Elon Musk shared on the social media platform X that No matter what happens with landing success, SpaceX will increase the number of spaceships travelling to Mars exponentially with every transit opportunity.

He assured anyone who dreams of a great adventure and wants to be a space traveller to go to Mars. But the crewed missions depend on the success of the uncrewed missions scheduled for the next Earth-Mars transfer window. This window occurs every 26 months and is calculated using the Hohmann transfer orbit principle.

Spacecraft to Mars require a lot of fuel and resources, and thus space agencies wait for the Earth-Mars transfer window to open for a better chance of achieving their objectives. Going by the window specifically will result in smaller fuel consumption, shorter travel distances, and better landing conditions as Earth and Mars are optimally aligned.

Elon Musk shared that the uncrewed mission is to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars. If those landings go well, then the first crewed flights to Mars will be in four years. The flight rate will grow exponentially from there, to build a self-sustaining city in about 20 years.

In June, a Starship rocket attempted reentry and completed a test mission, landing in the Indian Ocean on its fourth attempt. Starship is SpaceX's most powerful and largest space launch vehicle. Its design and technology are suited to handle missions to Mars and beyond, while simultaneously being economically viable. NASA's Artemis 3 mission will use Starship to send its astronauts to the moon in 2026. Starship missions faced many challenges, and there have been delays in its missions.