Claim: Social media users claim that Elon Musk has opened a hotel on planet Mars. They shared photos to back their claim.
Verdict: This is false. So far, scientists have declared Mars inhabitable. Again, the photos being used by online users to back their claims are computer generated.
Full Text
Social media users are claiming that the CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk, has opened a hotel on planet Mars. According to them, the facility is set to open for business with a $5 million per night price tag for patrons.
Some of the accounts found to have made the post can be found here, here, here, here, and here.
To begin with, there is no life on the planet Mars. Hence, it cannot be true that Elon Musk can construct an edifice there for human use.
Explorations by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research, are yet to ascertain that Mars is habitable.
“Is there life on Mars? Not that we’ve found yet, but there’s still a lot of Mars left to explore,” NASA said in a publication.
A reverse image search was also conducted on the four main pictures used as pictorial evidence of the hotel opened by Elon Musk on Mars.
Photo 1:
This image above was used in a video published on YouTube in 2019 by Interstellar Lab (from minute 0:48 to 1:25), a company with a mission to “help build a future full of life and Earth and beyond.”
The edifice is a facility the company envisions building to “preserve lives.”
We found several online publications discussing the project by Interstellar Lab. Some of these can be found here, here, and here.
Photo 2:
From our search, we found that this photo is a 3D design submitted by a team for the NASA’s 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge.
Photo 3 and Photo 4
These two are space hotel ideas by Orbital Assembly, a space construction company.
Conclusion
The photos used to back claims that Elon Musk has opened a hotel on planet Mars are computer generated and have no relationship with the businessman. Moreover, scientists are yet to ascertain if the conditions on Mars support life, making it very unlikely that any hotel project will be undertaken at this moment.
