Elon Musk has predicted when he hopes to finally land Starship on Mars – the first step in his bid to create a "self-sustaining city" on the Red Planet.
The Tesla tycoon made an appearance via video link at the International Astronautical Congress in Baku, Azerbijan, today (Thursday, October 5) where he was quizzed about the future of SpaceX. Asked to guess when the company's super heavy-lift launch vehicle might finally touch down on our neighbour planet, Musk said it could happen soon.
"I think three or four years," the X boss said. "Something like that.
READ MORE: Elon Musk weighs in on whether aliens exist because 'if anyone would know it's him'
For the latest news from the Daily Star, click here.
"Earth and Mars have orbital synchronisation about every 26 months, so you can’t fly to Mars when it’s on the other side of the sun," he added. "Roughly every 26 months the orbits are in the right relative position and you have the Mars transport window.
"I think it’s sort of feasible within the next four years to do an uncrewed test landing."
Starship is currently under development and suffered a failed launch earlier this year from Starbase in Texas, US. It is the largest and most powerful rocket flown to date, boasting an eye-watering liftoff mass of 5000 metric tonnes.
Landing Starship on Mars would be the first step in Musk's goal to colonise the planet. In a SpaceX animated clip released earlier this year, the billionaire demonstrated what life might one day look like if we ditched Earth for its next-door neighbour.
-
Star Wars fan encouraged to kill late Queen by AI chatbot wanted to 'create new empire'
He previously claimed humans reaching Mars was "possible" in 5 years and "highly likely" in a decade.
And it's not the only revelation from Musk's interview this evening. The social media mogul also weighed in on the debate about aliens, declaring "if anyone would know, it would probably be me."
"People often ask me if I’ve seen any evidence of aliens and I unfortunately have seen no evidence of aliens yet," he told the crowd. "We are the aliens, as far as I can tell.
"I’ve not seen any evidence of aliens. So, what that perhaps suggests is that this tiny candle of consciousness that is humanity is all that exists in a vast darkness, and we should do everything we can to ensure that the candle does not go out."
For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletter by clicking here.
Source: Read Full Article