Chun Wang, the Chinese-born entrepreneur and founder of Bitcoin mining giant F2Pool, has officially joined SpaceX’s first planned human mission to Mars after personally funding a seat on the historic journey.
SpaceX announced Thursday that the future mission will travel beyond the Moon, perform a flyby of Mars, and eventually return to Earth as part of a multi-year interplanetary expedition.
Wang also confirmed that he has secured a place on a separate commercial lunar mission that will orbit the Moon before the Mars mission takes place.
Why Chun Wang Is Backing Mars Exploration
In a statement shared on X, Wang explained that he believes Moon exploration will likely continue regardless of private investment because of growing competition between the United States and China.
However, he expressed concern that human missions to Mars could face long delays unless private individuals and companies continue pushing the effort forward.
According to Wang, supporting a Mars mission now gives SpaceX additional motivation to continue prioritizing long-term Mars exploration rather than postponing it for future generations.
He said he hopes the mission can help people view Mars not simply as a distant object in space, but as a real destination humans can eventually travel to and safely return from.
Private Billionaires Increasingly Funding Space Travel
Wang joins a growing group of wealthy technology entrepreneurs who are actively financing and participating in private space exploration projects.
Other notable figures involved in commercial space travel include:
- Amazon founder Jeff Bezos
- Virgin Group founder Richard Branson
- Shift4 Payments founder Jared Isaacman
Private investment has become an increasingly important part of the modern space industry as companies like SpaceX accelerate ambitious plans involving lunar missions, reusable rockets, and long-term Mars colonization.
SpaceX’s Long-Term Mars Vision
According to SpaceX, early cargo missions to Mars for research and infrastructure development are expected to begin no earlier than 2028.
The company’s ultimate goal is to establish a fully self-sustaining city on Mars capable of supporting more than one million people over time.
Achieving that vision would require transporting millions of tons of cargo, equipment, and resources to the planet over several decades.
Who Is Chun Wang?
Chun Wang is a Chinese-born citizen of Malta who founded F2Pool in 2013, one of the earliest Bitcoin mining pools in China.
Today, F2Pool remains one of the largest Bitcoin mining pools globally, controlling more than 11% of the network’s mining market share according to blockchain data platform mempool.space.
Wang has already participated in one SpaceX mission before.
In April 2026, he financed and led the “Fram2” mission, a SpaceX flight that traveled over Earth’s polar regions while conducting scientific experiments in space.
The mission’s crew included:
- German polar scientist Rabea Rogge
- Norwegian cinematographer Jannicke Mikkelsen
- Australian Arctic explorer Eric Philips
Experiments conducted during the mission included space-based X-rays and mushroom cultivation research.
With his latest investment in Mars exploration, Wang is becoming one of the first major figures from the crypto industry to directly support humanity’s long-term ambitions for interplanetary travel.
