Musk—who has a history of setting unrealized goals for his companies—says he wants to send humans to Mars by 2029, though he says 2031 may be more likely.

Elon Musk aims for a Mars mission by late next year using Starship, potentially including Tesla's Optimus robots. This ambitious plan targets building a self-sustaining Martian city within 20 years, though experts express skepticism about the timeline and technological readiness.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk has set an ambitious target for the company's Starship spacecraft. He wants to launch it toward Mars by late 2026. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Musk wrote, "Starship will hopefully depart for Mars at the end of next year with Optimus explorer robots."