Elon Musk claims it's 'highly likely' humans will go to Mars in the next decade
With global temperatures rising, ice caps melting, and the Earth getting a bit more tricky to live on, it was inevitable that Elon Musk would start to talk about leaving for greener pastures at some point.
It turns out that day has come, and, to our surprise, the date the Twitter boss has suggested for jetting off is sooner than you might think.
Yesterday, he retweeted a video shared by his aerospace firm SpaceX of Booster Seven - a booster being developed as part of the Starship programme - undergoing a "static fire test".
Mr Musk went on to say "one day, Starship will take us to Mars", and when a fan asked when he said the journey will be possible by 2028, and "highly likely" by 2033.
Could we be living on Mars soon? (Getty Images)What do you think about living on Mars? Let us know in the comments...
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A statement by SpaceX reads: "SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket – collectively referred to as Starship – represent a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond.
"Starship will be the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, with the ability to carry up to 150 metric tonnes to Earth orbit reusable, and up to 250 metric tonnes expendable."
Clearly excited by the prospect of Martian travel, one of Musk's followers replied to his tweet with: "Elon, when do imagine a human existence upon Mars?"
Incredibly, Musk reckons it is possible by 2028 and "highly likely" by 2033.
He replied: "I must admit to being congenitally optimistic (SpaceX & Tesla wouldn't exist otherwise), but I think five years is possible and 10 years is highly likely."
Yesterday was a promising step towards that goal as Booster seven, a first-stage prototype, successfully ignited 31 of its 33 Raptor engines during the test at SpaceX's Starbase facility in Texas.
Although the goal was to get all 33 firing, 31 is enough. Musk tweeted: "Team turned off one engine just before start and one stopped itself, so 31 engines fired overall. But still enough engines to reach orbit!"
Booster seven will be used with SpaceX's Ship 24 when Musk's firm run their first Martian test mission.
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