Elon Musk expands on vision of Mars as ‘life insurance’ for humanity

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is prioritizing his vision for life on Mars as his time with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) comes to an end.

Musk sat down with Fox News host Jesse Watters for an interview where he shared the DOGE team’s findings regarding government waste, fraud and abuse, and expanded on his idea of Mars colonization as “life insurance” for humanity.

“Mars is life insurance for life collectively. So, eventually, all life on Earth will be destroyed by the sun. The sun is gradually expanding, and so we do at some point need to be a multi-planet civilization because Earth will be incinerated,” Musk said in an interview that aired Monday on “Jesse Watters Primetime.”

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The sun, a medium-sized star with a radius of about 435,000 miles, will eventually run out of energy and expand into a red giant star when it starts to die, according to a NASA fact sheet.

The government space agency noted that the red giant star could become so large that it would engulf Mercury, Venus and possibly Earth as well, although the sun’s lifespan, according to scientists, will last another 5 billion years.

Musk explained that his vision for Mars is more than just landing on the planet and planting flags and laying footprints; it’s about creating a self-sustaining city.

“The fundamental fork in the road of destiny [is] that Mars is sufficiently self-sustaining and can grow by itself if the resupply ships from Earth stop coming for any reason, whether that is because civilization died with a bang or a whimper,” he told Watters. “If the resupply ships are necessary for Mars to survive, then we have not created life insurance.”

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“We’ve not created life insurance for life collectively. So that’s the key point in the future where [the] destiny of life, as we know it, will forever be affected, is when Mars becomes self-sustaining.”

Musk wrote in a post on his social media platform X in mid-March that a SpaceX Starship will depart for the red planet at the end of 2026, carrying Optimus, Tesla’s humanoid robot.

He predicted that if the missions go well, humans could start landing on Mars as soon as 2029, although 2031 is more likely.