More on Musk (and Mars)

Yesterday Slate reported that Elon Musk is predicting that the first SpaceX mission to Mars could be as soon as 10 years from now.  Musk stated,  "Ultimately we don't really want 10,000 people on Mars...We want millions."  This is an impressive boast, and even more impressive if he has the resources to promise something that even the White House (and other countries) dare not utter. 

According to Musk at the National Press Club, “I would argue also on that scale should fit life becoming multiplanetary. And in fact I think, [after] consciousness, it’s the next step. You really kind of need consciousness to design vehicles that can transport life over hundreds of millions of miles of irradiated space to an environment that they did not evolve to exist in.”  Here is the part of the speech.

It is nice to have a few big thinkers in the room.  First we need to dream (and write it down), and then we need to act.  Someone contact NASA!