Can Musk put people on Mars?

Mar 27th 2025|13 min read

HUMAN LAWS can be changed, waived or broken. Physical laws are less biddable. When it comes to putting humans on Mars, which he sees as the first step towards the planet’s settlement and humankind’s salvation, Elon Musk now has little to worry about from human law. Mr Musk has overseen the gutting of the FAA, America’s aviation authority and a sometime obstacle to his company SpaceX, by his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). What is more, he stands at the side of an American president who, as well as having little regard for legal strictures, explicitly endorses Mr Musk’s Martian agenda. In his inaugural address President Donald Trump declared that it was time for Americans to “pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars”. This was not a one-off. He repeated the aspiration in his address to Congress six weeks later.