No one owns Mars. Whoever gets there first and can hold it owns it. If Musk is first then it's his planet until someone else shows up to challenge him for it. If it's his planet he can do as he pleases.
This is a bit late, but in case anyone happens to be reading this in the future: Almost every country in the world has signed a treaty agreeing, in essence, that it isn't possible to claim alien planets. So if Musk tried to claim Mars, he would be a criminal on Earth.
And yet Antartica has been continuously inhabbited for decades. There has also been a continuous human presence in low Earth orbit for decades. I have little doubt that Musk can eventually make this happen.
And even then Earth would be much more habitable than Mars will ever be.
Elon Musk may end up going to Mars, I don't think after the last decade anybody will bet against that. He could very well be this generations Neil Armstrong in being the first person to set foot on another planet. Which would be a stupendous achievement in and of itself, even if he dies in the attempt to land there itself.
But after that he'll either die there anyway when his resources run out or he'll run right back to mamma earth assuming they can manage to resupply their fuel and make it back here somehow.
you didnt even bother reading the start of the article, and the biggest reason why Musk wants to do this: to make our species multi-planetary. Not just because it's fun, but because, one day, an extinction event will come to Earth (eventually, an astroid is bound to hit us, its a statistical fact) so he wants to make sure humanity survives that event.
Also, it's a stepping stone to the next planet, and the next, and the next... Where do you want humanity to be in a thousand years, heck, even a million? Still only on Earth? Or out there, among the stars?
So making life multiplanetary, what Elon Musk has been saying, is basically the only feasible protection? Not a Musk fanboy but happy that at least something is happening.
That sounds fantastic. I would love to be stuck on a planet, with my entire life in the hands of Elon Musk - whom has been progressing into a temperamental asshole and probably has a gigantic ego. What happens if you do something Elon doesn't like and he wants to cut off your Starlink access, or kicks you out of the SpaceX colony. I'm sure there are plenty of SpaceX security folks that would carry out his decrees.
I wouldn't set foot on a SpaceX martian colony without some further protections.
reply