Elon Musk, Time Magazine’s 2021 “Person of the Year,” said in an interview with the magazine that he expects his company to be “landing on Mars” within the next five years.
“I’ll be surprised if we’re not landing on Mars within five years,” the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla said.
Musk’s vision for Mars is clearly much larger than merely landing on the red planet.
“The next really big thing is to build a self-sustaining city on Mars and bring the animals and creatures of Earth there,” Musk said in the report. “Sort of like a futuristic Noah’s ark.”
Before launching for Mars, Musk has plans a bit closer to Earth. In April, SpaceX signed on to an effort with NASA to return American astronauts to the moon for the first time in half a century.
“NASA is getting ready to send astronauts to explore more of the Moon as part of the Artemis program, and the agency has selected SpaceX to continue development of the first commercial human lander that will safely carry the next two American astronauts to the lunar surface,” NASA announced in a press release in April.
The planned moon landing will also make two other notable first-time achievements. The agreement plans to include the first woman to land on the moon, as well as the first person of color to walk on the moon’s surface.
“At least one of those astronauts will make history as the first woman on the Moon. Another goal of the Artemis program includes landing the first person of color on the lunar surface,” it added.
NASA has selected Starship to land the first astronauts on the lunar surface since the Apollo program! We are humbled to help @NASAArtemis usher in a new era of human space exploration → https://t.co/Qcuop33Ryz pic.twitter.com/GN9Tcfqlfp
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 16, 2021
Currently listed as the world’s richest person by Forbes, Musk’s space dreams serve as one of many of his recent news headlines.
On Tuesday, Musk blasted Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) in a series of tweets after Warren suggested without evidence that Musk does not pay taxes because of a “rigged tax code.” The Daily Wire reported:
“Let’s change the rigged tax code so The Person of the Year will actually pay taxes and stop freeloading off everyone else,” Warren tweeted along with a news article on how Musk was named Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year.”
Musk responded with a torrent of tweets, the first of which was an op-ed published on Fox News that featured the title: “Elizabeth Warren is a fraud — Her lies about being Native American disqualify her from presidency, Senate.”
“Stop projecting!” Musk declared in the tweet.
“You remind me of when I was a kid and my friend’s angry Mom would just randomly yell at everyone for no reason,” Musk said. “Please don’t call the manager on me, Senator Karen 🙏.”
Stop projecting! https://t.co/Kibp6aS9vL
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 14, 2021
A few hours later, Musk continued, adding: “And if you opened your eyes for 2 seconds, you would realize I will pay more taxes than any American in history this year.”
“Don’t spend it all at once … oh wait you did already,” he added.