As the timeline is regularly updated and expanded – taking into account real-world developments in technology, as well as plans for the exploration and colonization of Mars – it now differs significantly from the version originally published. For this reason, we thought it would be interesting to revisit the original Mars Colonization Timeline, published in October 2016, and share it with you.
Go to: 2020s – 2030s – 2040s – 2050s – 2060s – 2070s – 2080s – 2090s – 22nd century
2010s – The Mars hype is there
2016 – Elon Musk reveals SpaceX plans for the Interplanetary Transport System (ITS, formerly known as Mars Colonial Transporter).
2016 – ESA&Roscosmos's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter enters Mars orbit, but Schiaparelli lander crashes on the surface of Mars.
2018 – NASA's InSight lander lands on Mars.
2018 – SpaceX's Red Dragon becomes the first private spacecraft to land on Mars, and the largest overall.
2020s – Preparing for human arrival
2021 – NASA's Mars 2020 rover lands on Mars.
2021 – First Chinese orbiter, lander and rover reaches Mars.
2021 – 2nd Red Dragon lands on Mars with a drill and an experimental propellant plant to produce oxygen and methane from Martian atmosphere and soil.
2021 – United Arab Emirates Hope probe enters Mars orbit.
2022 – Two communications satellites are placed in Sun-Earth Lagrangian points L4 and L5 to overcome the problem of periodic communications blackout with spacecrafts temporary behind the Sun.
2022 – The location for SpaceX's future "Mars Base Alpha" is selected.
2023 – NASA's next generation (solar electric ion thrusters, broadband laser communications) satellite enters Mars orbit.
2023 – Japan's Martian Moons Explorer lands on Phobos to collect samples and return them to Earth.
2023 – 3rd Red Dragon lands on Mars with deployable solar panels and In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) system containing a chemical plant to produce water and nitrogen and an improved propellant plant (capable to produce and store liquid methane and oxygen).
2024 – SpaceX's ITS makes its first unmanned test flight.
2025 – A group of unmanned Red Dragons lands near the selected location of future Mars Base Alpha with an improved ISRU system, deployable solar panels and experimental greenhouse; they are automatically interconnected to make a single system.
2025 – Another Red Dragon lands on Mars to retrieve samples collected by Mars 2020 rover and launch them back to Earth.
2027 – The first unmanned demonstration ITS spaceship "Heart of Gold" lands on Mars near the location of future Mars Base Alpha; basic post-landing procedures are tested, the ship refills itself with propellant (by an upscaled automatic ISRU system) and launches back to Earth.
2029 – Several unmanned ITS spaceships lands at Mars Base Alpha: a backup crew ship (which can serve as a temporary habitat), a cargo ship with ISRU system, small nuclear power reactor and deployable solar panels and a few cargo ships with rovers, miner/ tunneling droids and parts for a modular habitat and other equipment.
2029 – Some of modules for NASA's Mars Base Camp (a manned station orbiting Mars built in collaboration with Lockheed Martin and Boeing) are prepositioned in Mars orbit.
