Elon Musk is working to build a future to industrialize the outer space and commercialize the space travel after the successful launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy. His vision is to save the humanity if some dark age strikes us. While speaking at the South by Southwest Conference he talked about his plans to preserve the human civilization in case another war begins on Earth. He is working on his vision to build a self-sustaining colony on Mars which will be populating a million humans in 40 to 100 years.
Musk believes that a human base on Mars has more chances of survival than on a Moon base on the basis of its distance from Earth. He said that if World War III begins, there should be something of human civilization that can revive the human population on Earth.
Musk also addressed his concerns about Artificial Intelligence which is more dangerous than the nuclear weapons. He believes that machines which are capable of thinking for themselves can bring humanity down. Therefore, the AI technology should be regulated. Musk is not only musing about the dangers of technology but is also preparing to develop a basic infrastructure of life on Mars. Glass domes, power stations and an array of basic fundamental services for the humans will be required to initiate the entrepreneurship opportunity on Mars. He says that pizza joints and nightclubs are equally important as iron foundries.
SpaceX has been reusing rockets and catching them, now Musk wants to see the rockets take short flights in the first half of 2019. His next focus is to build the BFR, an interplanetary spaceship which will bring humanity to Mars. He expects that BFR will be able to launch test flights by early 2019. He admits that the timelines might be a little too optimistic but early 2019 seems realistic to follow the plan of sending first SpaceX cargo to Mars through BFR by 2022. Another crewed mission is expected to follow two years later by 2024. A BFR flight can cost around $5 to $6 million range which is less than the initial flights of Falcon 1. Musk is hoping that if BFR launches successfully then it can open doors for other companies and countries to contribute in the field as well. Once BFR is built it can be proven that traveling to Mars is a possibility and other nations will follow this path for sure.
