Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, has been credited with almost single-handedly reviving the public’s interest in interplanetary travel and space colonization.
Musk’s recent success in transforming formerly far-fetched ideas, like affordable electric cars, into reality has furnished scenarios plucked out of science fiction and made them respectable by his mere endorsement.
One of Musk’s stated goals for SpaceX is to make space-travel so efficient and low-cost that enough humans would travel to and colonize Mars.
“Either we spread Earth to other planets, or we risk going extinct. An extinction event is inevitable and we’re increasingly doing ourselves in,” Musk said in 2013.
However, it’s unlikely that Musk himself will lead the colonization of Mars, and there’s a large chance that he himself will never travel to outer space. He’s already ruled out being on the first trip to Mars.