It is not likely to be the trash-ridden Mars Elon Musk dreams of.
For a moment, close your eyes and visualize 2062. Elon Musk’s dream to colonize Mars is a real possibility in this momentary reality. This isn’t utopia, but it’s a bit like a scene in the movie Wall-E or a line from David Bowie’s song “Life On Mars”. This scenelet shows Tesla ruling – much like us here on Earth.
Andrei Lacatusu, a Romanian digital renderer, has just completed his latest project on this other-worldly reality. His latest project, “Life On Mars”, depicts a colonized planet that has been colonized by space-traveling litterers. We see glass bottles, bikinis and cigarette packages tossed on top of the planet’s surface. One example is a Tesla Roadster, a dirt-covered vehicle, perched on a cliff. (Maybe it’s the same one Tesla launched to space).
This study offers a fascinating glimpse at the future of a Tesla-colonized Red Planet over the next 50 years. If Elon’s plan is true, it may become a reality very soon. SpaceX is currently developing a Starship made of stainless steel. It will be powered by liquid oxygen and methane and could be the first human-manned spacecraft to reach Mars. Musk claims that we could have a functioning city on Mars by 2050.
However, getting cars to orbit might prove more challenging than we realize. SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket was required to launch the Tesla Roadster into orbit. Even that mission was not perfect. After failing to ignite two of three of its descent engines, the core booster failed to land on the autonomous ocean platform safely. These digital mockups will allow us to imagine a Mars colony.