Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, would want to see one million humans on Mars; however, NASA astronaut Stan Love told The New York Times that he wouldn’t be joining any time soon.
Stanley Glen Love, 57, is a NASA astronaut and scientist from the United States. He joined NASA in 1998, flew aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis for the first time in 2008, and has spent over 300 hours in space.
When asked about Musk’s Mars colony plan, Love told The Sun, “Do I think it’s possible?” Yes. Do I think it will be fun? No.”
“I think it would be horrible. This is based on an opportunity I had while in the astronaut office to go to Antarctica. Just to give you an example, we were in a field camp living in small tents out on the Antarctic ice cap, eight thousand feet above sea level, and we had all the food you could possibly want,” he said.
“Huge crates of really good food. Food’s important on an expedition like that.”
Love said his team would anxiously await a plane carrying new supplies, such as mail and food.
“They take away a bunch of garbage, and they brought us three ping pong ball-sized wormy little apples from New Zealand. There were eight of us, and we carefully portioned those Apples, so everybody got exactly three-eighths of a ping pong ball-sized wormy little Apple from New Zealand, and it was the best Apple you ever ate,” he said.
“It will be a very long time before Mars can produce even a wormy little ping pong ball-sized Apple. Much less a nectarine. Much less a day on the beach.”
“Antarctica’s another model for that. I think the longest anyone has stayed there is five years continuously, and then they were out of there.”
Musk has stated that the first people to live on Mars will have a difficult time. During an episode of the Full Send podcast, the tech tycoon discussed what it would be like for the first humans to arrive on the planet.
“It will be hard living it the beginning on Mars, not like a luxury situation,” he said.
Musk stated that the flight would be “long and difficult” and that the food would be subpar. “It’ll be dangerous like you might die,” he cautioned.
“But over time, you can make it awesome.”
Astronaut Love also said he would not want to be one of the colony’s first residents.
“The smell of living soil, grass, and flowers bring tears to your eyes when you return to New Zealand after six weeks in Antarctica,” he remarked.