It is also preparing for the launch of the probe intended to examine Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons.

Musk said that, if the mission is successful, manned trips could take place within four years. We must always keep in mind the flexibility of the deadlines Musk offers. It is likely that the four years are the “minimum” feasible timeframe, although not so probable.

SpaceX plans to launch around five uncrewed Starship spacecraft to Mars in the next two years, as announced this Sunday by the company’s CEO, Elon Musk, on the social media platform X, which he also owns.

He detailed that, if these uncrewed missions land successfully, manned missions could be carried out within four years. However, if “challenges” arise, manned missions would be delayed by another two years, reaching a six-year horizon.

“Regardless of the outcome of the landings, SpaceX will exponentially increase the number of spacecraft traveling to Mars in each opportunity window,” Musk assured.

Earlier this month, Musk had mentioned these plans in another post on X, stating that the first Starships heading to Mars would launch in two years, coinciding with the next Earth-Mars transfer window.

Musk has offered different timeframes for SpaceX’s arrival on Mars. In April, he noted that the first uncrewed spacecraft would land within five years, while the first crewed missions would land in seven years.

To reach Mars, SpaceX has designed a spacecraft called Starship, considered the largest and most powerful in the world, aimed at opening new frontiers in space exploration.

In April, Starship survived a hypersonic re-entry to Earth and landed safely in the Indian Ocean, demonstrating its ability to complete space missions successfully.

The Mission to Jupiter

NASA scientists noted that what the Europa Clipper mission discovers, set to launch from Florida on October 10, could pave the way for Humanity’s future in terms of habitable worlds in the Solar System.

The spacecraft, the largest ever built, will launch from the Kennedy Space Center propelled by a Falcon Heavy rocket from the private company SpaceX and will travel 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) to reach Jupiter in 2030.

The goal of this spacecraft, which will get as close as 16 miles (25 kilometers) to the surface, is to observe Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, which is believed to harbor conditions suitable for life beneath its icy surface: water, energy, and chemistry.

“As an ocean world, Europa is very intriguing. And this mission will help us understand a complex part of our solar system,” said Gina DiBraccio, acting director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, during a teleconference on Tuesday.

The multi-year preparation mission is strategic because NASA scientists believe that if this mission, which will not land on the surface of this moon of Jupiter, discovers that Europa is habitable, then other icy worlds discovered in the Solar System are likely to be habitable too.

This mission aims to find out if the “ingredients for life” are found beneath Europa’s surface, as DiBraccio specified. Europa, with a diameter of 3,100 kilometers, is the fourth largest of Jupiter’s 95 known moons (Ganymede is considered the largest moon of this planet and the entire Solar System) and is believed to harbor an internal liquid ocean with potentially habitable conditions beneath its icy crust.

Jordan Evans, the project director for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), stated that one of the most important moments of the mission will be the deployment of the spacecraft’s enormous solar panels, which will occur about three hours after launch. One of the main challenges the mission will face is enduring the harsh radiation environment of Jupiter and its moon, Europa, which could affect the spacecraft’s transistors. To address this, rigorous testing and simulations have been conducted to test the spacecraft’s systems.

The spacecraft will perform 49 flybys of Europa during the four years of its scientific mission and will conduct ten scientific investigations to help understand its icy crust and the ocean believed to lie beneath it.