Gregory Robinson
Elon Musk has given his fans a taster of how he plans to land humans on Mars within the next five to 10 years with a brand new animated short.
SpaceX has released the new animated clip which provides an idea of how humans will reach Mars via Musk’s $3 billion (£2.4 billion) Starship. Watch the clip for yourself below.
In the dramatic clip, which has truly stunning animated imagery and an out of this world soundtrack, the spacecraft can be seen perched on the launchpad to prepare for lift-off into space. The first stage rocket will detach from a humongous rocket booster which will propel it into orbit.
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The launch vehicle has 33 Raptor engines which are capable of generating 17 million pounds of lift-off thrust.
Nicki Minaj did tell us that ‘Starships were meant to fly,’ and it seems she was on to something.
The spacecraft will then return to the launchpad and it all looks absolutely incredible.
The second part of the five-minute clip will probably inspire the most awe. The animation depicts Musk’s vision many years into the future in which dozens of Starship space vehicles come and go with the help of launching pads.
We also see the SpaceX Starship descent on Mars, when it becomes clear that the trip we just watched isn’t the first one and there appears to be human settlement on the Red Planet in a giant dome.
This means that Musk and co are betting on the success of SpaceX’s Starship for many, many years to come.
No spaceship is capable of transporting humans to Mars at the moment, but that could all change if Musk’s plans follow through.
The creation of the SpaceX Starship is part of the Twitter CEO’s vision to make humans ‘multi-planetary species’ by creating a human colony on Mars, with the hopes of building cities.
The SpaceX Starship will be able to carry up to 100 people to Mars on a journey that is 250 times further than the trip to the Moon. This means passengers will be en route for around six months.
Mars has been chosen as a possible alternative home for humans because, at an average distance of 140 million miles, the Red Planet is one of Earth’s closest habitable neighbours. It has decent sunlight, albeit a little cold, plus it’s atmosphere is primarily CO2 with some nitrogen which means plants can be grown on mars by compressing the atmosphere, according to the SpaceX website.
When can you start thinking about ditching our Blue Planet, you ask?
Back in March 2022, Musk tweeted that he now sees 2029 as the earliest possible date to get humans on Mars.
Which means we have lots of time to pack.