Humans on Mars by 2024
Image: SpaceX
Of all Musk’s companies, SpaceX has arguably been the most impressive at delivering results. The company has incredibly lucrative contracts with the government launching payloads like spy satellites into space and Starlink satellite internet has expanded access in hard-to-serve corners of the globe.
But Musk’s predictions for space have also been some of the most ridiculous, especially when he’s put a timetable on plans for getting humans to Mars—like the time he imagined there might be humans there by 2024.
“I’m hopeful that the first people could be taken to Mars in 10 to 12 years, I think it’s certainly possible for that to occur,” Musk told CNBC in June 2014.
Musk reiterated that he wants to build a city on Mars, something he’s talked about for a very long time, even claiming that he’d like to die on the red planet (presumably of old age).
“But the thing that matters long term is to have a self-sustaining city on Mars, to make life multi-planetary,” Musk said.
We’re still quite a ways from putting humans on Mars, as we’re currently doing our best to just return to the Moon. Space enthusiasts would obviously love to see a person set foot on Mars, even if the details of Musk’s plans for a colony of 1 million people on the planet are weird and unrealistic.
