Visionary Elon Musk, whose Falcon 9 rocket delivers Nasa cargo to the International Space Station, wants to construct a small city for 80,000 pioneers on the Red Planet.
The new civilisation would run off sustainable technology and cater only for vegetarians.
Speaking to the Royal Aeronautical Society, Mr Musk, 41, revealed he had been waiting ten years to share his vision.
He said: “Then it seemed ridiculous because there were no rockets, no infrastructure and NASA was the only game in town — and it had no schedule for exploring Mars.
“But with my work, and many others working in the private sector, the mission is coming closer to reality.