Elon Musk: To Live on Mars, We’ll Have to Rebuild Earth’s Entire Industrial Base

Elon Musk: We'll need to recreate the entire base of industry on Mars.

“You need to recreate the entire base of industry of Earth [on Mars]. We're here at the top of a massive pyramid of industry that starts with mining a vast array of materials. Those materials are going through hundreds of steps of refinement.

We grow food, obviously. We grow trees. We make things out of the trees. You've got to build all that on Mars, a hostile environment.

It sometimes gets above zero on a warm summer day near the equator on Mars—meaning it's quite cold. In the beginning, on Mars, you need a life support habitation module. You can't just live outdoors.”

Verdict Podcast with Ted Cruz, March 2025