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Musk wants to send humans to Mars in a matter of years

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Trump echoed Musk's goal after billionaire's endorsement

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Mars to be more prominent under Trump, sources say

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Mars missions fraught with costs, risks, experts say

By Joey Roulette

WASHINGTON, Nov 8 (Reuters) -

Elon Musk's dream of transporting humans to Mars will become

a bigger national priority under the administration of U.S.

President-elect Donald Trump, sources said, signaling big

changes for NASA's moon program and a boost for Musk's SpaceX.

NASA's Artemis program, which aims to use SpaceX's Starship

rocket to put humans on the moon as a proving ground for later

Mars missions, is expected to focus more on the Red Planet under

Trump and target uncrewed missions there this decade, according

to four people familiar with Trump's burgeoning space policy

agenda.

Targeting Mars with spacecraft built for astronauts is not

only more ambitious than focusing on the moon, but is also

fraught with risk and potentially more expensive.

Musk, who danced onstage at a Trump rally wearing an "Occupy

Mars" T-shirt in October, spent $119 million on Trump's White

House bid and has successfully elevated space policy at an

unusual time in a presidential transition.

In September, weeks after Musk endorsed Trump, the latter told

reporters that the moon was a "launching pad" for his ultimate

goal to reach Mars.

"At a minimum, we're going to get a more realistic Mars

plan, you'll see Mars being set as an objective," said Doug

Loverro, a space industry consultant who once led NASA's human

exploration unit under Trump, who served as U.S. president from

2017 to 2021.

SpaceX, Musk and the Trump campaign did not immediately

return requests for comment. A NASA spokeswoman said it

"wouldn't be appropriate to speculate on any changes with the

new administration."

Plans could still change, the sources added, as the Trump

transition team takes shape in the coming weeks.

Trump launched the Artemis program in 2019 during his first term

and it was one of the few initiatives maintained under the

administration of President Joe Biden. Trump space advisers want

to revamp a program they will argue has languished in their

absence, the sources said.

Musk, who also owns electric-vehicle maker Tesla and

brain-chip startup Neuralink, has made slashing government

regulation and trimming down bureaucracy another core basis of

his Trump support.

For space, the sources said, Musk's deregulation desires are

likely to trigger changes at the Federal Aviation

Administration's commercial space office, whose oversight of

private rocket launches has frustrated Musk for slowing down

SpaceX's Starship development.

The FAA did not immediately respond to a request for

comment.

NASA under Trump, the sources said, is likely to favor

fixed-price space contracts that shift greater responsibility

onto private companies and scale back over-budget programs that

have strained the Artemis budget.

That could spell trouble for the only rocket NASA owns, the

Space Launch System rocket (SLS), whose roughly $24 billion

development since 2011 has been led by Boeing ( BA ) and

Northrop Grumman ( NOC ). Cancelling the program, some say,

would be difficult since it would cost thousands of jobs and

leave the U.S. even more dependent on SpaceX.

Boeing ( BA ) and Northrop did not immediately return a request for

comment.

Musk, whose predictions have sometimes proven overly

ambitious, said in September that SpaceX will land Starship on

Mars in 2026 and a crewed mission will follow in four years'

time. Trump has said at campaign rallies that he has discussed

these ideas with Musk.

Many industry experts see this timeline as improbable.

"Is it possible for Elon to put a Starship on the surface of

Mars in a one-way mission by the end of Trump's term?

Absolutely, he certainly could do that," said Scott Pace, the

top space policy official during Trump's first term.

"Is that a manned mission on Mars? No," Pace added. "You

have to walk before you run."