Elon Musk, the visionary behind SpaceX, has tempered expectations about the timeline for establishing a human colony on Mars. At the Satellite 2020 conference, Musk candidly admitted that he may not live to see a sustainable Martian settlement, despite SpaceX’s significant achievements, including successful Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches.
Musk’s remarks highlight the formidable obstacles facing Mars colonization, as detailed in Brad Bergan’s new book, SpaceX: Elon Musk and the Final Frontier ( Motorbooks ). While reaching Mars within the next few years may be possible, creating a self-sustaining town remains a far-off purpose.
” If we do n’t improve our pace of progress, I’m definitely going to be dead before we go to Mars”, said Elon Musk at the Satellite 2020 conference in Washington, DC, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times. If it took us 18 years to prepare for the first people to enter space, we must increase our level of development, or I’ll be dead before Mars, in accordance with current trends.
Musk’s previous estimates suggested that moving to Mars could cost between$ 100, 000 ( roughly Rs 84, 00, 000 ) and$ 500, 000 ( roughly Rs 4, 20, 00, 000 ) per person, but these projections depend on groundbreaking technological advancements and substantial reductions in current launch costs, as per the reports by Livescience .com.
The barriers to Mars invasion are enormous in terms of both finances and logistics. Musk had estimated in 2017 that transporting materials to Mars would cost about$ 140, 000 ( roughly Rs 1, 20, 00, 000 ) per ton, a figure that could increase with inflation and other factors.
The enormous challenge presented by establishing a functioning settlement could be upwards of$ 100 billion ( roughly Rs. 8.4 lakh crore ). The practicality of establishing a Mars colony is fueled by these high costs and the need for major technological advancement.
Given these issues, space exploration attempts properly shift toward more urgent objectives. Finding asteroids to mine for resources or building a lasting human presence on the Moon might offer valuable insight and prepare the groundwork for upcoming Mars missions.
These time objectives could provide a more useful approach while addressing the technical and financial difficulties brought on by Mars invasion.
