When will the first humans arrive on Mars? While Elon Musk continues to promote the colonization of the Red Planet, the complexity of the project, the delays of the Artemis mission to the Moon, and the massive budget cuts hitting NASA have never made the project so uncertain.
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Will we see the arrival of the first humans on Mars in our lifetime? While the Artemis mission back to the Moon is delayed, it's hard to maintain the same enthusiasm as Elon Musk when he talks about humanity entering a "multi-planetary" era. Paradoxically, the entrepreneur has indeed chosen to actively support an administration that has just cut NASA's budget in half.
This limits the agency's actions and delays calls for projects – even though writer's block is currently affecting the dream of seeing a human foot set foot on the Red Planet. At least, beyond the visuals that make us dream with computer-generated images. NASA's recent cuts don't just impact America's XXL ambitions on the subject.
Despite what Elon Musk says, Mars is not a priority
In such a context, NASA is dealing with the most urgent matters and redirecting funds dedicated to robotic exploration projects to the Artemis mission. It's hard to blame the agency: returning to the Moon is an essential prerequisite for developing the technologies needed to go further. Make no mistake: 225 million kilometers separate us from this particularly hostile planet.
A rock surrounded by a thin atmosphere – completely unbreathable. With a magnetic field too weak to protect life on its surface from solar and cosmic radiation. The planet is also still devoid of infrastructure allowing the survival of candidates who agree to participate in this particularly risky journey. The idea of colonizing Mars is in reality today mainly an ambition of Elon Musk and SpaceX.
China, Russia, Japan, Europe… no state in the world currently entertains the hope of bringing such a project to life. Even though scientists still have much to learn about Mars with more robotic exploration to allow humans to settle there, the recent decisions of NASA and the White House seem, in such a context, to condemn Elon Musk's vision to delirious… lunatic.
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