Musk announces plan to launch unmanned spacecraft to Mars within two years

On September 8, Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, released a blockbuster news on social media platforms, saying that the company plans to launch an unmanned "Starship" spacecraft to Mars within two years.

According to Reuters, Musk said that this unmanned mission aims to test whether the spacecraft can land on Mars "intact." If the spacecraft lands smoothly, SpaceX will start a manned spacecraft exploration mission to Mars within four years. Moreover, Musk's goal is to build a self-sufficient Martian city within 20 years.

Musk founded SpaceX in 2002. In June this year, the fourth test flight of the new generation of heavy-lift rocket "Starship" and the spacecraft integrated system developed by the company achieved a soft landing on the sea surface for the first time. SpaceX will also rely on the "Starship" system to carry out Mars exploration missions.

All along, colonizing Mars has been Musk's dream. He believes that becoming a multi-planetary species will greatly increase the survival probability of human consciousness. At the beginning of this year, at SpaceX's annual conference, Musk revealed that the company plans to increase the number of launches to 144 times and maintain a momentum of increasing the annual launch volume by 50%. In April this year, he also said that according to the current level of technological development of civilization, self-sufficiency on Mars can be achieved in 20 years.

Musk's plan has attracted widespread attention from all sectors around the world. Experts in the field of space exploration will closely follow its subsequent progress, and the public is also full of expectations for this ambitious Mars exploration plan. However, to achieve this goal, there are still huge challenges in many aspects such as technology, funds, and engineering. In the next two years, the actions of SpaceX and the progress of this plan will undoubtedly become the focus of global attention.