“It was hard for me to take those Mars plans seriously,” said space policy expert Wendy Whitman Cobb of the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies. “It was hard for me to take those Mars plans seriously.” — space policy expert Wendy Whitman Cobb“I’m not sure SpaceX, the company, was ever focused on Mars. Even among the most ardent Mars enthusiasts, there is an acknowledgement that the technical challenges standing between humanity and a crewed Mars mission are significant. This has been NASA’s approach in recent years under its Moon to Mars program. You might recall Musk previously claiming that humans would be on Mars by 2022, or 2024, or 2029.