Tech billionaire Elon Musk, a pioneer of aerospace technology through his company SpaceX, has said that humans could have a self-sustaining city on Mars within the next 20 years.
Musk appeared on a podcast hosted by Republican Senator Ted Cruz, where he was asked when a colony on the red planet could become fully self-sufficient, requiring no assistance or resources from Earth.
Elon Musk responded, claiming that this could be achieved within two decades. He said, “I think it can be done in 20 years.”
The tech billionaire emphasized that for a Martian city to become self-sustaining, it must no longer depend on supplies from Earth. He reckoned that once this was achieved then the red planet would not be affected by any incident that could wipe out human civilization on Earth, including the possibility of World War III.
“The key threshold is when that city can continue to grow even when the supply ships from Earth stop coming. At that point, even if something happens on Earth—it might not be World War III, it might be something else—civilization could die with a bang or a whimper and simply lose the ability to send ships to Mars,” Musk explained.
Elon Musk made it clear that merely landing a few astronauts land on Martian soil will not be enough. He insisted that truly self-sustaining colony could require sending one million people and a similar amount of cargo to the Red Planet.
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