Elon Musk says there’s a good chance he may one day live on Mars. In fact, he’s setting the odds at 70% he ’ll eventually make the move to the Red Planet.
In a recent interview with Axios for HBO, the Tesla and Space X founder was asked how likely he thought it would be that he would go to Mars. He put the odds at 70% and then took things a step further to clarify that he saw himself living on the planet, not just visiting.
That said, Musk acknowledges that being one of the first to visit and inhabits the planet won’t be easy.
“Really the ad for going to Mars would be like Shackleton’s ad for going to the Antarctic,” he said. “It’s gonna be hard. There’s a good chance of death. Going in a little can through deep space, you might land successfully, once you land successfully, you’ll be working nonstop to build the base. Not much time for leisure, and once you get there, 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.”
A harsh reality, he says, elminates any thought that moving to Mars would be an “escape hatch for rich people” from the Earth.
In the interview Musk didn’t provide a specific timeline for his move. He has previously said that Space X could potentially launch a rocket to the planet in early 2019.