As the person who likes Mars the most on the earth at present, Musk has been committed to making human civilization a multi-planetary species, and the specific approach is to build a starship spacecraft to transport many people to Mars to build cities, but although Musk often releases a timetable for immigrating to Mars, most people believe that human civilization is unlikely to go to Mars on a large scale in this century.
Because Mars, which is 55 million kilometers away from the earth at the nearest time, and the moon, which is 380,000 kilometers away, are actually two completely different planets, it takes at least half a year for a spacecraft to go to Mars, and it only takes a few days to go to the moon, and Mars has an atmosphereAlthough its thickness is only one hundredth that of the Earth, but the difficulty of a soft landing on the surface of Mars is also higher than that of the Moon.
On Mars, where there is no oxygen and the atmosphere is thin, the first thing humans need is a life support system, that is, an extravehicular spacesuit and a fully enclosed Mars base, and perhaps we can terraform Mars over time, such as NASA wants to melt the ice caps at the poles of Mars to release liquid water and oxygen.
As for how to achieve this goal, NASA's answer is to deploy large mirrors in the orbit of Mars, melt the ice cap of Mars by reflecting sunlight, re-cover the surface of Mars with liquid water, and the atmosphere is also expected to reach part of the Earth's level, but Musk believes that the reflection of sunlight is too slow, and the fastest way is actually to launch a nuclear bomb from the Earth to bomb the poles of Mars, the only problem is that no one pays attention to his wild thoughts.
In fact, judging from the current situation, the significance of Mars to human civilization is not very large, and the fundamental reason is that it is too far awayMore for the promotion of his rocket company, because only after his company makes a lot of money, the various equipment used to go to Mars can start to be manufactured, such as the Starship spacecraft, which has been experimenting at the moment, is the main force to go to the moon and Mars in the future.
Is it the pursuit of knowledge, human survival, or pure challenge?
What drives us to reach out to this world so strange and yet so familiar?
Musk's perspective provides a thought-provoking narrative about the future of humanity and our place in the universe, and he sees the colonization of Mars as part of scientific exploration and as a key step in the survival of life. In Musk's view, multiplanetary survival is not only desirable, but necessary.
If everything goes well, maybe in 5 years we will be able to see Musk's starship go to Mars, but it will definitely be a sightseeing event, it will not land and stay on Mars, and the general direction of the future development of the entire human civilization will still be space or the moon in low earth orbit, and maybe even the earth itself.
As for Mars and other planets in the solar system farther away, there may be some scientific significance, but the economic returns are basically invisible or have a long cycle, so immigration to develop Mars may not be possible until Musk's death, but I believe that more commercial space companies will emerge in the future, gradually allowing human civilization to transition from the earth to the space age.
Perhaps we will not be able to see the cities of human civilization on Mars in our lifetime, but human beings, as a species with a strong curiosity and desire to explore,As long as technology allows, it will definitely explore and expand beyond the earth, whether it is the solar system or the future galaxy, will leave traces of human civilization.
Scientific rambling