SpaceX release concept animation for Mars mission

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The world’s richest man has repeatedly stated his desire to colonise Mars with his aerospace company. The SpaceX CEO has previously hinted at his long term goal of getting humanity off the planet within the next five to 10 years. However, following a recent tweet about how a mission to Mars could help with conservation, he was ridiculed by a scientist working in conservation.

Mr Musk tweeted: “Making life multi-planetary expands the scope & scale of consciousness.

“It also enables us to backup the biosphere, protecting all life as we know it from a calamity on Earth.

“Humanity is life’s steward, as no other species can transport life to Mars. We can’t let them down.”

Responding to the tweet, Dr Charlie Gardner, a researcher and climate activist tweeted: “In my 25-year career as a conservation scientist, I have never once heard anyone suggest ‘back up the biosphere by transporting it all to Mars’ as a strategy to conserve Earth’s life forms.

“Might just be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

One of Mr Musk’s proposed solutions to the climate crisis is to leave Earth entirely before “Earth gets too hot for life in about 500 million years”.

The richest man in the world, with a net worth of upwards of 270 billion dollars, has made it his mission to make humanity a multi-planetary species, through a colony on Mars.

He believes SpaceX will be able to send a crewed flight to Mars in 2026.

Last week, he also tweeted his plan is to “build 1000+ Starships to transport life to Mars. Basically, (very) modern Noah’s Arks,”

The billionaire founder of SpaceX is building the Starship rocket which will be able to take humanity to the Red Planet.

Through the Starship project, he hopes to colonise the hostile Red Planet and construct cities among its craters by 2050.

Mr Musk’s proposal to move biospheres was also criticised by other scientists and activists.

Markus Eichhorn, an ecologist at UCC Ireland tweeted: “Ecology is not an engineering problem.

“Ecosystems cannot be transported and recreated as functional units.”

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Science writer Leonie Joubert said: “This fella really has drunk too much of his own kool-aid.

“What part of climate science doesn’t he get?

“We’ll have incinerated life on Earth before any chance of ‘backing it up’ on a terraformed distant desert.”

Mr Musk’s project has already seen SpaceX secure a multi-million-dollar contract with NASA.

Mr Musk’s aerospace company is aiming to launch crewed missions to Mars as early as 2024.

According to SpaceX’s user guide for Starships, to fulfil the company’s ambitions they will need to build up to 100 rockets a year

Each one will be capable of housing 100 crew members and boasting “private cabins, large common areas, centralised storage, solar storm shelters and a viewing gallery”.

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