The goal of colonizing our neighboring planet is how Musk intends to transform humanity into a multi-planetary species. He aims to settle one million people on Mars, which will require launching 1,000 Starships, each carrying 100 colonists, to Mars during each launch window, which occur approximately once every 26 months. Musk has repeatedly emphasized that no matter how financially successful SpaceX may be, the company will have failed in his eyes if the primary objective – the colonization of Mars – is not achieved.

Although Musk recently explained on X that he first wanted to build a settlement on the Moon, this does not mean that he has abandoned the goal of colonizing Mars. He has merely postponed his original plans by a few years — and in the current IPO prospectus for the SpaceX IPO, he repeatedly reiterates the goal of settling Mars: “We believe that our current space efforts will catalyze transformative breakthroughs that could reshape terrestrial industries and lead to the emergence of new trillion-dollar markets on the Moon, Mars, and beyond.”

Unfortunately, the prospectus does not explain how all of this is supposed to be financed or how the Martian settlers are expected to earn money one day. This is why critics see his Mars plans as science fiction and fear that SpaceX could burn enormous amounts of money pursuing them.

Robert Zubrin, founder and president of the Mars Society and the man who originally had a major influence on Musk’s Mars ideas, suggests that the first Mars missions would perhaps be state-funded, while the long-term goal of establishing a colony on the planet would require private-sector innovation and investment. In his book "The Case for Mars," he writes: “To be viable, a real........

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