When asked whether 2025 was too short a time frame, to which he replied that nine years “seems like a long time to me”. He added: “I’m hoping to describe that architecture later this year at IAC…and I think that will be quite exciting.” Speaking at the StartmeupHK Festival in Hong Kong this week, Musk said that he had already taken parabolic flights to prepare for space, which simulate weightlessness for about 20 seconds at a time.
“I don’t think it’s that hard, honestly,” he said. “It’s not that hard to float around.” The 44-year-old billionaire said he will reveal the detailed plan for sending people to Mars at September’s International Astronautical Conference in Guadalajara, Mexico. Besides personal space travel ambitions, Musk also talked about how important it was for mankind to reach Mars that may lead to other bigger things. He eventually wants to colonise Mars and build a city on the Red Planet. This would not only make the survival of the human race a sure possibility but would also lead to an incredible and exciting adventure. “It’s really a fundamental decision we need to make as a civilization. What kind of future do we want? Do we want one where we are forever confined to one planet until some eventual extinction event however far into the future that might occur or do we want to be a multi planet species and ultimately be out there among the stars, among many planets and many star systems,” he said. Musk’s next step is to send humans to the Red Planet by 2025, which is quite an aspiring goal considering that NASA’s current plan is to send humans to Mars in the 2030s. Irrespective of who gets there first, Musk thinks it’s important for mankind to create a self-sustaining city on Mars to protect against human extinction, and also to motivate people. Besides introducing the idea of populating Mars, the visionary CEO also wants to invest in several sectors that would be the trend of the future. They include: electric airlines, genetic engineering and bionics. Musk believes these fields have a lot to offer if they are fully explored for what they are worth.
