Elon Musk says it's 'highly likely' man will go to Mars within 10 years because he's 'congenitally optimistic'

• Elon Musk has once again made a prediction that man will go to Mars within 10 years.
• This was after his aerospace firm SpaceX successfully tested the most powerful rocket ever built.

Elon Musk has once again said that it's "highly likely" man will go to Mars within 10 years, putting his timeframe down to the fact he's "congenitally optimistic."

Musk retweeted a video posted by his aerospace firm SpaceX showing a successful test fire of its Starship prototype's booster rocket and commenting: "One day, Starship will take us to Mars."

At its full capacity, Starship is the most powerful rocket ever developed. According to SpaceX's website, it will "carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond."

In response to one user asking about when humans will be able to go to Mars, Musk said: "I must admit to being congenitally optimistic (SpaceX & Tesla wouldn't exist otherwise), but I think 5 years is possible and 10 years is highly likely."

The SpaceX video showed engineers conducting a static fire test. According to Musk, 31 out of 33 engines at the base of the vehicle were ignited simultaneously.

"Team turned off 1 engine just before start & 1 stopped itself, so 31 engines fired overall. But still enough engines to reach orbit!" Musk tweeted.

Had all 33 engines been fired up at full power, this would have been the most powerful rocket ever ignited, according to The New York Times.

Musk has teased when humans will reach Mars for years predicting a 2029 landing most recently. This was after his 2016 estimation that humans will reach Mars by 2025.

In 2020, he shared his vision of building a city of one million people on Mars by 2050. He said he hoped to build 1,000 Starships and launch an average of three a day so that anybody can make the trip to Mars.

"There will be a lot of jobs on Mars!" he added.

In an interview with TED Conference president Chris Anderson last year, however, Musk warned that life on Mars won't be luxurious.

"The sales pitch for going to Mars is, 'It's dangerous, it's cramped. You might not make it back. It's difficult, it's hard work.'"