You read that right. The first missions to transport supplies for Mars will be in 2022.

Elon Musk recently confirmed on twitter that he plans on launching the first ships to Mars by 2022.

Yes

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2020

The cargo ships will hold supplies that will aid in creating the first city on Mars. In 2024, there will be a crewed mission. This is important because Mars will be the closest to the earth during that year.

This is a race against time in more ways than one. A twitter user who started the thread posted about how the sun will expand in a half of a billion years which will evaporate all of the oceans making life on earth almost impossible. Humans will cease to exist unless humans establish societies on different planets. The same twitter user also posted a video of Musk explaining why it is important for humans to be multiplanetary.

“It would be very convenient of course if there was another planet just like Earth nearby, but that’s unlikely and as it turns out not the case. If one could make a reasonable argument that something is important enough to fit the scale of evolution then it is important and maybe worth a little bit of our resources. If it is something like a quarter of a percent of the GDP that would be ok.”

Following up that post, Elon Musk also posted that life will be boiled off, what matters is how long it will take civilization to make the jump to Mars, and that it took us 4.5 billion years to get where we are now and that civilization is not looking stable.

That’s when all life on Earth will be boiled off. What matters is how long civilization is capable of making the jump to Mars. This could be a very short period of time measured in decades. It took 4.5 billion years to get to this point & civilization isn’t looking super stable.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 4, 2020

A twitter user then asked how long will it take for Mars to be independent and not reliable on Earth’s materials. Elon Musk then responds that there will be a dozen transfer windows through a 25 year span.

A cargo launch date that is already set and how close it is is extremely exciting and hopeful. The plan for a multi-planet species is fundamental for humans to continue to exist. My only question is where and when can I sign up to live on Mars? I would be fulfilling my childhood dream of being an astronaut-chef but instead of being a chef I would be a graphic artist. My family would need convincing of course, but until then I am excited to see where Elon Musk’s plan will go.