Elon Musk, the chief executive of electric car-maker Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), has given himself a 70% chance of moving to Mars.
Musk, who also heads up private spacecraft developer SpaceX, said in an interview on Sunday that he will live to ride on one of the company’s rockets to the red planet, implying that such a move would be permanent.
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“Your probability of dying on Mars is much higher than on Earth,” he said, adding: “It’s gonna be hard. There’s a good chance of death, going in a little can through deep space” Musk said during an interview with Axios, adding that he thought flights to Mars could be possible seven years from now, with tickets costing around a couple of hundred thousand dollars.
If he successfully makes it to the red planet, Musk said he expected to work “nonstop to build the base”, adding that there would be “not much time for leisure. And even after doing all this, it’s a very harsh environment. So … there’s a good chance you die there. We think you can come back but we’re not sure”.
Elon Musk says that SpaceX's Mars colony won't just be a ticket out for the rich https://t.co/niAwesQ2EN pic.twitter.com/CI2bYhP9KP
— Gizmodo (@Gizmodo) November 25, 2018
The interview was trailed by Axios a day before Nasa’s Insight spacecraft was due to land on Mars containing equipment that will help analyse seismic activity on the planet.
It also follows what has been a tough year for Musk, who has been embroiled in a series of media storms revolving around his erratic behaviour, most notably his replacement as Tesla chairman as part of a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after he was accused of misleading investors with a tweet saying funding had “been secured” to take the company private in August, only to later abandon the plan.
Other scandals involved Musk smoking marijuana during an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, as well as accusing a British diver involved in the rescue of several boys trapped in a cave in Thailand of being a paedophile.