On January 9, 2025, many global media outlets discussed a conversation between Trump’s chief advisor, Elon Musk, and Alice Weidel, co-chair of Germany’s right-wing party, Alternative for Germany (AfD). The focus was on European political nuances and historical issues.
However, Musk’s revision of the Mars exploration timeline during the discussion went largely unnoticed. When Weidel quizzed Musk about the manned expedition to Mars, Musk said that he plans to send unmanned spacecraft to the planet in about two years and manned missions in approximately four years.
During the election campaign in October and November 2024, Musk and Trump had already mentioned these timelines. During his second presidential term, Trump specifically expressed his hope to plant an American flag on Mars. Many dismissed this as campaign rhetoric, given NASA’s planned Mars timeline of 2040.
Musk is now stating unequivocally that Mars colonization will take place during Trump’s second term in office.
This appears to be the foundation for implementing Trump’s key political slogan: “Make America Great Again.”
Because history remembers more than economic indicators.
Space exploration remains humanity’s ultimate dream, both in the 20th and 21st centuries.
The first Soviet satellite, Gagarin’s space mission, and the landing of American astronauts on the Moon all contributed to the greatness of nations.
Musk chose Trump to realize his dream, while Trump chose Musk to achieve his political aspirations.
During the campaign, Musk repeatedly stated that he fully decided to support Trump after the first assassination attempt on July 13, 2024.
Interestingly, just before the attempt, on July 12, 2024, The New York Times published an article stating that for over two decades, Elon Musk has directed his rocket company SpaceX toward achieving the goal of his life—reaching Mars. The article also revealed that the 53-year-old Musk had instructed SpaceX employees to explore the design and details of a Martian city, citing five sources familiar with the project and documents reviewed by The New York Times.
The US media reports that one team is developing plans for small domed habitats, including materials for their construction. Another team is developing spacesuits to withstand Mars’ harsh environment, and a medical team is investigating the feasibility of human childbirth on the planet. Musk’s timeline has expedited, and these emerging initiatives indicate a transition to more tangible strategies for the development of life on Mars. In 2016, Musk predicted that it would require 40 to 100 years to establish a self-sustaining civilization on the planet. However, in April 2024, he informed SpaceX employees that he now anticipates a population of one million people on Mars within the next 20 years.
In 2016, SpaceX founder Elon Musk stated during his presentation at the International Astronautical Congress that rockets developed by his company would be capable of transporting 100 passengers to Mars at a time.
There’s a critical need to make life multi-planetary, he said, according to a video of his remarks. He further stated that it should be accomplished while civilization remains strong.
Musk has long sought to challenge the impossible and often succeeded in difficult situations. However, his vision of life on Mars pushes his seemingly boundless ambitions to their extreme—and some might say absurd—limits. No one has ever stepped foot on the planet. NASA does not anticipate the launch of humans to Mars until the 2040s. Even if humans are able to reach their destination, they will encounter desolate landscapes, freezing temperatures, dust storms, and unbreathable air.
Yet Musk is so committed to creating a civilization on Mars—he once said he plans to die there—that this ambition has driven almost all of his business ventures on Earth. According to documents and people familiar with these efforts, his vision for Mars is at the heart of most of the six companies he runs or owns, each of which could potentially contribute to building an extraterrestrial colony.
For instance, two sources claim that Musk partly founded The Boring Company, his private tunneling venture, to prepare equipment for drilling beneath Mars’ surface. Musk has also shared that he acquired X, a social media platform, partly to test how a consensus-based civic government could function on Mars. He believes Martian residents will drive Tesla-built Cybertrucks with steel panels.
Musk’s net worth increased from $270 billion in 2024 to $432 billion as of January 2025. He has publicly stated that he is amassing assets—including a Tesla payout package worth about $47 billion—to fund his plans for Mars.
This is a strategy to transport humanity to Mars, given that the construction of a self-sustaining city there will necessitate significant resources. Musk testified in court regarding his Tesla salary in 2022.
Musk has been discussing Mars for years, and SpaceX unveiled two significant colony designs in 2018. However, the company’s transition to civilization planning remains largely unreported. Musk has largely kept colonization plans under wraps, partly because SpaceX is under a $2.9 billion NASA contract to send rockets to the Moon first, according to two people familiar with the company.
Saving Humanity
Isaac Asimov’s science fiction novel Foundation (1951) sparked Musk’s interest in Mars at the age of 10. The protagonist of the novel establishes colonies throughout the galaxy in order to protect humanity from the implosion of an interstellar empire.
Musk explained in a 2013 interview for a science video that they located a planet that is remote from the galaxy’s center and endeavored to preserve human knowledge and civilization as the galaxy’s core disintegrates.
Jim Cantrell, a former SpaceX employee who traveled with Musk to Russia that year, stated that Musk attempted to purchase a Russian rocket in 2001 to reach Mars. The Russians declined to sell after three visits. Musk also declared that the Soviet rocket’s exorbitant price prompted him to construct it independently.
In 2002, Musk established SpaceX, a private corporation located in Hawthorne, California. Ultimately, it secured government contracts, including those with NASA, and developed partially reusable rockets. SpaceX introduced Starlink, a satellite internet service that has expanded globally, in recent years.
SpaceX built Starship, a nearly 400-foot reusable rocket, in order to reach Mars. The primary objective of the Starship is to transport NASA astronauts to the Moon. However, it has the potential to transport residents to Mars or function as a small space station in the future.
According to three individuals who are knowledgeable about the rocket’s design, a future iteration of Starship may incorporate living accommodation in its nose cone. These quarters would consist of multiple floors and would include amenities such as a movie theater and a treadmill.
In his 2016 presentation, Musk revealed that Starship could carry 100 passengers to Mars every two years. According to NASA, the journey to Mars, which is approximately 140 million miles from Earth, could last up to nine months.
SpaceX engineers, university researchers, and other individuals convened a confidential meeting in Colorado in 2018 to discuss survival technologies for Mars. According to meeting records obtained by The Times, the subjects of the discussion included the extraction of ice for water and the selection of suitable sites for colony construction.
By 2023, the most recent versions of the Starship were being built at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas. For the first time, Starship successfully returned from a demonstration flight in space in June 2024.
Planning the Colony
Musk has provided multiple signals regarding the potential for human settlement on Mars over the years.
One subject pertains to the continuation of human existence on Earth. Scientists have yet to ascertain whether humans are capable of reproducing in space. Musk anticipates that children will eventually live on Mars, despite the fact that safety concerns might prevent them from participating in the first Mars flights.
However, Musk has a strategy. He expressed his aspiration to establish his own species on Mars in a 2013 interview for a science documentary, a sentiment that he has consistently expressed to SpaceX employees and other individuals associated with the company.
In an interview, he expressed his belief that the bioengineering of a new organism, better suited for life on Mars, would be necessary. He added that humanity has achieved this through selective breeding over time.
He also has strategies for warmth. In a 2022 podcast interview, Musk suggested combating the planet’s freezing temperatures with a series of nuclear explosions to create artificial suns. Hundreds of solar panels, potentially built by Tesla, could heat homes and generate power, according to three people familiar with his plans.
In the summer of 2024, Elon Musk’s statements transitioned into more concrete planning by SpaceX employees.
According to two sources, the industrial design team was developing and revising visualizations for the Mars city. A large dome will serve as the focal point of the colony, with lesser domes positioned in its vicinity. In recent times, there has been a focus on the materials that should be employed to construct the domes. Musk is particularly concerned with the city’s “cool” appearance, according to two other individuals.
In April 2024, Musk informed SpaceX employees that the Martian colony would need to be self-sustaining in case something happened to Earth, preventing rockets from returning there.
To achieve this, Musk envisions using the Starship rocket as a kind of Noah’s Ark, transporting plants and animals on its initial journey, according to three sources familiar with the plans. Residents would then build greenhouses on Mars to grow food.
Impossible Foods, a company that specializes in plant-based meat alternatives, has entered into a partnership with SpaceX to provide food for the company’s cafeterias and to evaluate its products as a potential protein source for Mars, according to two sources.
Is Civilization in Good Hands?
A significant number of SpaceX’s more than 12,000 employees, including Musk, are optimistic about the possibility of life on an extraterrestrial planet, according to documents reviewed by The Times and testimonies from individuals who are acquainted with the organization. Employees occasionally don “Occupy Mars” T-shirts to work and submit proposals for the Martian colony on the company’s internal website. A recent concept suggested building the city on the slope of a significant crater.
Employees in Boca Chica, Texas spearheaded SpaceX’s Mars plans in the summer of 2024, with others commuting from the Southern California office. These employees frequently worked more than 100 hours per week, and some claimed that the intense effort was worthwhile to realize the vision of a Martian colony.
Collaboration with NASA on Mars Sample Return (MSR)
NASA’s Mars Sample Return (MSR) initiative, which aims to retrieve rock samples collected by the Perseverance rover, aligns with Elon Musk’s Mars strategy. The rover has been collecting these samples, sealed in titanium tubes, for nearly four years now.
NASA presented two alternatives for the retrieval and return of these samples on January 7, 2025. One approach employs a conventional architecture that employs a “sky crane” landing mechanism, which is comparable to previous Mars missions. The other alternative involves the outsourcing of the landing module to commercial space companies.
President-elect Donald Trump made the final choice, appointing businessman Jared Isaacman to lead the agency as its 15th administrator.
Funding Challenges
NASA stated the MSR program is financially unsustainable in 2024, despite its initial budget of $11 billion. A revised proposal by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) suggests a cost reduction of $6.6–$7.7 billion. This simplified method eliminates redundant rovers and incorporates lighter landers, instead using Perseverance to transfer sample containers to a retrieval lander.
NASA is currently developing critical components for an alternative, commercial-heavy lander approach, which includes a return rocket, a nuclear power source, and a robotic limb. The estimated cost of this approach is $5.1–$7.1 billion. In order to return the samples to Earth by 2035, or potentially 2039, both methods would necessitate multiple launches and an orbiting vehicle from the European Space Agency (ESA).
SpaceX’s Role in MSR
NASA’s current partnership with SpaceX for the lunar Starship program suggests that Starship could be instrumental in MSR. The spacecraft’s capacity to land on Mars renders it an ideal candidate for commercial involvement. Musk’s initiative to expedite Mars missions establishes Starship as a critical component of NASA’s and SpaceX’s strategies.
Musk and Trump’s Vision for Space and Bureaucracy Reform
President Trump directly linked Musk’s appointment to lead U.S. government reform to Mars exploration. Throughout his campaign, Musk criticized bureaucratic inefficiencies, likening the slow pace of paperwork to the speed of constructing a mega-rocket. In September 2024, Musk stated, “You can’t let paper move slower than a rocket.”
Overcoming Bureaucracy
It is uncertain whether Musk and Trump will be able to surmount the bureaucratic obstacles in the United States, but their mutual aspiration renders no other option. Bold reforms may be the sole viable alternative as Mars exploration and colonization intensify.