For decades, sending humans on the 140 million-mile journey from Earth to Mars has seemed like a distant pipedream.
But as SpaceX successfully lands its Starship rocket booster, Elon Musk says that trips to the Red Planet could be common within 30 years.
Yesterday, the 71-metre-tall (242 ft) Super Heavy booster propelled a 3,000-tonne rocket into orbit before being safely caught back on the launch pad.
The powerful spacecraft’s huge cargo capacity could allow it to take more than 100 passengers to Mars in a single trip, raising hopes for a future Martian settlement.Â
Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Musk said: ‘If civilization is reasonably stable for the next ~30 years, a self-sustaining city of a million+ people will be built on Mars.’
The Super Heavy booster is used to carry the SpaceX Starship spacecraft into orbit. After five minutes the booster detaches and flies back down to Earth where it is caught by the ‘Mechazilla’ arms of the landing platformÂ
As SpaceX successfully lands its Super Heavy booster, Elon Musk says that the rocket could help establish a city on Mars by 2054
In a post on X, Musk wrote that a city of a million people could be established on Mars within the next 30 yearsÂ
Yesterday’s success was the fifth test of SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and the first time that a launch of this powerful new rocket has been a complete success.
The rocket took off from Boca Chica starbase in Texas at 7:25 am local time (13:25 BST).
After five minutes of burning, the rocket’s fifth-stage booster, known as ‘Super Heavy’, had pushed Starship 40 (65km) miles out of the atmosphere.
Having used all of its 3,400 tonnes of fuel, Super Heavy detached and left the upper stages to boost the rocket to an altitude of 90 miles (145km).
The Starship spacecraft then travelled at 17,000 mph (27,350 kmph), looping around the planet and splashing down into the Indian Ocean an hour later.
On X, Elon Musk’s frequent collaborator and former SpaceX mission captain Jared Isaacman shared an artist’s impression showing several Starship spacecraft outside a Martian settlement, asking: ‘Do you believe now?’Â
However, the most technically challenging moment of the mission came as the Super Heavy booster made its way back to Earth.
Using its fins and thrusters, the booster navigated back down to the launch pad where it was caught in the chopstick-like arms of the ‘Mechazilla’ launch tower.
In a jubilant post on X, Elon Musk wrote: ‘The tower has caught the rocket!!’
As the booster touched down, Kate Tice, a SpaceX spokesperson commentating on the landing, added: ‘Folks, this is a day for the engineering history books.’
While this is undoubtedly a big moment for SpaceX, the consequences for the future of human space travel could be even larger.
Speaking about Starship, Musk has frequently said that this rocket will be the basis of future Martian exploration.
Starship (pictured) was launched from Boca Chica starbase in Texas at 7:25 am local time (13:25 BST) and hit a top speed of 17,000 mph (27,350 kmph)
Super Heavy’s 33 ‘Raptor’ engines produce a staggering 16.6 million lbs (74.3 meganewtons) of force – 700 times more than a commercial aeroplane
The booster allows SpaceX to launch the 50-metre-tall Starship craft at supersonic speeds while carrying up to 150 tonnes of cargoÂ
In September, Musk said that up to eight Starship missions could fly to Mars when the next Earth-to-Mars transfer window opens in November 2026.
Those first missions would be uncrewed, to test whether the spacecraft is capable of landing on Mars, but Musk says that human-crewed flights will follow in four years.
Writing in a post on X, Musk said: ‘Flight rate will grow exponentially from there, with the goal of building a self-sustaining city in about 20 years.
‘Being multiplanetary will vastly increase the probable lifespan of consciousness, as we will no longer have all our eggs, literally and metabolically, on one planet.’
The idea is that Super Heavy boosters will push the Starship into orbit where it will temporarily ‘park’.
Super Heavy (pictured) is able to use its booster to guide itself back down towards the launch platformÂ
This successful fifth test of Starship has raised hopes that future missions to Mars may be made possible using the spacecraftÂ
The spacecraft could then be refuelled by a SpaceX ‘tanker’ – essentially a Starship without windows – before continuing on its journey to Mars.
What makes Starship particularly well suited to this purpose is its high speed, large capacity, and reusability.
Super Heavy’s 33 ‘Raptor’ engines produce a staggering 16.6 million lbs (74.3 meganewtons) of force.
That is 700 times the kick of the most common commercial passenger planes and twice as much power as the Saturn V rocket which first took humans to the surface of the Moon.
This makes it possible to launch a 50-metre-tall Starship spacecraft at the supersonic speeds needed to reach Mars in around nine months.
The unique chopstick-style catching mechanism is also critical for the rocket’s success.
On X, Elon Musk wrote: ‘The tower has caught the rocket!!’Â
In the future, Starship spacecraft could be met by ‘tankers’ in orbit to refuel before continuing their journey to MarsÂ
Instead of having heavy legs like SpaceX’s Falcon-9 boosters, Super Heavy forgoes any means of landing by itself.
By shifting that weight into the landing platform, Super Heavy frees up capacity to boost Starship’s payload capacity to between 100 and 150 tonnes.
Musk says that this could allow the spacecraft to comfortably carry 100 people per flight to Mars with room to take more than 200 at a push.
By catching the booster on the landing pad, SpaceX could also dramatically reduce the time between launches.
Writing on X after the landing, Musk wrote: ‘Starship is designed to achieve reflight of its rocket booster ultimately within an hour after liftoff.
Elon Musk says that catching the booster saves weight and allows for the stage to be used again very quickly. This could pave the way for the launches needed to establish a human settlement on MarsÂ
On X, Musk wrote that the Super Heavy booster is designed to be launched once every hour. This test revealed only minor damage to the outer engine nozzles which could be ‘easily addressed’
‘The booster returns within ~5 minutes, so the remaining time is reloading propellant and placing a ship on top of the booster.’
In theory, that could allow for the near-continuous launches needed to establish a viable civilisation on Mars.
However, despite the advancements in rocket technology, it will still be a long time before Starship takes anyone to the Red Planet.
The spacecraft has not yet been tested with a human crew, nor are any crewed missions currently planned.
The next big challenge for Starship will be the NASA Artemis missions to the Moon.
The US space agency wants to use a modified version of Starship to transport crew and cargo to the moon with the goal of establishing a permanent lunar presence.
Although the mission has been pushed back, SpaceX could make the first American moon landing since the Apollo era by September 2026.