Musk: SpaceX will send humans to Mars in 5 years at the latest 10 years

Tesla CEO Elon Musk reportedly said today that its space exploration technology company SpaceX will send humans to Mars in about 5 years at the earliest.

Today, Musk was interviewed by podcaster Lex Fridman. Asked "when will SpaceX send humans to Mars," Musk paused for 20 seconds before saying, "5 years at the latest, 10 years at the latest." ”

Musk told Friedman that the deciding factors included "rocket engineering." "Starship is the most complex and advanced rocket ever built," he said. Musk also said: "The fundamental optimization of Starship is to minimize the cost of each orbit entry. ”

As for when SpaceX will be able to reach and land on Mars, Musk has previously given different dates. In an interview on the audio social app Clubhouse in February, Musk said it would take about "five and a half years" for the SpaceX manned starship to land on Mars.

In March, Musk said on Twitter that SpaceX would land Starship on Mars by 2030.

Earlier this month, Musk also said in an interview with Time magazine: "I would be surprised if we can't get to Mars in five years." ”

Previous experts have said that if SpaceX's progress is not smooth enough in the three remaining launch opportunities before 2026, it may take longer to land on Mars.

Musk's ultimate plan is to build 1,000 Starship rockets that launch 3 a day and eventually send 1 million people to Mars.