--- 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: 2026-10-07T06:48:34.967Z 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3840 og:image:height: 2160 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Elon Musk Unveils Plan to Colonize Mars > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=1a705ce7-5e0b-474f-805f-649effefe958&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Elon Musk Reveals His Plan To Colonize Mars [Watch (HLS stream): Elon Musk Reveals His Plan To Colonize Mars](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zNOvU7Uz.m3u8) (1:18)  _Published 2016-09-27. SpaceX 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._ by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Sep 27, 2016 8:42 PM UTC 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.” \[[_The Verge_](http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/27/13074266/elon-musk-spacex-mars-mission-2016-announcement-news), [_Fortune_](http://fortune.com/2016/09/27/elon-musk-humans-mars/)\] ## Transcript I think the first journey to Mars is gonna be really, very dangerous. The risk of fatality will be high, there's just now way around it. So I would not suggest having children or, it would be basically are you prepared to die. Then if that's okay, then Your candidate for going. We think that the costs of moving to Mars ultimately could drop below a $ 100, 000. Ultimately I suspect that you'd see Mars transfer times of, as little as 30 days in the more distant future. So it's fairly manageable considering the trips that people used to do in the old days. It'd routinely take sailing voyages that would be six months or more. In order to make it appealing and increase that portion of the Venn diagram of people who actually want to go, it's got to be really fun and exciting and it can't feel cramped or boring. So the crew compartment or our crew compartment is set up so you can do zero- G games. You could float around. It would be like movies, lecture halls, cabins, a restaurant. It would be really fun to go. 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