Elon Musk remains set on reaching the surface of Mars in 2026. For this year’s mission to Mars, human astronauts will not be essential. The SpaceX mission remains focused on establishing a self-sufficient city on one of Earth’s nearest neighboring planets. Nevertheless, for this year’s mission, Starship will bring”mankind’s ambassador” to the planet instead of human astronauts.

Where does Starship fit in when discussing the mission to Mars?

Starship is central to the mission of SpaceX to reach Mars. Starship is a Super Heavy and reusable rocket that was designed to carry both humans and cargo to the Red Planet. Delivering more or less 150 metric tonnes to orbit, Starship had been created while keeping the idea of a powerful rocket in mind.

The powerful rocket would not just need to be able to take humans to Mars. To set up a base on the planet, humans require transport, life-support systems, power generation equipment, and survival supplies that would ensure life on Mars is far easier. The focus when creating a rocket fell on creating one that could be reused and frequently launched to the planet. Launching more than once to Mars is important for the project to become a reality.

Why has Musk and SpaceX turned the focus to life on Mars?

Before human habitats are established on this heavily studied planet, cargo delivery will occur first. Mars was the chosen planet from all the other planets in the Solar System since it is merely 140 million miles away from Earth. This means that it will take more or less 6 months to get to this planet with traditionally used propulsion methods.

Favourable distance from Earth was a key consideration, but the similarity to Earth mattered as well. With the length of day on Mars being 24 hours and 37 minutes, the duration is very similar to daylight hours on our planet. Also, the gravity on Mars is similar to the gravity that we are used to on Earth, allowing humans to perform tasks daily and carry heavy loads. The logic is that with gravity and daylight hours being similar to what humans are used to, it will be easier for humankind to adapt to the planet with a reddish hue.

The mission of creating a viable city on Mars

The missions that will take place are not at all the end goal. According to Musk, the main purpose is to establish a city on the planet that will consist of one million people. The goal also includes the ability to transport tons of cargo to Mars. For this mission, Starships will be launched at least 10 times daily. The Earth-Mars transfer window will open every 26 months.

To put the mission into perspective, thousands of spaceships will be relied on for transporting people and cargo to the planet to build the correct infrastructure for enabling human life beyond Earth. The fact that Mars receives sunshine, solar power generation methods on the planet have also been considered. While the solar power generation mission on Mars is ambitious, Musk’s plan by Musk of cybertrucks reaching Mars seemed equally as over the top, yet it showed how serious SpaceX is about this mission.

“Mankind’s Ambassador” to achieve the short-term mission

While the SpaceX mission’s long-term ambitions seem rather enthusiastic, the short-term mission that will occur this year will be a robotic ambassador mission. The initial mission will not carry human astronauts, but a non-human payload that is set to represent Earth on Mars. This will be essential to find out what technologies will be needed in space. While some may feel disappointed by the fact that astronauts will not establish humanity’s place on Mars just yet, this is the stepping stone to setting the foundations for humankind in space.

Musk is rather keen to establish humanity on another planet, as he has already sent a warning to all of humankind that Mars may be the only place where humans will remain.