Elon Musk: Humans to Mars by 2025

Elon Musk has confidence that we (using SpaceX hardware) will be sending people to Mars by 2025, which is a timeline more ambitious than previous timetables by NASA that have humans setting foot on Mars in the 2030s.

Nobody can accuse Elon Musk of not shooting for the stars.

The SpaceX and Tesla founder said this week that he personally wants to visit space within the next five years and thinks that his company will send somebody to Mars by 2025.

Source
Elon Musk Says SpaceX Will Send People to Mars by 2025


Musk is currently working out the general outline for the plan, and will be unveiling that outline this fall,

SpaceX's Mars ambitions have been no secret, but the company has never laid out a formalized plan. Instead, there have been hints, threads, Elon Musk tweets, and the other breadcrumbs that made it seem like something was in the works. And as Eric Berger at Ars Technica reports, we now only have eight agonizing months until we find out what Musk's plan is.

In a talk at the StartmeupHK Festival in Hong Kong, Musk stated that he was prepared to unveil SpaceX's Mars roadmap at the International Astronautical Conference, which will take place from September 26 to 30 in Mexico. And according to Berger, Musk's plan may call for the kick-off of humans to Mars by 2025, a fairly ambitious goal that puts it nearly a decade ahead of NASA's nebulous Mission to Mars plans.

Source:
Elon Musk Ready To Announce Mars Plans This Fall

Here is a video of Musk's talk at the StartmeupHK Festival in Hong Kong where he talks about (among other things) his upcoming plans for sending people to Mars (that part of the talk starts around the 30:00 mark in the video):


Is his timetable too ambitious, and maybe a bit pie-in-the-sky? I'm eager to hear more details of his plans. When he says "first flights to Mars by 2025", I don't know if he means Mars orbit, or if he means a landing/human surface exploration.

Going there is one thing. Actually getting there, something else.

Missions log

a reply to: intrptr

Elon Musk for president someday? this man is one of the few trying to save American labor.

originally posted by: vjr1113
Elon Musk for president someday? this man is one of the few trying to save American labor.

By building some of the most robotic integrated facilities on the planet?

He gets there when Tesla becomes profitable....maybe.

If you desperately need a President in love with their own voice, and full of pie in the sky ideas...Trump is running right now, why wait?

It's that entrepreneurial pioneer spirit of adventure and exploration that we all love. Only someone like that can get there.

Just look at history. All major explorations were dangerous and deadly. How many Spanish explorers died? How many hundreds of the first European settlers to North America died? And then keep in mind that although nations helped fund and sponsor some of these explorers, it was independent explorers not nations that were the first.

It will take a man like Musk to get to Mars. If we wait on NASA, we know we'll never get there.

originally posted by: intrptr

Going there is one thing. Actually getting there, something else.

Missions log

That log shows a history of many failures in the early years, then a mix of success and failure in the middle years, and then many more success in the later years.

It seems to me we are on the right track -- i.e., it's trending positively.

If you throw enough money at something, anything is possible. We went to the moon in a decade. Nothing to Moon in 10 years.

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People

originally posted by: intrptr

Going there is one thing. Actually getting there, something else.

Missions log

That log shows a history of many failures in the early years, then a mix of success and failure in the middle years, and then many more success in the later years.

It seems to me we are on the right track -- i.e., it's trending positively.

Although the trend is positive it is also irrelevant. We have the technology now to send colonists to Mars with in two years if we wanted to. We just have to be brave enough to do it. The only way to do it is to do it. This comes down to analysis paralysis. At some point you have to take the leap.

a reply to: peck420

i said some day maybe, if he's competent. he could have moved to china and promoted cheap labor, im just a sucker for someon that cares about this country. i mean if Reagan can be elected, i dont see why Elon can't. he's obviously very smart.

I'm completely satisfied with the rovers being there for a few more rounds.

No need to send flesh there for a bit, other than a "look what I did" moment.

As a space enthusiast, I think it would be cool. But I really don't see it happening by 2025

originally posted by: Zarniwoop
I'm completely satisfied with the rovers being there for a few more rounds.

No need to send flesh there for a bit, other than a "look what I did" moment.

As a space enthusiast, I think it would be cool. But I really don't see it happening by 2025

We may need to wait until Musk announces his road map in the fall to see whether or not he meant humans on the surface, or just an orbital manned spaceflight by 2025 (unless he is prompted to clarify the StartmeupHK Forum remarks prior to the fall).

It seems to me that it takes long enough to get there that you may as well have the landing vehicle technology ready to go for any manned trip at all. It's not like the three-day Apollo 8 trip to the Moon (and three days back).

Can we send Justin Beiber and the Kardashians?

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

It seems to me that it takes long enough to get there that you may as well have the landing vehicle technology ready to go for any manned trip at all.

Exactly!

No use making that trip just for holiday photos.

I would be more impressed with mining the Moon, Helium-3 would abolish nuclear waste - something that Mankind should be striving for.

originally posted by: Hex1an
I would be more impressed with mining the Moon, Helium-3 would abolish nuclear waste - something that Mankind should be striving for.

Well, it would abolish nuclear waste once they successfully figure out how to make fusion power plants that use helium-3. Nuclear fusion cannot yet be done with any efficiency whatsoever, whether or not we had a large supply of helium-3.

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

I'd expect if we had a large supply it would be easier to trial and error the process, wouldn't it?

Or can that be done with other materials?

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

Yes I should have stated: Potential. You would think that Elon Musk who is the driver of "clean energy innovation" would also see it's potential.

Elon Musk is worth over 12 Billion, mostly from being the founder of Pay Pal and Telsa Motors. I like the way he is spending his fortune, buillding a quality electric car, and living the dream of space flights and the colonizing Mars. Don't underestimate his chances in getting to Mars and back.

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

originally posted by: vjr1113
a reply to: intrptr

Elon Musk for president someday? this man is one of the few trying to save American labor.

I am a huge fan of the guy but, unless you like working all day every day including weekends, I can't see how he reflects "worker's rights". If anything, he represents uncompromising meritocratic entrepreneurism, something I admire.

If SpaceX were to unionize, they wouldn't get an Estes rocket into orbit over their headquarters.

originally posted by: TwiztidRoman
Can we send Justin Beiber and the Kardashians?

I believe there is an international treaty forbidding the intentional pollution of other planets in our solar system.