What To Know
- A few weeks ago, during a presentation, Elon Musk mentioned the possibility of a human sanctuary in space in the event of a major catastrophe on Earth.
- In reality, this is a kind of extension of the project of exploring and colonizing the planet Mars.
- Elon Musk has nevertheless ruled out the possibility of abandoning Earth and has specified that it must be ensured that it remains livable for as long as possibleIn other words, the SpaceX boss wants to put together a kind of plan B in the event that events on Earth get out of human control.
A few weeks ago, during a presentation, Elon Musk mentioned the possibility of a human sanctuary in space in the event of a major catastrophe on Earth. In reality, this is a kind of extension of the project of exploring and colonizing the planet Mars.
Elon Musk wants to make life multiplanetary
What if a country started a total nuclear war on Earth? Our planet would have a high chance of becoming uninhabitable. However, the threat is very real, given the current geopolitical context. For Elon Musk, the urgency is to finalize his now famous Starship. Indeed, if the device was initially designed to increase the number of astronauts’ trips to the International Space Station (ISS), it could become a “space ark”. Beginning of April 2024, Elon Musk spoke from Starbasethe SpaceX launch center (see video at the end of the article). He recalled that a possible total war could endanger life on Earth and spoke of the urgency of making life multiplanetary. In other words, it is a question to extend life sustainably to at least one other planet. However, the first planet to be affected by such a project would be Mars. Elon Musk has nevertheless ruled out the possibility of abandoning Earth and has specified that it must be ensured that it remains livable for as long as possibleIn other words, the SpaceX boss wants to put together a kind of plan B in the event that events on Earth get out of human control.
Illustration of a Martian base. Credits: Petrovich9 / iStock
A project that is currently impossible
It is therefore possible to imagine a Starship that performs shuttles between Earth and Mars to transport humans there. Which ones? That’s another subject. Moreover, the main question of such an initiative has been known for a very long time: how generate a terraforming process on this planet to make it more habitable for humans? And what about the Moon? For Elon Musk, this is not an option. He has in fact estimated that even an advanced lunar colony could not become a refuge for humanity. The main reason, according to him, is that those responsible for the nuclear apocalypse on Earth could also attack the Moon. While the SpaceX boss’s interventions often raise a smile, the idea of establishing a colony on Mars is far from far-fetched. There is indeed a great many works dealing with the subject under different aspects. This research and reflections concern in particular, among other things, housing, sustainability, energy and food autonomythe use of local resources and the laws that would govern this new society.
