Elon Musk
Julie Hambleton
Julie Hambleton
January 8, 2024 ·  3 min read

In 1953 a scientist predicted a man titled ‘Elon’ would lead humans to Mars and crown himself ‘Martian Emperor’

Tesla founder Elon Musk is known not just for his interest in developing electric cars, but also for his interest in space migration and habitation. A firm believer in destiny, he has said in the past that humans will step foot on Mars by 2024. According to this German book written in 1953, going to Mars might actually be the tech billionaire’s destiny.

Space, Destiny, and Elon Musk

Last October, Elon Musk announced that, according to him, humans will set foot on Mars in 2024. As the CEO and founder of SpaceX,  this mission is very important. Elon believes that space, Mars, and multi-planetary living is the only thing that will save the human race and other Earth species. On April 17, he tweeted this:

Elon Musk Twitter
Image source: Twitter

Elon is also known for being a heavy believer in destiny. He believes that people’s destiny is already predetermined, whether by a divine being, or genetics, or something else entirely. In late December of last year, he tweeted this quote from Young Frankenstein:

Elon Musk Twitter
Image source: Twitter

Well, in response another Twitter user pointed out that the billionaire might be at least a little bit right about that.

Read: Scientists Develop Liquid That Can Store Solar Energy for Almost Two Decades

Old German Book Predicted Elon Musk Will Go To Mars

According to Business Insider, the Twitter user, Toby Li, responded to Elon’s tweet with a photo of an excerpt from the book “Mars Project: A Technical Tale.” German author Wernher von Braun wrote the novel about humans populating Mars in 1953. Braun was one of the leading scientists for rocket technology in Nazi Germany before secretly moving to the United States after the war. In America, he became one of the pioneers of rocket space technology for the nation. Li’s tweet was a photo of a page of the book, written in German. He tweeted this:

Elon Musk Twitter
Image source: Twitter

“Speaking about destiny, did you know that Von Braun’s 1953 book “Mars Project,” referenced a person named Elon that would bring humans to Mars? Pretty nuts”

exert from book claiming "elon" will be the martian emperor
Image Credit: Toby Li / Twitter

Now, as it turns out, his statement wasn’t entirely accurate. After a few people commenting questioning whether or not this is real, another user responded to clear up a few things. He provided a photo of the same section of the English translation of the book. Turns out he lost a little bit of the true meaning in translation. Braun did not state that the martian emperor’s name would not be Elon, but rather the emperor would be called the Elon

“Yeah it’s real. This is the English transcript of the same book … But “Elon” referred by Von Braun in the book isn’t the name of the person but rather the name of the position something like an elected meritocratic president” they tweeted.

exert from book claiming "elon" will be the martian emperor
Image Credit: Pranay Pathole / Twitter

So, no, the book did not exactly predict that someone named Elon would go to Mars in the future. Still, the coincidence that Braun decided to call the martian president Elon is quite uncanny, don’t you think?

Keep Reading: Stephen Hawking: Humans Only Have About 1,000 Years Left

Sources

  1. Elon Musk. Twitter. April 17, 2021
  2. Elon Musk. Twitter. December 30, 2020
  3. In 1953 a scientist predicted a man titled ‘Elon’ would lead humans to Mars and crown himself ‘Martian Emperor’.” Business Insider. Daniel Cáceres, Qayyah Moynihan. June 11, 2021.
  4. Toby Li. Twitter. December 30, 2020
  5. Pranay Pathole. Twitter. December 30, 2020.