Tech billionaire Elon Musk has said ‘almost anyone’ can afford a $100,000 ticket to Mars.
Musk hopes to have sent 1 million people to Mars by 2050 with the help of his aerospace company SpaceX, and has now commented on the 'doable' price of a one way ticket.
Speaking to Chris Anderson, the head of TED conferences, on 14 April, Musk said ‘everyone can save up $100,000’.
The Tesla CEO and richest man in the world commented: "If moving to Mars costs, for argument's sake, $100,000, then I think almost anyone can work and save up and eventually have $100,000 and be able to go to Mars if they want.”
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Musk added: “We want to make it available to anyone who wants to go.”
In 2019, Musk first insisted that a $100,000 shuttle ticket was totally feasible, writing on Twitter: “I’m confident moving to Mars (return ticket is free) will one day cost less than $500k & maybe even below $100k.
“Low enough that most people in advanced economies could sell their home on Earth & move to Mars if they want.”
Across the next decade, Musk hopes to have built 1,000 SpaceX Starships so more than a million people can be rocketed to Mars by 2050.
Last month, Musk was asked on Twitter when he thinks the first humans will land on the Red Planet and he responded with simply: “2029.”
In December 2021, Musk was named TIME magazine’s person of the year, and the outlet billed him as ‘a madcap hybrid of Thomas Edison, PT Barnum, Andrew Carnegie and Watchmen’s Doctor Manhattan, the brooding, blue-skinned man-god who invents electric cars and moves to Mars’.
Speaking in his cover interview, Musk described his Mars mission as ‘a futuristic Noah’s ark’.
He explained: “The next really big thing is to build a self-sustaining city on Mars and bring the animals and creatures of Earth there.
“Sort of like a futuristic Noah’s ark. We’ll bring more than two, though, it’s a little weird if there’s only two.”
Interplanetary travel plans aside, Musk also spoke about his $41.39 billion offer to buy Twitter at the TED2022 conference in Vancouver last week.
“I am not sure that I will actually be able to acquire it," Musk admitted to the event’s audience.
His comments came in the wake of reports that Twitter’s board was considering using a ‘poison pill’ method to prevent him from purchasing the social media giant.
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Topics: Elon Musk, Technology, Space, SpaceX
Aisha Nozari