Space & Astronomy

Elon Musk outlines plans for living on Mars

By T.K. Randall
November 22, 2020

Image: Elon Musk at the SpaceX CRS-8 post-launch press conference
Credit: Kim Shiflett / (PD) NASA It might seem like science fiction at the moment, but it is inevitable that we will one day see settlers laying down roots on the Red Planet; living and working there - a veritable home away from home.

There is one major problem however - Mars is an undeniably hostile environment, meaning that even surviving on its surface for any length of time is going to be a major challenge.

Musk has previously spoken about the idea of terraforming Mars, a long process that would involve changing the atmosphere of the entire planet into something more suitable for human life.

Even he, however, acknowledges that this isn't something that's likely to happen anytime soon.

Recently on Twitter, user 'Astronomiaum' asked him a question on this very subject.

"When people arrived on Mars, would the planet already be terraformed or would people have another way created by SpaceX to survive on the red planet ?" he asked.To his surprise, Musk actually responded.

"Life in glass domes at first," he wrote. "Eventually, terraformed to support life, like Earth."

"Terraforming will be too slow to be relevant in our lifetime. However, we can establish a human base there in our lifetime. At least a future spacefaring civilization - discovering our ruins - will be impressed humans got that far."

By the reference to 'our ruins', it sounds like Musk doesn't think we will survive over the long term.

Let us hope he's wrong on that one.

Source: Popular Mechanics

Tags: Mars, Elon Musk