SpaceX plans to leave the first humans on Mars stranded with no way home

SpaceX has conducted a presentation at its Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, revealing some key details about its upcoming Mars missions that will feature the world's most powerful rocket, Starship.

The company's CEO, Elon Musk, has taken to stage to discuss what fans of SpaceX can expect out of the company in 2024 and what will be involved in creating a sustainable presence on the surface of Mars. Musk said that this is the first time in human civilization that Earth is capable of making the species multiplanetary, and all of this hinges of the success of Starship, the world's largest and most powerful rocket ever created.

Musk outlines that mass to orbit is a key factor in achieving a Mars base, and when Starship is complete, it will be capable of taking 200 tons to orbit while being fully reusable. The SpaceX CEO explains that once Starship is in orbit, it will need to be refueled by a tanker that's also in orbit. This new technology will be called Ship to Ship Propellent Transfer, and for every trip to Mars, Starship will need to be refueled six times, so a ratio of 5 to 1. Musk said that SpaceX plans on demonstrating Ship to Ship Propellent Transfer sometime next year.

"You actually want to use the ship. Take a part the ship and use it for raw materials on Mars. Because the ship materials will be so valuable, most of the ships you won't want to bring back, you would just want to use them for raw materials. Eventually we will want to bring ships back and I think we will want to give people the option of coming back because they're more likely to want to go if there's some option of coming back. But I think most of the people that go to Mars will never come back to Earth," said Musk during the presentation (skip to 23:00)

Additionally, Musk said that Starship's ship will be turned into scrap metal once it lands on Mars as its parts will be extremely valuable to the pioneers living on the Red Planet. Ultimately, the company plans on creating a Starship that is capable of making a return trip back to Earth, but initially Musk believes most people who sign up for a trip to Mars will not return to Earth.

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