Sometimes there are strange coincidences in history.
Elon Musk, the CEO and co-founder of the renowned aerospace company SpaceX, is also known for his fervent plans to explore and send humans to Mars by 2024. He believes that colonizing other planets is the only way to save life on Earth. The SpaceX CEO even revealed that he wants to be buried on Mars.
A strange coincidence from the 1950s, in his science fiction novel, a NASA rocket scientist – one of the pioneers in promoting the ambition to explore space and establish a human base on the Moon and Mars – Wernher von Braun mentioned a person named “Elon” who would lead the conquest of the Red Planet.
More precisely, in the work “The Mars Project,” it is written: “The government on Mars is run by 10 people, with the head of whom will be elected by popular vote every 5 years and is called ‘Elon’. The two houses of Congress will be managed by Elon and his cabinet.”
“The Senate is called the Council of Elders and is limited to 60 members, each of whom will be appointed for life by Elon when someone dies.”
With the head being called “Elon,” this name seems to honor the leader in the conquest of this planet (similar to how Western kings often referred to themselves as Caesar).
In fact, this science fiction work was never published to the public as it was rejected by 18 different publishers. Von Braun later published small parts of it in magazines to illustrate his views on the colonization of Mars. It wasn’t until 2006 that the complete manuscript was printed as a book titled “Project Mars: A Technical Tale.”
This book seemed to fall into obscurity until late last year when it was mentioned in a comment on Elon Musk’s tweet about destiny.
Musk’s tweet said: “Destiny, destiny. You cannot escape me.” And user Toby Li responded: “Speaking of destiny, did you know that the book ‘Mars Project’ from 1953 by Von Braun mentioned a person named Elon who would take humanity to Mars? That’s crazy.”
This was also mentioned by a Reddit user named u/sweetcuppingcakes three years ago when discovering the English manuscript of this work.
The original work was written in German. This is because Wernher von Braun was one of the rocket scientists of the Nazi regime at the end of World War II. After the war, he and many other German scientists immigrated to the U.S. and worked for the nation’s space exploration program, ultimately NASA.
Anyway, this could be just one of many strange coincidences in history. The name Elon may derive from the Hebrew word for “oak tree” – symbolizing wisdom. It’s impossible to know exactly why von Braun mentioned that name in his work, as this scientist passed away in 1977, six years after Musk was born.