In 2002, Elon Musk founded the world's largest space enterprise SpaceX. Since the company's launch, the SpaceX boss constantly says that among his biggest goals is to bring the entire human race to the depths of the cosmos and become a multi-planetary species.
Living in Mars Possible, Elon Musk Says
A robotic rover that is part of a team from Europe and Israel moves during a training mission for planet Mars at a site that simulates an off-site station at the Ramon Crater in Mitzpe Ramon in Israel's southern Negev desert on October 10, 2021. - Six astronauts from Portugal, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, and Israel will be cut off from the world for a month, from October 4-31, only able leave their habitat in spacesuits as if they were on Mars. Their mission, the AMADEE-20 Mars simulation, will be carried out in a Martian terrestrial analog and directed by a dedicated Mission Support Center in Austria, to conduct experiments ahead of future human and robotic Mars exploration missions.
Among the steps that Musk took was to form a series of projects for people to get on planet Mars. The tech giant believes that there is still a chance that we can utilize the red planet and live 33.9 million miles away from Earth.
Musk said in November that if humankind can achieve life self-sustaining on Mars, we will be able to exceed our limitations and obtain the first phase to become nterstellar.
Our planet is clocking at approximately 4.5 billion years of age; however, its contained life is not yet planetary. He said that we still do not have any idea of the remaining time in Earth's current age.
Musk's perspective of the future settlements on Mars has been discussed several times in the past years. His long-term plans consist of creating a self-sustaining city that is mainly powered by solar energy and features hydroponic farms as well as vegan diets.
If we are able to make life self-sustaining on Mars, we will have passed one of the greatest filters. That then sets us up to become interstellar.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2021
Earth is ~4.5B years old, but life is still not multiplanetary and it is extremely uncertain how much time is left to become so.
Musk also believes that the next big thing on living on the red planet is the development of self-sustaining infrastructures and bringing the earthly animals to its environment, reports The Sun.
The SpaceX owner added that it would be "a futuristic Noah's ark" but there would be more than two, as opposed to the story.
Terraforming, Human Base, and Vegetable Food Production on Red Planet
During the first few phases of terraforming on Mars, he envisions human and animal settlers living temporarily in a "glass dome."
Terraforming is a series of geological modifications on the Martian soil to improve its state and meet the living standards on Earth. When this hypothetical procedure is applied on the red planet, people will breathe normally like here on our planet, even without glass domes or oxygen masks.
Musk admits that terraforming would be "too slow to be relevant" in our current age despite the plausible concept. But regardless of the methodology that will be laid out for the Martian projects, a human base will certainly be established on Mars in this current lifetime.
According to a report by The Space Review, starting a Martian base would require a large fleet of SpaceX Starships that can carry supplies and equipment for the settlement. In an assumption, if one Starship stage could hold 200 tons of materials to the red planet, a 5,000-trips would successfully carry a maximum cargo weight of 1 million tons.
Food production on Mars will be the next conference once transportation and architectural steps have been met. According to the report, a total of 200 square meters of soil that is powered by 100 kilowatts is needed per settler. Theoretically, a 4-level growing farm that measures one square meter can feed 5,000 individuals of vegetarian supplies.
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