Elon Musk gives a new deadline to take humans to Mars

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has once again reset the expectations of humanity’s journey to Mars. In a post shared on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) Musk has announced a new deadline for when human could set foot on the Red Planet.

In the post shared Musk said that SpaceX is targetinga Mars mission by the end of 2026, with human landings potentially beginning as early as 2029, he also acknowledged 2031 as a more realistic year for humanity to reach Mars. Recently, Musk replied to a user on X about the Mars mission and wrote, “Mars will start in 5 or 6 years, so will be done in parallel with the Moon, but the Moon will be the initial focus.”Musk revealed that the initial mission will likely be unscrewed with SpaceX’s Starship rocket carrying Tesla’s humanoid robot, Optimus, to Mars.

The robot would perform tasks and prepare the groundwork for future human arrivals. This approach reflects Musk’s long-standing vision of making humanity a multi-planetray species, with Mars serving as the first colony.

SpaceX delays Mars mission

In a recent post, Musk revealed that SpaceX is shifting its near-term focus away from Mars to prioritise building a self-sustaining city on the Moon. Sharing the post, Elon Musk said that a Moon city could be achieved in less than 10 years, while building a city on Mars would take more than two decades.

While the Moon is now the top priority, Musk said SpaceX has not abandoned its Mars plans. “The mission of SpaceX remains the same: extend consciousness and life as we know it to the stars,” Musk wrote on X.

How Trump may have made Elon Musk change his big plan

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has planned to send multiple Starship rockets to Mars in late 2026, taking advantage of a favourable alignment between Earth and Mars. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk also lobbied US President Donald Trump directly, arguing that a Mars landing would cement his legacy as a ‘president of firsts’.

But it seems that this equation has undergone a change. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, under the pressure from NASA and US officials, SpaceX has shifted its course.

The company has now shifted its targets to March 2027 for unscrewed lunar landing, aligning with NASA’s Artemis program.This pivot comes as SpaceX pursues ambitious new ventures, including space-based AI data centers following its merge with Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI, a deal which value the companies at $1.2 trillion. Musk framed the moon as a stepping stone: “The capabilities we unlock by making space-based data centers a reality will fund and enable self-growing bases on the Moon, an entire civilization on Mars and ultimately expansion to the Universe.

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