(Credit: REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson)
Elon Musk may not be around for much longer as he intends to travel to Mars, a journey he thinks will most likely be a one way trip.
As Engadget reports, the SpaceX CEO recently carried out an exclusive interview with Axios on HBO during which he was asked how likely it is he will travel to Mars. Musk responds with a firm "70 percent" based on a number of breakthroughs he's "really fired up about." That suggests SpaceX has solved some of the bigger problems relating to not only getting a human to Mars, but allowing them to survive there.
He makes it clear the visit would most likely be moving there permanently and that the cost of a ticket would be in the ball park of $200,000. When the interviewer suggests it sounds like "an escape hatch for rich people," Musk is quick to rubbish the claim. He points out the risk of dying is much higher both getting to and once on the red planet. If you do land successfully then life there is non-stop work.
At 47, Musk is battling against time is he intends to make the journey. Considering the constant hard work involved once you arrive, at what age does it stop being viable to go? And even then, how long can you continue to survive there into old age as health inevitably starts to fail? I'd suggest Musk has a decade at best before the trip starts to look like a bad idea.
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Whatever Musk decides to do, he won't be the next man-made object to land on Mars. Later today the Insight lander expects to arrive on the surface of the red planet, that's if NASA's landing system works perfectly, of course.
This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.
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