# SpaceX Mars Colonization Program

SpaceX Mars colonization program (also referred to as Occupy Mars colloquially) is a planned objective of the company SpaceX and particularly of its founder Elon Musk to colonize Mars. The main element of this ambition is the plan to establish a self-sustained large scale settlement and colony on Mars, claiming self-determination under direct democracy. The main motivation behind this is the belief that the colonization of Mars allows humanity to become multiplanetary and therefore secures the long-term survival of the human species in case of Earth being rid of human life.
Colonization is to be achieved via the development and use of reusable and mass-produced super heavy-lift launch vehicles called Starship. Starship has been referred to as the "holy grail of rocketry" for extraplanetary colonization.
These plans for colonization have garnered both praise and criticism, being supported as a result of public excitement for further human involvement beyond Earth and a desire to prefer human longevity, and being questioned for its existential perspective, execution, livability and legality.

## History

Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, has engaged in space advocacy relating to the colonization of Mars since at least 2001 at the Mars Society.$^{:30–31}$
As early as 2007, Elon Musk publicly stated a personal goal of eventually enabling human exploration and settlement of Mars.
Subsequently, SpaceX has stated its goal is to colonize Mars to ensure the long-term survival of the human species, proposing since the 2000s and early 2010s different concepts for reaching Mars, including space tugs.

### Red Dragon

Red Dragon was a 2011–2017 concept mission which would have used a modified Dragon 2 spacecraft as a low-cost Mars lander. If flown, it would have been launched on a Falcon Heavy, and land solely via the use of its SuperDraco retro-propulsion thrusters, as parachutes would have required significant vehicle modifications.
In 2011, SpaceX planned on proposing Red Dragon for the Discovery Mission #13, which would launch in 2022, but it was not submitted. It was then proposed in 2014 as a low-cost way for NASA to achieve a Mars sample return by 2021. In the concept, the Red Dragon capsule would be equipped with the system needed to return samples gathered on Mars. NASA did not fund this concept.
In 2016, SpaceX planned on launching two Red Dragon vehicles in 2018, with NASA providing technical support instead of funding. However, in 2017, Red Dragon was cancelled, in favor of the much larger Starship spacecraft.

### Starship

The company's current plan was first formally proposed at the 2016 International Astronautical Congress alongside a fully-reusable launch vehicle, the Interplanetary Transport System. Since then, the launch vehicle was renamed to "Starship", and has been in development since.
The development program reached multiple milestones in 2024 such as on its third test flight, it reached its desired trajectory for the first time and on its fourth flight test, both stages of the vehicle achieved controlled splashdown after launch for the first time. The company has given many estimates of dates of the first human landing on Mars; the most recent discussion of which occurred during a company all hands meeting in April 2024.

## Composition
### Goals

As early as 2007, Elon Musk stated a personal goal of eventually enabling human exploration and settlement of Mars.
SpaceX has stated its goal is to colonize Mars to ensure the long-term survival of the human species.

### Launch system

SpaceX has been setting up since 2014 a facility called Starbase and more recently a factory called Starfactory on the previously populated and wildlife area Boca Chica (Texas) peninsula in the Rio Grande delta at the Gulf of Mexico, partly justified by SpaceX with its colonial perspective, to launch and build an in development fully reusable super heavy-lift launch vehicle with the name Starship. Aiming with its rusability to drastically reduce launch costs and scaled construction and swift maintenance between flights,$^{:2}$ this has been the basis for SpaceX to advance its Mars ambitions and when operational will allow it to provide the necessary transportation capabilities for its colonial goals. The reusability and its resulting reduced launch costs is expected to expand space access to more payloads and entities.
Musk has stated that a Starship orbital launch could eventually cost $2 million, starting at $10 million within 2–3 years and dropping with time. Starfactory is at the same time planned to produce at peak one Starship per day.
The rocket consists of a Super Heavy first stage booster and a Starship second stage spacecraft, powered by Raptor and Raptor Vacuum engines. Both stages are made from stainless steel.
Methane was chosen for the Raptor engines because it is relatively inexpensive, produces a low amount of soot as compared to other hydrocarbons, and can be created on Mars from carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and hydrogen via the Sabatier reaction. The engine family uses a new alloy for the main combustion chamber, allowing it to contain 300 bar (4,400 psi) of pressure, the highest of all current engines. In the future, it may be mass-produced and cost about $230,000 per engine or $100 per kilonewton.

### First missions

Musk has made statements on several occasions about aspirational dates for Starship's earliest possible Mars landing, including in 2022, that a mission to Mars could be no earlier than 2029.
SpaceX's early missions to Mars are to involve small fleets of Starship spacecraft, funded by public–private partnerships.
SpaceX has stated on several occasions aspirational plans to build a crewed base on Mars for an extended surface presence, which it hopes will grow into a self-sufficient colony.
Before any people are transported to Mars, a number of cargo missions would be undertaken first in order to transport the requisite equipment, habitats and supplies. Equipment that would accompany the early groups would include "machines to produce fertilizer, methane and oxygen from Mars' atmospheric nitrogen and carbon dioxide and the planet's subsurface water ice" as well as construction materials to build transparent domes for crop growth.
Musk plans for the first crewed Mars missions to have approximately 12 people, with goals to "build out and troubleshoot the propellant plant and Mars Base Alpha power system" and establish a "rudimentary base." The company plans to process resources on Mars into fuel for return journeys, and use similar technologies on Earth to create carbon-neutral propellant.

### Populating

The company hopes that once infrastructure is established on Mars and launch cost is reduced, populating can begin.
After the first few windows of crewed Mars landings, Musk has suggested that the number of people who are sent to Mars could be ramped up rapidly.
A successful colonization, meaning an established human presence on Mars growing over many decades, would ultimately involve many more economic actors than SpaceX.
For reference, Musk's timeline for the colonization of Mars involves a crewed mission as early as 2029 and the development of a self-sustaining colony by 2050.
Musk has stated in 2024 that in-situ resource utilization will be critical for establishing a self-sustaining colony, and that SpaceX plans to begin its efforts in advancing that field in "seven to nine years". Current theories for in-situ resource utilization involve harvesting CO2 from the atmosphere and splitting into its raw components. This will involve using the O2 as well as CH4 for fuel production, and specifically the O2 in addition to Nitrogen (the second-most common gas in the Martian atmosphere) for breathing air within habitats.
The program aims to send a million people to Mars, using a thousand Starships sent during a Mars launch window, which occurs approximately every 26 months. Proposed journeys would require 80 to 150 days of transit time, averaging approximately 115 days (for the nine synodic periods occurring between 2024 and 2041).

## Reception and feasibility

Mars colonization has gained increased interest, both supportive and critical, since the technical achievements of SpaceX's and Elon Musk's rise of popularity in the 2010s, and more so into the 2020s.

### Support

Some experts, like Robert Zubrin, support the concept due to the prevalence of water ice in the form of permafrost and glaciers on Mars, as well as other resources like carbon dioxide and nitrogen. According to Zubrin, Starship's planned lower launch cost could make space research profitable, allowing major advancements in medicine, computers, material science,$^{:47,48}$ making mining profitable as well and space-based economy and colonization practical.$^{:25,26}$
Others like Saul Zimet have expressed strong support for the concept, suggesting the possibility that the technological advancements that could be developed on Mars will come to benefit the whole of Earth.

### Criticism

Some people object to the concept of colonizing Mars, believing the planet's lack of both breathable air and protective magnetosphere to be problems, and that pressurized habitats would be an unacceptable solution.
SpaceX's program to colonize Mars has been criticized as far-fetched, because of uncertainties regarding its financing and because it primarily addresses transportation to Mars and not the steps that follow. As of July 2019, SpaceX has not publicly detailed plans for the spacecraft's life-support systems, radiation protection, and in situ resource utilization, which are essential for space colonization.
George Dvorsky writing for Gizmodo characterized Musk's timeline for Martian colonization as "stupendously unreasonable" and "pure delusion". Mars colonization has been called a 'dangerous delusion' by Lord Martin Rees, a British cosmologist/astrophysicist and the Astronomer Royal of the United Kingdom. A common sentiment among those opposed to expanding the scope of human civilization to Mars is that humans should solve all the problems on Earth before advancing to extraplanetary colonization.

## Law

SpaceX intends to base the colony's governing laws on self-determination, and direct democracy, led by the citizens of the Martian colony. Some of this has been introduced through the terms and services agreement for individual users of SpaceX's Starlink platform, stating the following: "the parties recognize Mars as a free planet and that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities". Starlink has been used extensively by individuals users, Ukrainian forces in the Russo-Ukrainian War, and people throughout rural parts of the world. This signifies that a growing population of individuals and governments is recognizing SpaceX's perspective on enabling Mars to be a free planet.
Somewhat contrary to SpaceX's objective, international space law does not see Mars as free to be governed democratically by its future colonists, with its legal status sharing some elements to that of international waters.

## Trivia

It has been pointed out that there is coincidentally a book about Mars colonization called Project Mars: A Technical Tale, written by the lead engineer of the V-2 rocket, the first rocket to surpass the Karman Line and go to space, and of the Saturn V, the primary vehicle used in the Apollo program and the first vehicle to ever send humans to the Moon, Wernher von Braun. He envisioned a Mars colony with a publicly elected leader called the "Elon", elected in five year intervals.