President Trump pledged Monday to be the first commander-in-chief to send American astronauts to Mars.
“The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation, one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations, and carries our flag to beautiful new heights,” Trump declared in his inaugural address in D.C.
He added: “We will follow our manifest destiny in the stars and send American astronauts to plant the stars and stripes on Mars.”
The last time American astronauts walked on the moon was in 1972 during the last Apollo mission. More than 15 years later, President George H. W. Bush called for sending more missions to Earth's satellite, and eventually to Mars.
The Bush Space Exploration Initiative launched in July 1989 — 20 years after the successful Apollo 11 moon landing — but NASA later scrapped the prospect of planetary adventures in favor of more robotic adventures in the galaxy.
President Bill Clinton officially ended the goal of humans traveling beyond Earth's orbit as part of a national strategy.
But Elon Musk, a Trump confidant, predicted that his company SpaceX would be able to put humans on the fourth planet from the sun by 2028.
“The first spacecraft will be launched to Mars within two years.” Published on X In September. “These vehicles will be unmanned to test the reliability of proper landing on Mars.”
He predicted that “if these landings go well, the first manned flights to Mars will take place within 4 years.”
The SpaceX founder and CEO wondered aloud about the possibility of “multi-planetary” life as part of an effort to improve the overall quality of life for humans.
“The rate of flying will grow significantly from there, with the goal of building a self-sufficient city in about 20 years,” he added in his post. “A multi-planet universe would dramatically increase the potential lifetime of consciousness, as we would no longer have all of our eggs, literally and metabolically, on a single planet.”
However, the tech billionaire has paved the way for a different set of rules on the red planet once humanity arrives, rejecting any management by “Earth-based” authorities, according to the terms of service shared in 2020 for SpaceX's Starlink internet project.
His idea is to create a self-sufficient city on Mars.
“For services provided on Mars, or during transit to Mars via spacecraft or other colonial spacecraft, the parties recognize Mars as a free planet and that no government on Earth has authority or sovereignty over Mars activities,” one of the terms said.
Musk's space company has managed to “catch” spaceships returning to Earth after test flights in an unprecedented leap forward in interplanetary travel technology.
In his inauguration speech, Trump (78 years old) mentioned the Mars mission immediately after he promised to “end the epidemic of chronic disease and keep our children safe, healthy, and disease-free.”
“Above all, my message to Americans today is that it is time for us to act once again with the courage, strength, and vitality of the greatest civilization in history,” Trump said of his second administration’s space efforts.
“Until we liberate our nation. We will lead it to new heights of victory and success. We will not be deterred.”
Musk was crucial to Trump's reelection efforts — donating about $250 million in the final stretch of the race to political action committees and other campaign committees for digital ads and canvassing — and spent much of his time during the presidential transition at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. In Palm Beach.
Manifest Destiny was a popular concept during the 19th century in America, as settlers headed west to annex lands that later became the states of Texas, New Mexico, and California, among other states.
