Elon Musk wants to have humans on Mars within a decade

Elon Musk is nothing if not ambitious, especially when it comes to the future of space. At a startup festival in Hong Kong on Tuesday, the SpaceX CEO said that he’ll be announcing plans for a Mars-bound spacecraft later this year, and claimed that he plans to send humans to the planet within the next decade. According to him, colonizing Mars is essential for the continuity of the human race, and that confining ourselves to a single planet will result in our eventual extinction. Musk also announced that he himself will be taking a trip to space within the next five years.

At a startup festival in Hong Kong, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said he will announce plans for a Mars-bound spacecraft later this year, with goals of sending humans to the Red Planet by 2025. Musk said going to Mars is crucial for the survival of the human race and to help us become a “multi-planet” species. “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 posed. “Mars is the next natural step. In fact, it’s the only planet we have a shot at establishing a self-sustaining city on.” In the meantime, Musk said he plans to take a trip to space some time in the next five years despite minimal astronautical training. “I don’t think it’s that hard, honestly,” he said. “It’s not that hard to float around.” Last week, SpaceX released a testing video of Dragon 2, a pod intended to attach to rockets like the Falcon 9 to host human crewmembers. Expect to hear more about SpaceX’s Mars spacecraft in September at the International Astronautical Conference in Guadalajara, Mexico.