ELON Musk has broken his silence on rumors that he is a time-traveler sparked by an eerier prediction from the 1950s. Musk, 53, finally addressed the prophecy about him colonizing Mars made by an obscure 1953 science book. The mystery stems from a sci-fi novel called "Project Mars" written by a famous German rocket scientist, Werner von Braun.
![[Elon Musk at a conference.]](https://www.the-sun.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2025/01/elon-musk-ceo-spacex-tesla-928511813.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
In the book, von Braun predicts that humanity will colonize Mars and the leader of the planet will be called "Elon". Believing it was just a coincidence made in the translation process, a curious reader even dug out the original German manuscript - only to discover that von Braun did indeed name the Mars leader as Elon.
![[Illustration of Project Mars book cover depicting astronauts on Mars assembling a rocket.]](https://www.the-sun.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2025/01/musk-fate-elon-musk-addresses-967141052.jpg?strip=all&w=612)
Musk was clearly spooked out by the uncanny connection as he took to X to ask: "How can this be real?". He also joked: "No matter how often I tell people that I’m a 5000-year-old alien time traveler, they don’t believe me.". One passage in the book imagines the government that would be set up to run Mars as humans established themselves on the Red Planet.
![[Planet Mars.]](https://www.the-sun.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2025/01/planet-mars-isolated-black-608324081.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
Von Braun wrote: "The Martian government was directed by ten men, the leader of whom was elected by universal suffrage for five years and entitled 'Elon'. "Two houses of parliament enacted the laws to be administered by the Elon and his cabinet.". Musk is well-known for his ambitions to help humans settle on Mars with his SpaeX rocket technology.
![[Black and white photo of Werner von Braun and his team surrendering to Americans in 1944.]](https://www.the-sun.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2025/01/1944-surrendered-americans-team-behind-503328173_68648f.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
