Elon Musk backs 'city on Mars, permanent base on Moon', wants to be 'multi-planet species'

“We don’t want to be one of those single planet species, we want to be a multi-planet species,” Space X CEO Elon Musk said on April 23 following the launch of the Crew-2 mission. Many times in the past, the tech billionaire has expressed his desire to establish a permanent human presence on the red planet with starship rockets carrying humans to and from Mars. On Friday, he went a step ahead by asserting that not only do humans need to colonize Mars but also have a present base on the moon in order to become a “spacefaring civilization.”  

Elon Musk wants humans to be 'multi-planet species'

“It’s been now almost half a century since humans were last on the moon. That’s too long, we need to get back there and have a permanent base on the moon — again, like a big permanently occupied base on the moon. And then build a city on Mars to become a spacefaring civilization, a multi-planet species,” Musk told reporters.

Last December, the 44-year-old had blatantly claimed that it would just take another six years for SpaceX to land humans on Mars. He had further elaborated that SpaceX plans to send a Starship rocket without a crew “in two years.” SpaceX is currently developing Starship with an ambition to use it to launch cargo and people on missions to Moon and Mars.

This comes as the California based Space X has won a $2.89 billion contract by NASA to build a spacecraft that would carry astronauts to the moon as early as 2024. The news was announced by NASA in a press release wherein it stated that the ‘firm-fixed contract’ to construct the Lunar Lander was given to the Elon Musk owned company. The lander would be used as a part of the US Space agency’s ambitious Artemis Programme, which would safely land two astronauts on the lunar surface.

Meanwhile, taking to Twitter Musk hailed NASA’s decision. “NASA Rules!!,” he wrote sharing a tweet that revealed that Starship has been selected for the project. In a subsequent tweet, he also reckoned that SpaceX was “honoured” to be part of the Artemis team.

Image Credits: Pixabey/AP