SpaceX will send the first humanoid robot to Mars next year

SpaceX is nearing its goal of putting humans on the surface of Mars, but before we go, the company will send humanoid robots, with the first slated to launch next year.

That is, of course, if Elon Musk's famously optimistic plans come to fruition in time and Starship development continues to make leaps and bounds. However, the latter doesn't seem to be the case as of late, or at least for the last two launches of Starship, the company's selected mode of transportation to Mars. SpaceX lost contact with Starship in the last two launches, resulting in a Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly Protocol (RUD) having to be initiated, or boom.

SpaceX will need to overcome significant design hurdles in order to get Starship to a place where a Mars journey is viable, and one of those hurdles is getting the upper stage, or the cargo part of the rocket, back on the surface of Earth for evaluation and improvement. However, that requires a technological breakthrough in heatshield technology, according to Elon Musk, who explained the struggles of simply recovering that part of the rocket in his last appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast.

• Read more: Elon Musk reveals the biggest problem SpaceX is facing with Starship

Once that breakthrough has been achieved, which Musk said could happen by the end of the year, SpaceX can start aiming toward Mars, and the first passenger on a test voyage to the Red Planet will be an Optimus robot/s. Musk recently stated on X, formerly Twitter, "Starship departs for Mars at the end of next year, carrying Optimus." Adding, "If those landings go well, then human landings may start as soon as 2029, although 2031 is more likely."