That is not what Musk’s bullshit. It’s a permanent base with people on Mars.

I once watched a press conference with him talking about his plans for SpaceX. The responses he gave about human factors were making cuckoo clock sounds. When asked about the issue of solar radiation exposure his response was along the lines of we don't need to worry about that. What!? That's one of the major engineering and safety issues in long duration space flight and habitation. You've not even thought about it? So basically he'll be sending people into space with no concern about turning them into crispy critters.