Elon Musk Would Need 300 'Ready to Die' Persons a Day as Soon as 1,000 Starship Flights are Launched

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk vowed to bring a million humans to Mars by 2050, which means he would need to bring 300 people daily to build his Martian colony.

However, Musk said he would need to have a fleet of 1,000 ships to sustain a city. As The Sun reported, the Hawthorne, California-based company is seeking for various safety and engine tests to get the rocket ready for the orbital Starship test flights in 2021.

While the interior and cabin are not yet significantly developed for passengers, Musk said they need to make the Starship work first before they go into the details.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken lifts off
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken lifts off during NASA's SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., May 30, 2020. REUTERS/Joe Skipper - RC2DZG96N2DL

The Starship rocket he is currently testing will be used to carry humans to Mars soon .it is fully reusable and allows long-distance journeys through space. Although SpaceX has not yet built a completely functioning Starship, Musk said they aim to build 1,000 rockets within 10 years or 100 rockets every year at the company's South Texas facility.

The CEO continued saying that SpaceX will launch 1,000 Starship flights to Mars every year or about three flights per day to reach its target of 1 million. Each trip will have 100 humans or 300 in total for three trips who will eventually become citizens of the Martian city they will eventually build.

Meanwhile, aside from the 100 passengers, Musk did not specify what each rocket would carry, although it is assumed that fuel, water, food, and life support systems are included.

Also, it is still unsure what humans would do in the Martian city, but Musk tweeted: "There will be a lot of jobs on Mars!"

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Human to Mars: Carrying humans to Red Planet is not the hardest part

Musk noted that bringing people to the Red Planet is not the difficult part, but building a self-sustaining Martian city. "The fundamental issue is building a base, building a city on Mars that is self-sustaining," Musk said during the Humans to Mars summit. He then went into details of assembling a propellant plant and building Mars Base Alpha, the initial Mars base, which would help reach a "point where it's self-sustaining."

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk Unveils Company's New Manned Spacecraft, The Dragon V2
HAWTHORNE-CA-MAY 29: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk unveils the company's new manned spacecraft, The Dragon V2, designed to carry astronauts into space during a news conference on May 29, 2014, in Hawthorne, California. The private spaceflight company has been flying unmanned capsules to the Space Station delivering cargo for the past two years. The Dragon V2 manned spacecraft will ferry up to seven astronauts to low-Earth orbit. Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

However, Musk warned that the trips to Mars will be highly risky, particularly with the early stage, as there is a "good chance" for people to die in the process.

"I want to emphasize that this is a very hard and dangerous difficult thing. Not for the faint of heart," Musk noted. He added that while it will be tough, "it will be pretty glorious if it works out."

As an orbital flight means the trip is only viable once every two years, SpaceX must be able to provide all the needs of the colonizers during their stay in the megacity.

Nevertheless, Musk said that SpaceX is currently making good progress, compared in 2019 when there was nothing. Musk said that Starship's progress is delayed by the production system, but since the company already got a lot of production capability, they are making more ships at a really fast pace.

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Written by CJ Robles

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