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Unlike fellow billionaire Elon Musk, Bill Gates doesn’t think going to Mars is that important.
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Gates said he doesn’t “think rockets are the answer,” on Kara Swisher’s “Sway” podcast.
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He prefers to devote funds to solving climate and public health crises on Earth.
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Tech moguls Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have poured billions into private space travel – with lofty goals of establishing vibrant colonies outside of Earth’s atmosphere – but Bill Gates is more concerned with issues closer to his home.
The Microsoft co-founder explained why he didn’t get involved in Bezos and Musk’s space race during an appearance Monday on Kara Swisher’s “Sway” podcast.
“No, I am not a person from Mars. I know a lot of people from Mars,” he says. “I don’t think rockets are the answer. But maybe I’m missing something there.”
Gates, who appeared on the podcast to promote his new book, “How to Avoid Climate Catastrophe,” said he wanted to use his wealth and foundation to directly address some of humanity’s greatest challenges. He told Swisher that he didn’t feel like buying a ticket to the space either.
“I’m not going to pay a lot of money because my foundation can buy measles vaccines and save a life for $ 1,000,” Gates said. “Everything I do, I always think, ‘OK, I could spend that $ 1,000 to buy the measles vaccine.'”
When it comes to tackling climate change and reducing emissions in the long run, Gates said, people should pay more attention to industries that are hard to make greener, like steel, meat and meat. cement. But companies like Tesla have made great strides on “the easy things like passenger cars,” he said.
“It’s important to say that what Elon did with Tesla is one of the greatest contributions to climate change that has ever been made,” Gates said. “Underestimating Elon is not a good idea.”
Musk’s interplanetary ambitions center on using rockets built by SpaceX, the space exploration company he founded in 2002, to transport 1 million people to Mars by 2050. Musk said he aims to establish a self-sufficient city on the Red Planet so that humanity can survive a future apocalypse on Earth.
Amazon’s founder and outgoing CEO, meanwhile, wants his company, Blue Origin, to facilitate a base on the moon as well as space colonies for up to 1 trillion people. SpaceX and Blue Origin are both working on developing reusable rockets that would dramatically reduce the cost of space travel.
Read the original article on Business Insider
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