The race against the calendar
Earth and Mars orbit the Sun at different speeds. Only every 26 months do they line up well enough to travel using the least possible fuel. Miss that window and you wait two years. Try it yourself.
Launch when Mars is ≈44° ahead
The ship doesn’t travel in a straight line: it follows half an ellipse around the Sun and takes about 259 days. Meanwhile, Mars keeps moving too. That is why you aim for where Mars will be, not where it is.
- Trajectory if you launch now
- Where Mars will be when you arrive
Orbits simplified to circles. The underlying physics is real: Kepler’s third law gives the 259-day trip and the 44° angle.
of Earth’s. You would jump about 2.6 times higher. ↗
Almost the same as here. There it is called a “sol”. ↗
Almost twice ours: it is farther from the Sun. ↗
About −76 °F, although on the warmest days it can reach about 20 °C (68 °F). ↗
of Earth’s pressure (around 0.6%), and 95% of it is CO₂. ↗
million km, depending on where each planet is. ↗
What would your scale read on Mars?
Your body is the same; what changes is how strongly the planet pulls on you. Mars has less mass, so it pulls with less force.
That is why Starship burns methane
With CO₂ from the atmosphere and hydrogen from the ice you can make methane, and splitting water gives you oxygen. Those are exactly the two ingredients Raptor engines burn: the ship could refuel on Mars to come back. ↗
A city on another planet
SpaceX’s stated goal: fleets of Starships flying in every window to build, over time, a self-sustaining city on Mars. ↗ In February 2026 the company put a Moon base first, and Musk estimated the Mars plan slips by about five to seven years. This is what it takes and where each piece stands:
- A giant reusable rocket (Starship), which has already reached orbitTesting
- Refueling in orbitIn development
- Landing a Starship on MarsPostponed
- Making fuel and living thereConcept
Approximate status as of October 2026; things may have moved on. The November–December 2026 window passes with no Starships heading to Mars; the next one opens between December 2028 and January 2029. ↗
The future is still under construction.
Rockets that come back, a planet to reach, satellites wrapped around the Earth, neurons that move cursors, robots learning to grasp, machines that write and tunnels that beat traffic. Every chapter will be updated as the projects move forward.
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