Space travel on planets has long been a concept in the realm of science-fiction. Yes, we’ve been on moons. However, it was just once and not repeated. However, now that billionaires such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are investing heavily in rocket technology, space exploration could remain a possibility in the near future.
A recent appearance with The Lex Friedman podcast, Musk spoke about various topics such as artificial technology, intelligence and more. However, one of his comments was notable. Musk claimed that we could place humans to Mars in the ideal scenario in just five years!
Human being living on the surface of Mars in five years?
Five rovers are currently operating in orbit around Mars. Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity, Curiosity and Perseverance, these rovers gather data and transmit images of Mars and back Earth. Scientifically speaking, humans are already living on Mars, So an era similar to The Expanse series is not that far off.
At present, NASA has planned the Artemis 3 mission to the moon in 2025. However, considering the current global situation, we’re not certain if the planned launch can be completed by the time. However, travelling to the moon and Mars are two distinct tasks. The difference is approximately 250,000 km. Let that number take a while to sink in.
At the moment, we aren’t in a position to afford the resources to send humans to Mars; however, If there aren’t any delays or problems in the construction of his Starship version, Musk says we could be seeing people headed to Mars in 2026. However, it’s not as easy as putting astronauts on a spaceship before taking off. The coordination, the money design, engineering, management and logistics processes must all be in place to manage a 225 million-kilometre journey. The old saying goes. If you’ve never tried it, you’ll don’t know.