Elon Musk, Now World’s Richest Man, Reaffirms His Intention to Live on Mars
For the last few years, Jeff Bezos has been the richest person in the world — even after losing a large chunk of his fortune in a divorce. That changed this week when a Tesla stock surge made Elon Musk the world’s richest man. In celebration, he’s not going to Disneyland. Nope, Elon Musk is apparently , and he wants to bring a million people along for the ride.
After Musk officially became the world’s most successful capitalist on Thursday, he pinned a 2018 tweet to his Twitter page announcing his intention to use his wealth to start a colony on Mars.
Founding a colony on the red planet won’t be easy or cheap, but Elon Musk does have $188 billion. That includes stock and assets he probably cannot sell, but he’s not hurting for cash, either. SpaceX and the in-development Starship rocket are key to Musk’s plans. By 2050, Musk has said he hopes to have a fleet of 1,000 Starships with three vessels launching every day.
The Starship is still a long way from carrying passengers, but Musk believed we’re only years away from setting foot on Mars.
Musk has talked about the cost of a trip to Mars, most recently pegging the cost around $500,000. For well-to-do Americans, that’s in reach if you sell everything you have on Earth as Musk claims to be doing. For everyone else, Musk says there will be loans. However, I am still unconvinced of the wisdom of going into debt to travel to a billionaire’s private planet where there are no laws. I have read this sci-fi novel, and it doesn’t end well.
This all feels much more real today — the richest single person on Earth wants to go to Mars. He can probably make that happen thanks to the unfathomable wealth at his disposal. Whether or not it’s a good idea is another story. NASA has spoken generally about its plans for Mars, which could include a crewed mission in the 2030s. NASA is more cautious because, for one, it doesn’t have billions of dollars burning a hole in its proverbial pocket. There are also a lot of unknowns about living on Mars. The low gravity and high radiation could make long-term colonization dangerous or impossible until technology advanced considerably. And yet, Elon Musk seems dead-set on going to Mars sooner rather than later.
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