“The fundamental existential question is whether humanity becomes sustainably multiplanetary before something happens on Earth to prevent that.”
In a post on his X platform Sunday, Elon Musk announced plans to launch unmanned Mars missions within two years, and crewed missions within four years. This endeavor, which he says is primarily to be funded using revenue from his Starlink satellite internet company, is a response to what he sees as "the fundamental existential question" of whether or not "humanity becomes sustainably multiplanetary before something happens on Earth to prevent that."
In a post tackling philosophical as well as technological questions, Musk posed the idea that the survival of humanity itself depends on being able to get to, colonize, and thrive on other worlds. While it sounds like something out of a science fiction story, and is, it's also an idea that has been at the edges of human consciousness since the beginning of time. As a people, in our stories, legends, religious beliefs, we left the places of our creation and ventured forth into the unknown. Leaving Eden, the westward expansion across the US, traveling the oceans with their sea monsters, tribal migrations, deep sea diving, the first ships into space—exploration is part of what we all are. It is this that Musk is tapping into with his private space company, SpaceX, headquartered in Texas.
"SpaceX plans to launch about five uncrewed Starships to Mars in two years. If those all land safely, then crewed missions are possible in four years. If we encounter challenges, then the crewed missions will be postponed another two years," Musk wrote. But it also goes further than exploration, and his plans are a caution. He's concerned that humanity will need a place to go in the event that catastrophe ruins our home planet.
"It is only possible to travel from Earth to Mars every two years, when the planets are aligned," Musk continued. "This increases the difficulty of the task, but also serves to immunize Mars from many catastrophic events on Earth. No matter what happens with landing success, SpaceX will increase the number of spaceships traveling to Mars exponentially with every transit opportunity."
"We want to enable anyone who wants to be a space traveler to go to Mars! That means you or your family or friends – anyone who dreams of great adventure. Eventually, there will be thousands of Starships going to Mars and it will a glorious sight to see! Can you imagine? Wow."
Many over the years have criticized both the funding of space travel, the allocation of resources to it, and the penchant for exploration itself, claiming that there are enough unsolved problems on Earth that warrant the attention of mankind and that bringing humans to space, at the tune of billions upon billions of dollars, is a waste of resources. For people like Musk, and those who dream of attaining the stars, the dream is part of the mission, and part of what makes life worth living. The human ability to imagine ourselves deep in space, to dream of what we might find there not only outside our starships but inside ourselves, is what makes us able to achieve and to create a future for ourselves and our descendants.
"The fundamental existential question is whether humanity becomes sustainably multiplanetary before something happens on Earth to prevent that, for example nuclear war, a supervirus or population collapse that weakens civilization to the point where it loses the ability to send supply ships to Mars," Musk said. Each of these concerns, too, come not only from current events but from centuries of human beings imagining how civilizations could come to a crashing end. The recent Covid pandemic (not to mention Kurt Vonnegut's Ice-Nine) showed that not only should a virus be among our fears but government overreach (ala Orwell's 1984) could also lead to an end to our civilization, simply through a crude authoritarianism.
Among the myriad obstacles to space travel and a space program, Musk identifies another one that's directly in his way—Democrat leadership in the United States. "One of my biggest concerns right now is that the Starship program is being smothered by a mountain of government bureaucracy that grows every year," Musk said. "This stifling red tape is affecting all large projects in America, which is why, for example, California has spent ~$7 billion dollars and several years on high-speed rail, but only has a 1600 ft section of concrete to show for it!"
Musk, who has come out in support of Donald Trump in the coming presidential election, who has donated to Republicans in Congress, and who has spearheaded the free speech revolution with his purchase and transformation of Twitter into X, went on to offer serious concerns about what a Kamala Harris presidency could do to the country. Trump, for his part, said that he would work with Musk to launch a Mars mission. "Elon, get those rocket ships going because we want to reach Mars before the end of my term!" He said at a campaign stop.
"While I have many concerns about a potential Kamala regime, my absolute showstopper is that the bureaucracy currently choking America to death is guaranteed to grow under a Democratic Party administration," Musk said. "This would destroy the Mars program and doom humanity. It cannot happen. Your help would be much appreciated. This is a fork, maybe the fork, in the road of human destiny."
Mars is the fourth planet from the sun. It is the seventh largest planet in our solar system and has only been visited by robots. There are three NASA spacecraft currently in orbit, including Maven, and two rovers on the Martian surface, Perseverance and Curiosity, which still send information home to scientists. It is a dry, rocky planet, it is freezing cold, but evidence suggests that it was once a wet, warm planet with an atmosphere that may have been able to support life.
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