In 2011, Elon Musk said he would put a man on Mars in the next 10 years. A decade later, the internet wants to know what happened to his promise.
Elon Musk, counted among the world’s richest men today, has long said he wants to make humanity a “multiplanetary species” by establishing a colony on Mars. To this end, his company SpaceX is developing a prototype rocket, Starship, capable of carrying crew and cargo to Mars and beyond. But the mission to put people on Mars has long been in the works. About a decade earlier, Musk had said that humanity would land on the Red Planet in 10 years in the best case scenario.
During an interview with Wall Street Journal’s Alan Murray, which originally aired in April 2011, Musk was pressed to give a time frame as to when humans could land on Mars.
“Best case, 10 years. Worst case, 15 to 20 years,” Musk responded, adding that SpaceX wanted to be like the “shipping company” that brought people from Europe to America. You can watch the interview here.
Now, a little more than 10 years later, the interview has resurfaced online. In further proof (if any were needed) that the internet never forgets, a Twitter user shared a screenshot of Musk’s quote.
pic.twitter.com/AO6WqO2XJIRelated stories
— Wild Geerters (@steinkobbe) May 30, 2022
The Tesla and SpaceX chief, meanwhile, spoke more about his Mars mission yesterday. In a tweet addressed to Jack Dorsey, Musk said he was hopeful of getting people on Mars by 2029.
2029 feels like a pivotal year. I’d be surprised if we don’t have AGI by then. Hopefully, people on Mars too.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 30, 2022
When Pune-based techie Pranay Pathole asked him how confident he was of completing Starship's first crew mission to Mars before 2030, Musk responded, “Still early stages on that. Getting Starship reliably to orbit, then achieving full & immediate reusability of both stages is by far top priority.”
In February, in his first detailed progress report on the project since 2019, Musk recapped his ultimate vision for colonizing Mars as a "life insurance" in case of catastrophe on Earth, and as the first step in expanding humanity's footprint beyond the solar system.
(With inputs from AFP)
