A rumor circulating online in January 2025 purported that a 1953 book called "Mars Project" by rocket science pioneer Wernher von Braun included a prediction that the leader of Mars would be named "the Elon."
SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who plans to use his company to reach Mars, shared the claim on X (archived) in late January 2025, asking: "How can this be real?" The rumor appeared in a Reddit post as early as 2017 and, in 2020, Musk also responded to the claim on X (archived) asking: "Are we sure this is real?"
How can this be real? https://t.co/n5V4TZQo8q
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 27, 2025
The claim gained traction online after Musk told the International Astronautical Federation in 2023 that travel to Mars was imminent, saying it was possible "within the next four years to do an uncrewed test landing there."
However, the claim that von Braun's "Mars Project" — "Das Marsprojekt" in German — featured a prediction that the leader of Mars would be called "the Elon" is complicated by the publishing history of the book in question. Further, no mention of "the Elon" could be found in any 1953 edition of "Mars Project" found on the Internet Archive.
There is some important context to understand, as will be outlined below, but there is no tangible evidence indicating that this was a "prediction." It was much more likely a coincidence that a person named Elon would be involved in space exploration. Or, there's a theory that Musk's father, Errol Musk, intentionally named his son after a character he saw in a version of von Braun's book. However, based on the timeline of the book's publication, that latter scenario was unlikely true.
Errol Musk's comments
Musk's father, Errol, posted a video on YouTube in 2022 saying that von Braun's writings inspired him to name his son Elon, as did his family's history.
In the interview, Errol Musk said:
When I was a child, we used to build rockets and we used to read the books of Professor Hermann Oberth and Wernher von Braun and they had these illustrated, they weren't really comics, they were books, but they had illustrations, and they were in German, unfortunately, but the adult at that time that we were with, who discovered Bennett's comet, his name was Bennett. Mr. [John Caister] Bennett. He would tell us what the stories were saying about going to planets and all that sort of stuff, and we could see the illustrations and everything. Wernher von Braun's book — I think it was his, or it could have been Oberth's book — spoke about how the head of the Mars colony would be called "the Elon." Now, I remember that, but I never thought it was a name. I never thought it was a person's name. When Maye [Maye Musk, Elon Musk's mother] and I got married, I was quite amazed to discover that her father's grandfather or something had been called Elon ... which really reminded me of the stories we had, and so I thought, well yes, I like that name for Elon.
The video can be seen in full below.
'Mars Project' book
"Mars Project" is a technical science book detailing von Braun's predicted specifications for getting humanity to Mars. It contains no mention of someone called "the Elon."
According to publisher Apogee Books, the contents of "Mars Project" originated as an appendix to a science fiction novel von Braun wrote around the same time. The novel is a speculative work of fiction about man's first trip to Mars and interactions with Martian society. The novel remained unpublished until 2006, when Apogee released it under von Braun's name as "Project Mars: A Technical Tale."
(Apogee Books)
The rumor that the 1953 book predicted "Elon" as the leader of Mars purportedly comes from the "original German manuscript," which can be seen in this Imgur gallery (archived) as containing the name "Elon." Apogee Books confirmed via phone call that these images are indeed the original manuscript from which they published "Project Mars: A Technical Tale" in 2006, but the image depicting a mention of "Elon" was not part of the original 1953 publication of "Mars Project."
In Chapter 24 of the 2006 edition, a section titled "How Mars is Governed," the author reveals that the Martians are ruled by a being called "the Elon." So while "the Elon" does not appear in the publication from 1953, it does appear in 2006.
Wernher von Braun wrote (as published in the 2006 edition):
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.
The Upper House was called the Council of the Elders and was limited to a membership of 60 persons, each being appointed for life by the Elon as vacancies occurred by death. In principle, the method was not unlike that by which the College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church is appointed. Usually the Elon chose historians, churchmen, former cabinet members or successful economic leaders who could offer lifetimes of valuable experience. The Council of Elders, however, had but limited authority. Proposed laws could be approved or disapproved as presented, but no riders, amendments or alterations could be voted. The Council of the Elders could stimulate, suggest and test legislation, its main purpose was not action, but rather to assure the continuity of the basic thought on legislation, as also the protection of that thought.
("Project Mars: A Technical Tale" by Wernher von Braun)
Later, in Chapter 29, which is titled "The Expedition Bears Fruit," von Braun goes into further detail about his vision of Martian politics:
The high esteem in which the Academy was held was reflected in that its President ranked, together with the Senior Justice of the Supreme Court, immediately behind the Elon, despite the general lack of social distinctions throughout the planet. Even the cabinet officers occupied the next lower rung of the social ladder.
("Project Mars: A Technical Tale" by Wernher von Braun)
According to Apogee Books founder and publisher Robert Godwin, the history of getting the novel published is complex and could offer an explanation of how Errol Musk may remember coming across elements of it as a child despite it not being published until 2006.
Godwin explained via email:
[Wernher von] Braun couldn't find a publisher for it in English in 1950. He was in correspondence with Heinz Hermann Koelle in Stuttgart, who had formed a new German Rocket Society in 1948. Koelle told Von Braun that he could get it published in Germany. However, his society didn't want to publish the story, just the technical appendices. They went ahead and published it in February 1952 as "Das Marsprojekt." I own Koelle's personal copy of that edition, given to me by his wife and kids. That technical appendix was then published in 1953 by a university in Illinois.
However, Godwin said that the fiction manuscript was eventually rewritten by author F.L. Neher and released in Germany in 1953 as "Menschen zwischen den Planeten." Godwin added that von Braun disowned the rewrite and asked for his name to be removed from the release but still contributed a foreword to the project.
Godwin also shared a title page from the first edition of "Menschen zwischen den Planeten," which when translated from German reads: "Following a suggestion and with a foreword to the first edition in 1953 by Prof. Wernher Von Braun." The inclusion of this line suggests that the novel was based on the unpublished work of von Braun.
(Apogee Books)
In von Braun's foreword to "Menschen zwischen den Planeten," also translated from German, he wrote:
At the same time as this scientific writing ["Mars Project"], I had submitted to Bechtle Publishing a novelistic outline, the imaginary story of an expedition to Mars. I had written it because I could not see a better way to present to the public the complexity of the problems that the conquest of space for man would pose in all areas. It seemed to me that one could not better depict the repercussions that the technical realization of interplanetary travel would have on the human level than by having them exposed by a few protagonists engaged in a fictitious action.
Bechtle Publishing, following an agreement with Umschau Publishing, immediately published the scientific work and offered me to have the fictional story rewritten by an experienced writer. Mr. Franz Ludwig Neher, a well-known author of sea and aviation novels, wrote an original novel from my draft, "Menschen zwischen den Planeten," in which he used the scientific and technical data presented in my Mars Expedition Project and other of my publications.
It is this version that Errol Musk could be referring to, or possibly an alternative version published alongside illustrations.
However, Michael Neufeld, a von Braun biographer, historian, and retired senior curator of the Smithsonian Institution,
In Neher's version, they meet no Martians as the astronauts find only ruins of a dead civilization that may have killed itself off in a nuclear war. The term "Elon" does not appear in that novel, as the Martians are extinct, unlike the von Braun original (yet Neher retains almost all of the same names and plot points leading up to the Mars landing). Given that, Elon Musk's father's memory is mistaken. I can't see any possibility of German space writing or Neher's novel influencing the name choice. The von Braun novel was sitting as a forgotten manuscript in the US Space and Rocket Center Archives when I found it c. 2000. It was effectively unknown to the outside world before 2006. I'm not aware of any circulation of the manuscript before Apogee Books published it. The copy of the German original manuscript of von Braun's novel must have ended up in Neher's or Bechtle's archives, or been lost, as I had never seen it before I found both English and German versions in Huntsville [Alabama].
In sum,
Wernher von Braun is widely regarded as a pioneer in rocket science. He was also a former member of the Nazi Party, instrumental in the early days of NASA and a recipient of the National Medal of Science in 1975 "for unnerving [sic] commitment to space travel."