Colonizing Mars, asteroid mining, orbital AI data centers Musk wants SpaceX to do more than send astronauts into space. He plans to build the infrastructure to secure the future of human life beyond Earth. The ultimate goal, Musk has said, is to create self-sustaining cities on Mars that could be home to up to a million people. To achieve that, SpaceX plans to use Starship — its giant reusable spacecraft — to make the first uncrewed voyages by 2030. The one-way journey to the Red Planet covers about 140 million miles on average and takes roughly six to nine months. The initial missions will test landing systems and begin setting up basic infrastructure, with crewed voyages to follow a few years later. SpaceX also wants to use resources on celestial bodies much closer to Earth to support humanity's multi-planetary expansion. Musk believes that asteroids, which fly through space on shifting orbits, could one day be mined. Asteroids' near-zero gravity makes them far easier and cheaper to land on and extract materials from. However, large-scale asteroid mining of platinum, nickel, gold and ice (water) — all vital for supporting life, building habitats and producing fuel on Mars — won't be achieved until the 2040s or beyond, space industry analysts have predicted. A crucial first stepping stone, however, will be the Moon, which is only a three-day trip from Earth. SpaceX envisions habitats, factories and fuel depots could be built on the Moon — a much cheaper option than launching tons of materials from Earth. Musk also believes space has an answer to one of the biggest problems facing artificial intelligence (AI) — the enormous amount of power and cooling required for massive data centers to handle billions of user requests at once. Instead of building more of these power-hungry facilities on Earth, SpaceX has floated the idea of placing giant AI supercomputers in orbit on large arrays of satellites. These data centers could use unlimited sunlight for energy and the cold vacuum of space for free cooling, making large-scale AI training far cheaper and more efficient than on our home planet. Data centers in space: Solution or disaster? To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Unremovable Musk — the world's first trillionaire? If SpaceX's ambitions aren't crazy enough, the IPO's plans to elevate Musk — already the world's richest person — are truly out of this world. Musk currently owns an estimated 42% of SpaceX. At the targeted $1.75 trillion valuation, his stake alone would be worth roughly $735 billion. Combined with Musk's holdings in Tesla, xAI and other ventures, the IPO would likely push his total net worth past the $1 trillion mark, making him the first trillionaire in history. A special dual-class share structure gives Musk over 80% of the voting power despite owning a much smaller share of SpaceX equity. This setup effectively makes him unfireable as CEO, helping him to pursue long-term, high-risk projects without pressure from short-term investors or activist shareholders. Musk's ironclad control has drawn criticism before, most notably at Tesla, where shareholders sued over his massive pay packages and potential conflicts of interest, arguing the board lacks real independence. Similar concerns have arisen over his control of the social media platform X, where decisions like major layoffs and strategic shifts were made by him. The blockbuster listing will also create enormous wealth for early backers and executives. According to the Financial Times, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and CFO Bret Johnsen would see their shares exceed $1 billion in value. Longtime investor Antonio Gracias could be sitting on $70 billion or more, while PayPal co-founder Luke Nosek's stake would be worth around $5 billion. After 24 years in private hands, SpaceX will go public with Musk retaining a large control Image: IMAGO/Pond5 Images