Elon Musk believes there's a "70 percent" chance he will go to Mars, he said in an interview with Axios on HBO Sunday. Musk was responding to a question on the likelihood he will personally go to Mars.
"We've recently made a number of breakthroughs that I… am just really fired up about," the SpaceX founder said, adding, "I'm talking about moving there."
If a Mars voyage is also on your bucket list, start saving up, because it'll cost you "around a couple hundred thousand dollars" to snag a seat on the Starship (formerly known as the BFR), Musk's spaceship designed for interplanetary travel. It's also the spacecraft the first private moon passenger will travel in.
But beware of the risk.
"Your probability of dying on Mars is much higher than Earth," Musk responded when a host floated the idea that a one-way ticket to Mars might be an "escape hatch" for the affluent.
"There's a good chance of death, going in a little can through deep space," he explained.
Even if you arrive safe and sound, you'll apparently be kept "working nonstop" to build a base on Mars. You might also have to live out of the Starship, according to SpaceX's principal Mars development engineer Paul Wooster at this year's Mars Society Convention.
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| © CNET ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA - SEPTEMBER 29: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk speaks at the International Astronautical Congress on September 29, 2017 in Adelaide, Australia. Musk detailed the long-term technical challenges that need to be solved in order to support the creation of a permanent, self-sustaining human presence on Mars. |
And even if you make it to Mars, you could still end up dying in its harsh conditions.
But Musk remains certain he wants to go.
"There's lots of people who climb mountains. People die on Mount Everest all the time," Musk said. "They like doing it for the challenge."
Both Musk fans and haters were on Twitter again following the release of the interviews, where he also talked about his vision for merging artificial intelligence and humans, and how Tesla nearly went bust.
Musk also wondered if the Earth might be flat, hollow, or both.
