029
In another post, Musk mentioned a Mars transfer window in December 2028 or January 2029, which could allow SpaceX to send humans to Mars. “The future is approaching rapidly,�?he said, highlighting the progress being made.
In October this year, after SpaceX successfully recovered its Super Heavy rocket, Elon Musk discussed the massive costs involved in building a self-sustaining city on Mars. He estimated the cost to exceed $1,000 trillion, far surpassing the current U.S. GDP of $29 trillion.
Musk explained that NASA’s recent Mars missions cost around $1 billion per ton of useful cargo delivered to the planet’s surface. To make colonizing Mars possible, he stressed the need for significant advancements in rocket and spacecraft technology, suggesting a 1,000-fold reduction in costs is crucial to make the idea financially feasible.
Last week, Musk suggested renaming Mars to "New World." In an X post, he compared the idea to how America was named and included a photo of Mars' Gale Crater taken by the Curiosity rover. This proposal aligns with Musk's ambition to establish a self-sustaining human colony on Mars, making humanity a multi-planetary species.