Elon Musk has once again stunned the world with an ambitious prediction: within 20 years, humanity could establish a self-sustaining city on Mars, home to one million people.
The SpaceX and Tesla founder revealed that the first human landing on Mars could happen as early as 2029, calling it a historic milestone in space exploration.
According to Deutsche Welle, Musk stated on his platform X (formerly Twitter) that SpaceX plans to launch a mission in 2026, aiming to send Tesla's humanoid robot, Optimus, to Mars aboard the Starship rocket.
If successful, the mission could pave the way for a manned landing by 2029, though Musk admits that 2031 is a more realistic timeframe.
Speaking in an interview with U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and others, Musk emphasized that building a self-sufficient city on Mars is essential for the survival of human civilization.
“We need to build a city on Mars as soon as possible,” he said, “so that even if something catastrophic happens on Earth, Martian civilization can survive independently.”
Musk envisions that such a Martian city would require the recreation of Earth’s industrial infrastructure under harsh conditions.
The initial step, he says, would be constructing glass dome habitats to make Mars livable for humans.
The Starship rocket is at the heart of Musk’s Mars vision.
This fully reusable heavy-lift rocket is also set to support NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the Moon.
Eventually, the same technology is intended to carry humans to Mars.
However, challenges remain.
SpaceX has yet to successfully complete a Starship launch followed by recovery, raising questions about the rocket’s safety and reliability.
Regulatory hurdles from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Musk’s often tense relationship with the U.S. government could also complicate the timeline.
Reuters reported in November 2024 that U.S. President Donald Trump may prioritize Mars colonization as a national goal, even planning to declare it during his January 2025 inaugural speech: “We will plant the American flag on Mars.” While this could provide political momentum for Musk’s vision, it also injects a degree of uncertainty.
As for what might be found on Mars, Musk speculates that humans may not encounter living alien life, but could discover ancient remnants of extraterrestrial civilizations—or even microbial life hidden beneath the planet’s surface.
“It’s possible,” he noted.