Elon Musk’s Mars Plan Shaken As SpaceX CEO Fears Humans Will Turn Off On Their Own Before 2050 | Science | News

The tech mogul had previously detailed plans to colonize the Red Planet by building a city of one million people by 2050, but received a heavy blow when the Starship SN9 prototype crashed and exploded after its first. high altitude test flight last week. Mr Musk said he hopes to someday produce 1,000 spacecraft over 10 years and launch three a day. The rockets would explode from Earth, each carrying around 100 tons of equipment, as well as 100 people in hopes of building a permanent colony on Mars.

And the SpaceX CEO gave a preview of the roller coaster ride he had already experienced at the Mars Society 2020 Virtual Convention.

He said: “We’ve been through a lot of iterations, starting with not really knowing how to build rockets, with Falcon One and having three failures before we reach orbit.

“We barely survived, I had virtually no cash when we put this fourth into orbit – if that didn’t work, there would have been curtains.

“I think it’s useful to have as a goal the creation of an autonomous city on Mars.

“It has to be the goal, not just a few people or a base, but a self-sufficient city.

“The acid test is really if Earth’s ships stop coming for some reason, does Mars die?”

Mr. Musk referred to the Great Filter theory – the idea that somewhere along the developmental trajectory of life there is a massive and common challenge that ends life before it becomes sufficiently intelligent and fairly widespread in the universe.

He said, “If the ships stop coming for some reason, does the city on Mars die?

“If not, we’re not in a safe place, I think it could really come down to the big filter front.

READ MORE: Elon Musk’s plan to send a million people to Mars bolstered by colonization ‘solution’

“Are we going to be able to create an autonomous city on Mars before or after World War III?”

“I hope there will never be a third world war, but the probability of launching after the third world war is low.

“We should try to make this city self-sufficient before any possible world war 3.”

Mr Musk said the success of his project depended on it, but he doesn’t think the outlook is great.

He continued, “In reality, we are faced with a series of probabilities. There’s a chance we could have a giant war, supervolcano, or comet strike – or we could just go extinct.

“Frankly, right now, civilization doesn’t look super strong, you know, we look a little rickety right now.

“It’s not an escape vehicle unless Mars becomes self-sufficient, which probably won’t happen in my lifetime.

“It doesn’t make sense to have a lifeboat if you’re just moving to another place where you’ll die soon. It doesn’t matter.

“It’s really about minimizing existential risks to civilization as a whole and having a future where we are a space civilization and a multi-planetary species.

Global catastrophic risks also include anthropogenic risks caused by humans, such as technology, governance and climate change.

Express.co.uk today launched a groundbreaking campaign to help save Britain’s environment and boost the economy by £ 21 billion.

Together with green entrepreneur Dale Vince, we call on the government to remove VAT on green products and make more room for nature.

An exclusive poll commissioned by the Daily Express found that 66% of adults are concerned about the state of the planet, climate change, and the decline of wildlife and nature.

The majority are also in favor of changing tax laws to encourage a greener approach and make polluters pay.

Express.co.uk calls on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to show global leadership on the issue ahead of the G7 summit in Cornwall in June and the Cop 26 climate change crunch summit in Glasgow in November.