Topline<\/p>\n
SpaceX Elon Musk predicted SpaceX would send humans back to the Moon and Mars in the next five years and build permanent cities on the lunar surface in the next ten years\u2014offering wildly optimistic targets for space travel in a recent interview with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.<\/p>\n
The billionaire CEO said the company planned to land astronauts back on the moon in the next few years, before eventually building a permanent \u201cmetropolis\u201d on its surface.\u201d<\/p>\n
AFP via Getty ImagesKey Facts<\/p>\n
In the interview<\/a> with Abbott, who was guest hosting Sean Hannity\u2019s talk radio show on Wednesday, Musk said he hoped to transport up to \u201ctens of thousands\u201d of people to a base on the Moon in the next ten years\u2014what he admitted was a \u201cpretty outrageous number given that you know, there’s only about a dozen or so people that have been to the Moon so far.\u201d<\/p>\n He said the company hoped to land an astronaut on the Moon in the next two to three years, then \u201cexpand rapidly from there,\u201d up to the point that \u201cany member of the public who wants to go to the moon, can go to the Moon and Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n Musk said the company\u2019s eventual goal was to build a \u201cfull blown, self-sustaining city on the Moon, like an actual metropolis,\u201d where people could move permanently or visit on vacation.<\/p>\n It will be much harder to transport people to the red planet, Musk said, due to the amount of time it takes to reach the planet, but the SpaceX CEO still predicted the company would send the first humans there in the next five years, before \u201chopefully\u201d sending thousands in the next ten to twelve years.<\/p>\n Musk also made promises about expanding data centers in space, another one of his company\u2019s stated goals, claiming SpaceX would be launching its first \u201cAI satellites\u201d next year, before doing so at a \u201clarge scale\u201d in the next two years.<\/p>\n Contra<\/p>\n Musk has a long history of failed predictions, including multiple overly-optimistic promises about sending humans back to the Moon or setting up a colony on Mars. He has been predicting humans would reach Mars in the next ten years as early as 2011<\/a>, repeating similar claims at least 19 times in interviews and on social media over the years, a New York Times<\/a> review found. In 2017, he announced plans<\/a> for SpaceX to begin flying private citizens around the moon by 2018\u2014a trip that never happened.<\/p>\n Big Number<\/p>\n 1 billion. That\u2019s how many SpaceX shares Musk would receive if the company reaches a market cap of $7.5 trillion and builds a colony on Mars with at least 1 million inhabitants, according to the company\u2019s S-1 filing<\/a>. Analysts have already cast doubt on the lucrative pay package, with one previously telling Forbes<\/a> the cost of maintaining a Mars colony could eat into the company\u2019s profits from its Starlink internet satellites.<\/p>\n Forbes Valuation<\/p>\n We value Musk\u2019s current net worth at $934 billion, making him the wealthiest person in the world. He briefly became the world\u2019s first trillionaire<\/a> after SpaceX\u2019s initial public offering, but the company\u2019s falling share price<\/a> has brought Musk\u2019s fortune below that mark in recent weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Topline SpaceX Elon Musk predicted SpaceX would send humans back to the Moon and Mars in the next…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[270],"tags":[18,1647,6338,19,17,1203,10626,133,451,2731],"class_list":["post-577218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-eire","tag-elon-musk","tag-greg-abbott","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mars","tag-moon","tag-science","tag-space","tag-spacex"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116891159212441396","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}