Musk plans to shift 1 mn people to Mars

New Delhi, Feb 11 (IANS) Billionaire Elon Musk on Sunday announced plans to shift one million people to Mars.

"We are mapping out a game plan to get a million people to Mars," Musk wrote in a post on X.com.

"Civilisation only passes the single-planet Great Filter when Mars can survive even if Earth supply ships stop coming," he added.

He said this in response to a post which said "Starship is the largest rocket ever built and it'll take us to Mars".

"One day, a trip to Mars will be like a flight across the country," replied Musk, to users who asked about the launch of Starship to the Red Planet.

Last week, the SpaceX founder said that the “Starship should be able to make it to the moon in less than 5 years”.

He noted that the SpaceX Dragon spaceship will take astronauts the furthest they’ve been from Earth in over half a century. Musk added that a lot of work will be required to live on Mars.

Further, in January, Musk said he hopes that SpaceX will send humans to the Moon within the next eight years.

"What will things be like eight years from now…I think we will have landed on Mars and I think we will have sent people to the Moon," Musk said.

He also aims to build a base on the Moon.

"Humanity should have a moon base, cities on Mars and be out there among the stars," the X owner said.

"We should have a base on the moon, like a permanently occupied human base on the moon, and then send people to Mars. Maybe there's something beyond the space station, but we'll see," he had said in the past.

Musk also hopes that the third Starship flight test this year will reach orbit and prove the spacecraft can reliably deorbit.