Elon Musk: We Must Make Mars Self-Sustaining Before It’s Too Late

Elon Musk: I'm not talking about abandoning Earth. We want Earth to be as good as possible. But certain things may be outside of our control.

“This is the first time in Earth's 4.5 billion year history that it's been possible to extend life or consciousness beyond Earth. And we've got to do that while civilization is still strong. That's the overarching goal of the company is extend life sustainably to another planet–Mars is the only option, really–and to do so ideally before World War III or some kind of bad thing.

The key thing is that we need enough people and enough tonnage on Mars such that Mars can survive and continue consciousness even if something were to happen to Earth.

Obviously, I'm not talking about abandoning Earth or anything like that. We want Earth to be as good as possible for as long as possible. But there are certain things that may be outside of our control. So we want to just get Mars to be a self-sustaining civilization as quickly as possible.”

SpaceX Update, April 4, 2024