--- title: Elon Musk Unveils Plan to Colonize Mars description: SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk unveiled his plans for humans to settle on Mars on Tuesday canonical: https://time.com/4510653/elon-musk-unveils-plan-to-colonize-mars/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-27T20:42:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:55:06.917Z article:section: Science og:title: Elon Musk Unveils Plan to Colonize Mars og:description: The entrepreneur said it would take 40 to 100 years to create a self-sustaining society og:url: https://time.com/4510653/elon-musk-unveils-plan-to-colonize-mars/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1908a38c8205409/6988a7d40a4a2245d29cb6f2/elon-musk.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Inside The International Astronautical Congress og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Elon Musk Unveils Plan to Colonize Mars twitter:description: The entrepreneur said it would take 40 to 100 years to create a self-sustaining society twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1908a38c8205409/6988a7d40a4a2245d29cb6f2/elon-musk.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Elon Musk Unveils Plan to Colonize Mars by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Sep 27, 2016 8:42 PM UTC  Elon Musk, chief executive officer for Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), pauses during the 67th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Guadalajara, Mexico, on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2016. Elon Musk, chief executive officer for Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), pauses during the 67th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Guadalajara, Mexico, on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2016.Susana Gonzalez—Bloomberg / Getty Images by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Sep 27, 2016 8:42 PM UTC [SpaceX](http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/27/13074266/elon-musk-spacex-mars-mission-2016-announcement-news) founder and CEO Elon Musk unveiled his plans for humans to settle on Mars on Tuesday, laying out a master scheme for establishing a colony on the red planet. Musk explained at a SpaceX event that he would use a spaceship and rocket to launch humans into orbit, bring the booster back to Earth to refuel, then send it back into orbit to rendezvous with the ship and fuel up for the trip to Mars, [_Fortune_](http://fortune.com/2016/09/27/elon-musk-humans-mars/) reports. The first human mission could take place in 2024, he said, and could deliver people to the planet in about 80 days. This “Interplanetary Transport System” would cost about $200,000 per person. Musk believes a self-sustaining civilization would encompass about 1 million people, and that it would take 40 to 100 years from the first landing to reach that threshold, the [Verge](http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/27/13080468/elon-musk-spacex-mars-expedition-self-sustaining-civilization/in/12838307) reports. He would accomplish this by sending 100 to 200 people at a time in a fleet of about 1,000 ships, each of which would make a trip about every two years. “As we show that this is possible, that this dream is real, I think the support will snowball over time,” [Musk](http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/27/13079472/elon-musk-mars-space-x-tesla-funding-dream/in/12838307) said on Tuesday. “The main reason I’m personally accumulating assets is to fund this.” \[[_The Verge_](http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/27/13074266/elon-musk-spacex-mars-mission-2016-announcement-news), [_Fortune_](http://fortune.com/2016/09/27/elon-musk-humans-mars/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4510653/elon-musk-unveils-plan-to-colonize-mars/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4510653/elon-musk-unveils-plan-to-colonize-mars/"},"headline":"Elon Musk Unveils Plan to Colonize Mars","datePublished":"2016-09-27T20:42:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:55:06.917Z","description":"The entrepreneur said it would take 40 to 100 years to create a self-sustaining society","url":"https://time.com/4510653/elon-musk-unveils-plan-to-colonize-mars/","keywords":["Space"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1908a38c8205409/6988a7d40a4a2245d29cb6f2/elon-musk.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1908a38c8205409/6988a7d40a4a2245d29cb6f2/elon-musk.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Inside The International Astronautical Congress","caption":"Inside The International Astronautical Congress","creditText":"Susana Gonzalez—Bloomberg / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4510653/elon-musk-unveils-plan-to-colonize-mars/","name":"Elon Musk Unveils Plan to Colonize Mars"}}]}] ```