--- title: "Elon Musk Says He’ll Put A Million People on Mars By 2050" description: "In a series of tweets on Thursday evening, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk revealed some more details of his grand plans to colonize Mars. According to Musk, you’ll need a crazy amount of cargo capacity to build a second human colony on a faraway planet. “Megatons per year to orbit are needed for life to become […]" date: "2020-01-17" modified: "2020-01-17" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-million-people-mars-2050" categories: - "Astronomy" - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "Mars" - "Space" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "mars" - "SpaceX" - "Starship" - "the digest" --- # Elon Musk Says He’ll Put A Million People on Mars By 2050 ![In a series of tweets on Thursday evening, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk revealed some more details of his greater plans to colonize Mars.]() *\Image: SpaceX\* ## Going Multiplanetary In a series of Thursday evening tweets, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk [revealed]() new details about his plans to colonize Mars. In theory, 1,000 Starships could eventually send "maybe around 100k people per Earth-Mars orbital sync," [Musk tweeted](). "That's the goal," he [added](). Musk [envisions]() these ships departing Earth orbit over a 30-day period, the window of time when Earth and Mars are best aligned to make the trip, every 26 months. When a Twitter user [asked]() him if that would equate to one million people on Mars by 2050, Musk [responded]() with a simple "yes." ## 1000 Starships According to Musk, you'll need a crazy amount of cargo capacity to build a human colony on a faraway planet. "Megatons per year to orbit are needed for life to become multiplanetary," he [tweeted](). Each [Starship]() could deliver more than 100 tons per flight, meaning that every ten ships could "yield one megaton per year to orbit," Musk [calculated](). ## Martian Society And once humans arrive, there will be plenty to do. "There will be a lot of jobs on Mars!" Musk [tweeted](). It's a fun thought experiment — and needless to say, SpaceX has its work cut out to realize Musk's ambitious vision. **READ MORE:** [Elon Musk drops details for SpaceX Mars mega-colony]() \[*CNET*\] **More on Starship:** *[20,000 Apply to Be Billionaire’s Girlfriend, Get Free Moon Trip]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()