President Donald Trump has announced that he wants to send Americans to plant the Stars and Stripes on Mars. The only rocket which currently stands any chance of making that happen is the enormous spacecraft being developed by Elon Musk, one of the president’s new advisors. Mr Musk has pledged to send uncrewed missions to Mars by the end of 2026, ahead of the first astronauts in early 2029—just before President Trump is supposed to leave office. But many challenges remain. Will his company, SpaceX, be able to make its Starship rocket work in time?
Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor, with senior editor Oliver Morton. Contributors: Peter Hague, an astrophysicist who writes the “Planetocracy” blog; Volker Maiwald an engineer at the German Aerospace Centre.
For more on this topic, check out an episode from last year which examined Starship’s role in the US-China Moon race. Also, as an Economist subscriber, listen to our recent episode of “Checks and Balance” which asks whether Elon Musk is remaking America’s government or breaking it.
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