Elon Musk, the magnate who founded both SpaceX and Tesla, has a lot of really big ideas — and the money to make them happen. Last week he gave a speech at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Adelaide, Australia, where he unveiled his vision to colonize Mars.
The plans themselves look beautiful, but many still wondered about, well, exactly how this is all going to work.
Elon Musk is a man with many big ideas.
He's been focused for a long time on revolutionizing the way humans travel. As the founder of Tesla, he had a hand in the first ever mass-produced electric car to hit the road. He's also very good at posing for photos.Musk also recently claimed to be working on a vacuum-tube train system dubbed the "Hyperloop."
Over the summer he announced he'd been given the go ahead to begin work on a high speed train line that would take riders from New York City to Washington D.C. in half an hour. A lofty goal considering it takes almost twice as long to reach several parts of Brooklyn from Manhattan.He's long set his sights on colonizing Mars.
Musk has the will and he has the technology. But in the meantime, he's said he might be able to make it so humans can travel to almost anywhere on Earth in an hour. So you could get from New York to Shanghai before the subway could get you from the West Village to Yankee Stadium.But Mars is still very much on Musk's mind.
Elon Musk Wants Giant SpaceX Spaceship to Fly People to Mars by 2024 https://t.co/rQDvACxTwe https://t.co/E1WHHkYyab— SPACE.com (@SPACE.com)1506703416.0
Last week, he got more specific than ever about his Mars plans.
Human missions to build colony on Mars will start in 2024, Elon Musk says https://t.co/oUj8U607A9 https://t.co/nqXiJzPkND— The Telegraph (@The Telegraph)1506690300.0
Included are pictures of Mars's storied "blue dusk."
The renderings show human settlements on Mars at dusk, when the sky turns blue. The daytime sky, however, is red, and far more alien-looking. The settlement appears to have all the same down-home space charm of the one where stormtroopers hunted down Luke Skywalker's aunt and uncle.People are already noticing some similarities in terms of the vibe...
SpaceX’s Mars colony proposal…is Burning Man. https://t.co/x2vLzBVU3z— That Dragon Guy (@That Dragon Guy)1506662968.0
But as exciting as his ideas are, people still had questions.
Hey, Elon Musk, what about toilet paper on Mars? - CNET https://t.co/OeP0N2NwLU #charlesmilander #Entrepreneur https://t.co/A9V7J5fsZ1— Charles Milander (@Charles Milander)1506726159.0
Others had far more pressing concerns.
@elonmusk Will you bring cats to Mars? More specifically, kittens?— MGMT (@MGMT)1506690135.0
Leave it to Seth Rogen to ask the question on everyone's mind.
Hey @elonmusk will weed be legal on Mars?— Seth Rogen (@Seth Rogen)1506698441.0
These are other pretty important details to iron out.
Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars with SpaceX but hasn't said how people will survive there https://t.co/8X3Tw45fBs https://t.co/kUUHbLCifu— Business Insider (@Business Insider)1507156174.0