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Eyeing Mars, Elon Musk wants humans to be 'multi-planet species'

WION Web Team
New Delhi, IndiaUpdated: Apr 24, 2021, 03:23 PM IST
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File photo of Elon Musk. Photograph:(Zee News Network)

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Musk added proposed a city to be built on Mars for humanity to become a “spacefaring civilisation” and a “multi-planet species”

SpaceX’s founder and CEO Elon Musk on Friday revealed his plans for humanity as the company races to put humans into space as soon as possible. Musk claims that he does not wan human beings to be limited to just Earth, and that humans should be a “multi-planet species”.

“We don’t want to be one of those single planet species, we want to be a multi-planet species,” Musk said on Friday after the launch of SpaceX’s “Crew-2” mission. Musk added how it had been almost 50 years since human beings set foot on the moon. “That’s too long”, he said.

“We need to get back there and have a permanent base on the moon”, Musk added while proposing a city to be built on Mars for humanity to become a “spacefaring civilisation” and a “multi-planet species”.

Currently, Musk’s company is working on its Starship series which are huge stainless steel rockets aimed at putting human beings on Mars and Moon. SpaceX is building them at its facility in Texas. The current Starship prototypes stand 150 feet tall. Each Starship requires three Raptor rocket engines.

Last week, SpaceX won a NASA contract worth $2.9 billion to help the agency put astronauts on the moon. Currently, the estimated target for the mission is 2024.

The contract will see NASA’s first commercial human lander, constituent of its Artemis programme. The agency added that the lander will carry in it two American astronauts to the moon’s surface.

"We should accomplish the next landing as soon as possible… If they hit their milestones, we have a shot at 2024," Steve Jurczyk, NASA's acting administrator said during the announcement made virtually.

According to NASA, SpaceX’s Starship system included a cabin and two airlocks to facilitate moonwalks. In addition, the architecture of the system allows it to to eventually used for reusable launch and landing. 

(With inputs from agencies)