Elon Musk

So the question that I sort of was wondering about is, will civilization, will the civilizational arc continue to ascend such that we can make Mars self-sustaining before the civil civilizational arc descends?

Because the window of opportunity to make life multi-planetary exists now for the first time in the four and a half billion year history of Earth.

But there's this point that I think I want to just emphasize again that it's more important than the form of governance on Mars or who's there in the early days.

What really matters is that Mars is self-sustaining, that we are truly a multi-planet species and such that we've achieved planetary redundancy.

We should do everything possible to make sure life on Earth is great, but there's always some risk of an annihilation event on Earth, like self-annihilation or some natural disaster.

And so the probable lifespan of consciousness increases dramatically as soon as we are a multi-planet species with the key test being can Mars survive if the resupply ships stop coming.

So the first missions to Mars are not that important.

What matters is can you get sufficient tonnage to Mars

such that Mars can prosper on its own.

And that means it has to have all of the ingredients of civilization.

It's not just that you need to build, for example, a chip factory on Mars or ship fab on Mars, but you need the ability to build.

I think it can be done in 30 years.

Wow.

Provided there's an exponential increase in the tonnage to Mars with each success of Mars transfer windows, which is every two years.

So every two years the planets align and you can transfer to Mars.

So I think in roughly 15, but maybe as few as 10, but 10 to 15-ish Mars transfer windows if you're

seeing exponential increases in the tonnage to Mars with each Mars transfer window, then it should be possible to make Mars self-sustaining in about, quote, roughly 25 years.

Now he's stepped away from the administration. He's basically doing what I'm doing. He's telling people the truth.

Now he's stepped away from the administration. He's basically doing what I'm doing. He's telling people the truth.

Now he's stepped away from the administration. He's basically doing what I'm doing. He's telling people the truth.