Elon Musk speaks about the 'urgent' needed to extend human civilisation beyond Earth to Mars

Elon Musk has been talking about his big idea to establish human settlements on Mars for nearly eight years now, starting with a speech in Mexico back in 2016. This weekend, at SpaceX’s base in South Texas, Musk once again talked about his goal to make life possible on other planets.

He told SpaceX employees that it’s really important to move beyond Earth and spread human life elsewhere in the universe. Musk worries that if we only stay on Earth, something bad might happen and wipe out humanity.

This is not a new idea for Musk or for anyone who follows his work closely. Over the years, Musk has become a bit controversial because of his behaviour. But when it comes to space travel, his plans seem more believable because SpaceX has made real progress.

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SpaceX has already launched three test flights of its Starship spacecraft, and there could be a fourth one next month. Musk told the team that this might seem unbelievable, but it’s happening for real.

Musk talked about two important parts of Starship: the booster, which helps the spacecraft get off the ground, and the upper stage, which goes to space. He explained that SpaceX has been successful with reusable boosters in the past and hopes to do the same with the new Super Heavy booster for Starship.

They’re even planning to try catching the booster with a big tower on its next test flight.

The upper stage of Starship is trickier because it has to come back to Earth through the atmosphere. SpaceX wants it to land safely, but it burned up during a test flight in March. Musk hopes they can fix this problem soon.

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SpaceX is also busy building more infrastructure for Starship, including new launch towers in Texas and Florida. They’re planning to make Starship even bigger so it can carry more stuff into space, which is important for missions to Mars.

Musk’s ultimate dream is to build a city on Mars with millions of people living there. He thinks this will take a lot of work, with many rockets launching every day and hundreds of missions to Mars over the years.

It’s a big challenge, but SpaceX has already surprised many people with what they’ve achieved. So, maybe Musk’s Mars vision isn’t so crazy after all.

(With inputs from agencies)