Will SpaceX and NASA Reach the Red Planet by 2029? 

NASA’s Artemis moon mission delays, President Trump’s ambition to land astronauts on Mars within his four-year term, and Musk’s space expertise with SpaceX’s Starship megarocket – despite the recent upper-stage explosion – will test Trump’s determination to achieve a US Mars mission by 2029.  

The US mission to Mars will highly depend on SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space company, since he is one Trump’s biggest supporters.  

“A Mars mission will be the greatest undertaking that humans have ever done,” Volker Maiwald, an aerospace engineer from the German Aerospace Center (DLR), told Space.com. 

Will SpaceX Get US to Mars? 

SpaceX’s Starship, Megarocket, is expected to bring the US Mars mission fantasy to life by carrying the astronauts there. The spacecraft is kind of ready for such a huge mission, however, there are tests that show the major hurdles that still exist.  

SpaceX’s Starship, still in development, is a pillar to Trump’s Mars goal, with Musk serving as a lead advisor. The January 16 test flight revealed to the world technical hurdles, as the upper stage failed after a propellant leak, which could very well delay the fulfilment of Trump’s US Mars mission fantasy by 2029. 

In January 2025, the Starship launch achieved partial success during its test mission. The Super Heavy booster was caught by the “chopstick” arms on the launch tower, but Starship suffered an explosive failure upon descent.  

But with all these setbacks, hope lingers with Musk’s ambition about Starship, planning uncrewed missions to Mars by next year and potential crewed missions by 2028. But experts like Maiwald doubt the feasibility of this aggressive timeline. 

The US Mars mission Will Always Face Challenges 

The biggest hurdle for a US manned mission to Mars is the sheer volume of supplies required. 

According to a report completed by Maiwald and research team, even if Starship achieves 100% recycling of food, water, and air, the real worry lies in mission’s cost and logistical feasibility. 

The US Mars mission cost will carry a payload that could be too heavy to meet mission requirements, which on its own questions Starship’s capacity to sustain a crewed Mars expedition.  

“Even a 100% recovery rate of consumables means a closed-loop environment,” Maiwald explained, “but a 100% recovery rate is essentially not possible, since even the best processes will have losses.” 

A SpaceX plan to get the US to Mars will require significant technological advancements, especially in recycling and closed-loop life support systems. Without these critical capabilities, resource limitations will jeopardize the mission, leading to project failure. 

Another hurdle can be producing rocket fuel on the Red Planet. Elon Musk’s space company is planning to use in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) to produce methane and Oxygen from the atmosphere and water ice on Mars. But this technology is still not ready and needs testing.  

“As far as I know, the only ISRU experiment that has ever been conducted outside of an Earth environment is by MOXIE,” Maiwald told Space.com, adding “this is not a trivial task.” 

Final Thoughts  

While ambitious, the technological challenges of Trump’s Mars vision suggest that a successful crewed mission to Mars is unlikely to take more time than expected. Not surprisingly, NASA and SpaceX problems with US over Mars mission will make the process longer.  

Repeated delays of the space agency’s plans to return astronauts to the Moon under its Artemis program have served as a strict reminder that technological development for deep space missions remains very much in instability.  

Maiwald mentioned “The technology development effort is immense.” As he said, “I can only say what I always say: I would be happy if it happened in my lifetime.” Therefore, the question remains, will SpaceX get us to Mars? But it is up to time to prove whether Trump’s ambitions will come to life. 
 

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