Musk says humans can be on Mars in four years. Many laugh, but some see purpose

The SpaceX boss has envisioned people staying on the red planet in a self-sustaining city in 20 yearsAlmost buried beneath a recent avalanche of rightwing invective posted by Elon Musk on the platform he owns, X, was one eye-popping statement that made space watchers sit up and take notice: an assertion that humans could land on Mars within four years and be living there in a self-sustaining city in 20.It seemed a fanciful boast, even by the standards of the SpaceX founder and world’s rich