SpaceX President claims humans will land on Mars in this decade; sooner on the moon

"We should put people on the surface of Mars in this decade", said Gwynne Shotwell, President and the Chief Operating Officer of SpaceX. Shotwell made this bold prediction in an interview with CNBC's Shepard Smith and even claimed that the Moon landing will happen even sooner. "I think we need to get a large delivery to the surface of Mars, and then people will start thinking harder about it," she added. "And then, I think within five or six years, people will see that that will be a real place to go." 

It is no secret now that SpaceX was established by Elon Musk in 2002 with an aim to make humans a space-faring civilisation; and Musk aims to do that by developing reusable rockets, which would significantly reduce the launch costs, making trips to the moon and even the red planet much cheaper. NASA has also shown confidence in Musk's idea as it has offered a billion-dollar contract for developing the Starship rocket to transport crew and cargo to the moon under the Artemis programme. 

SpaceX's Starship will be the company's ultimate creation as it will be the most powerful and the biggest rocket to ever lift from the face of the Earth. Standing 164 feet (50 metres tall), the Starship is just a little shorter than the Qutub Minar (approximately 73 metres tall) and will eventually be used to transport humans to Mars. The mega-rocket is currently awaiting approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) following which it will conduct a full-scale orbital launch possibly later this year.

Would be surprised if we don't reach Mars within five years: Musk

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, on the other hand, has a separate timeline in his mind and is much sooner than anticipated by Shotwell. In an interview with TIME Magazine in December 2021, Musk said that he would be "surprised" if humans do not reach Mars in the next five years. However, the billionaire's prediction is something that should be taken with a pinch of salt as Musk is known to set early targets but often fails to make the deadlines. 

Recently, in another interview with the head of TED conferences Chris Anderson, Musk revealed that the first leg of human settlement on Mars would not be pleasant. Sharing a 'sales pitch' over a trip to Mars, Musk warned that few of the colonisers might not even "make it back".