Elon Musk on death: "I would like to die on Mars, just not on impact."

[Pluvious]

Great article...

I mean, my original interest in electric cars and solar energy, which goes back to when I was in university, was not based on environmental concern, it was based on sustainability, in the sense of ensuring that civilisation can continue to progress. ...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/0/elon-musk-tech-billionaire-spacex-cowboy-real-life-iron-man/

[LongTomH]

1. Here's what Musk is all about!

At which point the question becomes why? ‘The overarching reason is that I think humanity needs to be on the path to becoming a multi-planet species, and to establishing life as we know it in more than one place. Fundamentally there are two reasons to go to Mars. One is defensive, as a form of life insurance, of preserving life, which we know can be wiped out by catastrophic events [such as comet strikes]. And the other is that it will be the greatest adventure ever. I personally am motivated more by the second, that it would be a fantastic and exciting adventure – even for individuals who don’t want to go. Just as when we went to the moon, it was only a handful of people who went, but in a sense all of humanity went there with them. And I’m hopeful that we can do it with considerably better life expectancy than the original English colonists in America. I mean, you did not want to be part of Jamestown! It was awful – they died of every conceivable thing you could imagine and were obliterated. But eventually we got America. Which, you know, is far from perfect, but on balance a force for good.’

Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Hawking, among others, have said that, if the human races wants to survive long-term, we need to begin branching out into space.

[yurbud]

2. it would be a better big project than endless wars...and might eventually remove as many people from

earth.

[DavidDvorkin]

3. That reminds me of a comedy routine from many decades ago

Reporter interviewing the first American scheduled to go into space: "I understand you'll be landing in Arizona."

"Please. I'll be landing ON Arizona, not IN Arizona."