Elon Musk asserts he would be 'surprised' if humans don't reach Mars within five years

Elon Musk, who has a life-long ambition of settling humans on Mars, expects to make it to the red planet within the next five years. In an interview with Time, Musk said, "I’ll be surprised if we’re not landing on Mars within five years", as per CNBC's report. The tech mogul, who manages Tesla and SpaceX among many other key projects, was named Time's 'Person of the Year' and has touched multiple subjects during his interview with Time including humanity's future on Mars.

Musk opens up about humanity's future on Mars

"The next really big thing is to build a self-sustaining city on Mars and bring the animals and creatures of Earth there. Sort of like a futuristic Noah’s ark. We’ll bring more than two, though it’s a little weird if there’s only two", Musk told Time as per CNBC. While he has been a polarising figure lately, Musk and Time both were cornered by their critics as they were unhappy about the new designation given to Musk. With a net worth of $245 billion, Musk has also been called out multiple times for his alleged non-payment of taxes. However, the billionaire clarified that making money off Mars is not at all his objective adding that the idea to make humans multi-planetary and a spacefaring civilisation is just an 'exciting' idea. To ensure his dreams come true, SpaceX has already begun a full-fledged development of Starship, the future martian vehicle at its Starbase facility in Texas.

But provided the track record of Musk's punctuality, he is not known as someone to deliver on his proposed deadline. For instance, in 2016 he had promised the launch of fully self-driving Tesla vehicles by 2018 along with one million Tesla “Robotaxis” by 2020, something which still awaits to see the light of the day. As for SpaceX, it definitely has redefined and maintained sustainability standards, the primary reason why NASA awarded a billion-dollar contract to the company to carry the first humans on Moon under the Artemis mission. Meanwhile, the conversation around Musk being named the 'Person of the Year' has prompted some bitter reactions which even made the billionaire engage in an ugly Twitter spat with US Senator Elizabeth Warren. Tap here to read more.

Image: AP