Elon Musk’s Name Pops Up In A 69-Year-Old Book About Mars Colonization

At the end of last year, the entrepreneur Elon Musk tweeted, “Destiny, destiny. There is no escape for me.” What’s interesting is the response Twitter user Toby Li gave him. 

“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,” Li wrote back. 

In his science fiction book, Von Braun recounts what a trip to Mars in the midst of the Cold War would have been like. He imagined that the human colonists on Mars would be led by a person called “Elon”.

To be clear, “Elon” isn’t the character’s name but rather the title given to elected leaders of Mars. Still, the coincidence is pretty damn wild — especially if we consider that Musk recently called himself the emperor of Mars.