Blog article “To Plant the Stars and Stripes on the Planet Mars” – Trump, Musk, and New Religious Entanglements

All eyes were turned to the US when president Donald Trump stated in his inauguration speech on the 20^th of January 2025: “we will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars” (FOX 13 Seattle 2025). Trump’s plans of exploring Mars are part of a more diverse and entangled interrelation of religion, technology, and outer space. “Manifest destiny” is a historical concept that has served as religious reference frame and as an established rhetoric to legitimize US expansion into the West of the American continent and into space (cf. Swanson 2020). Specifically, Trump aims to facilitate tech entrepreneur Elon Musk’s Mars colonization plans during his presidency. Mars missions require an unprecedented level of technologization and resources. Bodies have to be modified to survive the long journey and persevere in the harsh living conditions on Mars. The huge amounts of data necessary for such a long-term space endeavor have to be processed with AI. This adds a new dimension to this already religiously imbued vision. To realize Mars missions, affirmative convictions about innovative technologies, their potential, and realizability are a prerequisite.

At space fair exhibitions, companies similar to Elon Musk's SpaceX address the technological possibilities of long-distance space travel with AI-generated images of a possible life on Mars. This illustrates how established boundaries between science, fiction, and religion are being renegotiated. According to religious studies scholar S. Brent Plate, religions manifest as “a network of worldmaking technologies” (Plate 2021, 193). They create a sense of community and belonging and the “enchanting worlds” can be experienced through the senses (Plate 2021, 193). Religions and worldviews shape and respond to each other and are thereby interwoven. Fantasies about discovering other worlds, imaginings of possible (extraterrestrial) life in space, and alleged UFO sightings elucidate the allure of outer space. The boundaries between locating this in science fiction, in astrophysics and in religious form are increasingly becoming blurry, e.g. when Elon Musk presents the exploration of Mars as a source of hope and motivation for the future, something “inspiring” (The Australian 2025). Endeavors that had hitherto been part of science fiction are now seriously considered, partly because of the rapid speed of commercial developments and space tech innovation. This includes bodily enhancements to survive and withstand travel to Mars (cf. Szocik 2019) and using lunar regolith to 3D-print structures on the Moon (cf. Ellery et al. 2022). The limits and boundaries of fact and fiction in worldviews regarding outer space are changing in light of rapid technological innovation. 

Technology, including AI, is part of the arena of religion and worldviews. Actors demarcate themselves from religion, found new religions around AI, and rely on religious imaginaries to present their view of technology, as scholar of religion Beth Singler elucidates (cf. Singler 2024). Chaplain Greg Epstein goes so far as so speak of the ubiquitous convictions about and collective practices in treating tech as a (global) religion (cf. Epstein 2024). It comes as no surprise that such religiously imbued visions of technology are present in visions of space exploration. Musk embodies technological and entrepreneurial innovation. This has led to a large following, especially among men (cf. Buchter, Nezik, and Nienhaus 2022), and to a global, digital mass of supporters for his plans (cf. McFarland Taylor 2024). His endeavors resemble “religion” to such an extent that scholars and journalists use it as a semantic frame to capture the associated qualities: Religious studies scholar Sarah McFarland Taylor compares him to a “saint” (McFarland Taylor 2024) and journalist Robert Gast confronts readers with the possibility of Elon Musk being “a modern Jesus” whose community might resemble “a cult” (Gast 2025). He is the embodied epitome of the wider dynamics of technology that have spread globally from Silicon Valley in the 21^st century. To successfully execute and justify the Mars exploration plans, such convictions may be equally as efficacious as the socio-religious notion of a “manifest destiny.”