A Mars mission could launch as soon as the end of next year, SpaceX owner Elon Musk announced Thursday.
In a video posted by SpaceX, Musk showed how the company’s Starship would make an orbital transfer from Earth to Mars, noting there’s a transit window that opens every 26-months, and that the soonest opportunity happens in 2026.
“The actual distance traveled on the arc is close to 1000x further than the moon,” Musk told employees during an event in Starbase, Texas. “So you can’t just go to Mars, you have to create this elliptical orbit with Earth at one point and Mars at the far end of the ellipse, and then time where you are in that ellipse to intersect with Mars.”
He added: “The next Mars opportunity is at the end of next year in about 18 months.”
“I think we’ll probably have a 50-50 chance right now because we’ve got to figure out orbital refilling in order to have enough capability to go to Mars. But if we achieve orbital refilling in time, then we will launch the first uncrewed Starship to Mars at the end of next year.”
According to the SpaceX website:
Establishing a self-sufficient city on Mars will require upwards of one million people and millions of tonnes of cargo to be delivered to the Red planet. By launching more than 10 times per day to maximize transfer windows that open up every approximately 26 months, several thousand Starships will ultimately transfer crew and equipment to build a lasting presence on another world.
“So with each launch — especially in the early days of Starship — each launch is about learning more and more about what’s needed to make life multiplanetary and to improve Starship to the point where it can be taking, ultimately, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people to Mars,” Musk said.
The tech entrepreneur said the first goal would be landing Tesla’s Optimus robot on the red planet.
“That would be an epic picture — to see Optimus walking around on the surface of Mars,” he said.
Watch Musk’s full announcement:
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