Last Sunday (22nd) Eastern Time, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk revealed his "Mars program". He posted on X that the company plans to conduct approximately five unmanned starship missions to Mars within two years.
Musk stated on Sunday that the schedule for the first manned flight mission will depend on the success of the unmanned mission. If the unmanned flight mission lands safely, the manned mission will be launched within four years. However, if SpaceX encounters a challenge, the manned mission will be postponed for another two years.
Earlier this month, Musk stated that the first interstellar spacecraft to Mars would be launched in two years, "when the next Earth Mars transfer window opens. The distance between Earth and Mars varies over time, and the launch window for Mars probes is approximately once every 26 months.
However, all of this is just Musk's beautiful vision, and the company's starship preparation time often changes. For example, earlier this year, NASA postponed the Artemis 3 mission from the originally planned end of 2025 to September 2026. This mission is the first manned lunar landing by the United States in half a century, and will use SpaceX's Starship spacecraft.
In addition, in June of this year, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa cancelled a private lunar mission he had planned to pay for, which was originally planned to use SpaceX's starship, citing uncertainty in the development progress of the starship.
According to SpaceX, the Starship is a recyclable and reusable space transportation system. The rocket has a total length of about 120 meters and a diameter of about 9 meters, consisting of two parts. The first stage is a "super heavy" booster that is about 70 meters long, and the second stage is a reusable "starship" spacecraft that is about 50 meters long. Its design goal is to send people and goods into Earth's orbit, the Moon, Mars, and more, with the capability to carry over 100 tons of payload into Earth's orbit.
The Starship conducted its first test launch in April 2023, but the rocket exploded before the first and second stages separated. Subsequently, two more test launches were conducted, both of which failed to achieve the expected goals. In June of this year, the "Starship" completed its fourth test launch and achieved a soft landing on the sea surface for the first time.
Musk has always hoped that Starship can achieve his goal of creating a next-generation large multi-purpose spacecraft that can send people and cargo to the moon later this decade and ultimately fly to Mars.
Musk stated earlier this year that the first unmanned starship will land on Mars within five years, and the first batch of humans will land on Mars within seven years. He previously stated that once the manned Mars exploration mission is successful, the space journey to Mars will grow exponentially, with the goal of building self-sufficient cities on Mars within 20 years.