Elon Musk shares glimpse of future Martian colony in new SpaceX animation; WATCH

Tech mogul Elon Musk has had a longstanding goal of settling humans on Mars, a dream which he intends to bring to reality in just a few decades from now. As a step towards manifesting this dream, his company SpaceX is set to launch its Starship rocket for its first-ever orbit flight in 2022. But before any of the events transpires, Musk has shared an animation created by SpaceX, which depicts humanity's journey to Mars and a glimpse of how life will be on the red planet. 

Taking to Twitter, Musk shared the animation with a follow-up tweet that read, "This will be real in our lifetime". The animation shows two mammoth Starships preparing for launch and lifting off from the launch tower which SpaceX has specially built to deploy the approximately 394-foot tall rockets into orbit. The video also shows how the tower would catch the first stage booster, also called Super Heavy, being caught by the launch tower while making a landing. It is worth noting that only the second stage, which would contain cargo and crew will be sent to Mars. 

The final parts of the clip show multiple Starships landing on launch pads built on the red planet and four astronauts, donning the spacesuits designed by SpaceX overlooking the Martian colony. Interestingly, the spacesuits shown in the animation would be tested for real under the Polaris Dawn mission, which is the first of three human spaceflights planned under the Polaris Program starting in late 2022. As for landing humans on Mars, Musk, in an interview with Lex Fridman had said that the "best case is about five years, worst case 10 years."

Starship update

While the preparations to launch Starship in its first orbital flight are at the final stages, a delay in launch approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has led to multiple postponements in the launch. However, Musk had said that he is confident about a launch this year. Once the inaugural launch is complete, SpaceX will conduct the first crewed launch in the third mission of the Polaris Program. 

Image: AP