Elon Musk: The Urgency to Become Multiplanetary

Elon Musk: If we want to become multiplanetary, we have to act with a sense of extreme urgency.

“If we operate with extreme urgency, then we have a chance of making life multiplanetary. Still just a chance. Not for sure. If we don't act with extreme urgency, that chance is probably zero.

The rate of innovation is not going to be constant. It's either going to increase or it's going to slow down.

If you look at American access to space with crew, we were able to go to the moon in '69. Then, with the Space Shuttle, we could only go to Low Earth Orbit, and the Space Shuttle retired. And then, for almost a decade, America had no access to space with people. This is a pretty bad trend. It's trending to zero.

We need a very strong trend in the other direction in order to have any chance whatsoever of making life multiplanetary. That's the reason for the extreme sense of urgency.”

Everyday Astronaut, August 11, 2021