#10
Why go to Mars / become multiplanetary?
Interviews
10
Answers
11
X posts
6
Span
2023 to 2026
First asked Dec 10, 2023, most recently Sep 25, 2026. Excerpts below are from machine transcripts with filler words (um, uh, you know) and stutters removed; … marks a cut. They are not checked word for word, so use the link to hear the exact words, or the transcript link for the raw text. Timestamps: 3 cross-checked against YouTube captions, 8 from the archive transcript only. X has no link-to-time option, so X links open at the start.
How the answer evolved · oldest first
Dec 10, 2023 · X Spaces: Free speech with Alex Jones · asked by Alex Jones
Q: Or are you already putting it out of pieces?
No, I mean what I'm saying is that actually I think we should expand humanity. Like basically we should have basically more kids population should increase and we should become a multi planet species and you know, make life multi planetary. Build a self sustaining civilization on Mars and then ultimately this will be long after I'm dead probably, but almost certainly we can go to other star systems and go out there …
Apr 8, 2024 · In Good Company · asked by Nicolai Tangen
Q: it'd be better to use all these resources and try to sort out Earth?
Well, just to put this into perspective, the amount of resources I'm talking about for making life multi planetary will be less than 1% of all resources on Earth. So really you can think of it as resource allocation. Do you think it's worth spending half a percent of Earth resources to ensure that we have redundancy in consciousness and that we extend consciousness beyond Mars to other planets? To Mars and other …
Mar 17, 2025 · Verdict with Ted Cruz · asked by Ted Cruz
Q: Like what, what do you do on day one?
So I think you have to start with a, some sort of philosophical premise in order to have, in order for the, in order to be, in order to be highly motivated you have to have some philosophical foundation. In my case it was that we want to expand the scope and scale of consciousness to better understand the nature of the universe. And in order to expand consciousness we need to go beyond one planet. If we're on one …
May 30, 2025 · Oval Office Farewell Press Conference with President Trump · asked by Reporter
Q: Musk, what do you think would be easier? Colonizing Mars or making the government efficient?
It's a tough call, but I think colonizing Mars and making life multi planetary is harder. And as I said, we do expect to achieve over time the trillion dollars of savings. We can't do it in like a few months, but if you say by the. I think the official end of dose for the present may choose to extend is the middle of next year, say by the middle of next year, with the support of the President and Congress, could we …
Jul 27, 2025 · X Takeover · asked by Interviewer
Q: What gives you hope for today, not just for humanity and civilization, but personally?
Well, I think the future is going to be very interesting and exciting and. I guess I think would I want to be at any other point in human history? Is there some other point in human history that is more interesting than where we are today? And I think the answer is no, at least for me. I think we're at the most interesting part of human history and it's getting more interesting with each passing month. And so. Okay, …
Sep 7, 2025 · All-In Summit · asked by Host
Q: You know, you'd be the elder statesman, you'd have the moral authority of Mars. How do you run Mars?
But this point that I think I want to just emphasize again that's it's more important than the form of governance on Mars or who's there in the early days. What really matters is that Mars is self sustaining. That we are truly a multi planet species and such that we've achieved planetary redundancy. So that if something, and obviously we should do everything possible to make sure life on Earth is great, but there's …
Dec 10, 2025 · The Katie Miller Podcast · asked by Katie Miller
Q: Like does the AI exist to be able to help life on Mars or is that primarily for what is happening here currently?
Tesla is mostly about making sure life on Earth is good. And as NXI is about that too. Because multi planetary means Earth's got to be Good. And you need another planet. Sometimes people think because they have legacy templates, mental templates, they think that going to Mars is an escape from Earth or that it would be some place where billionaires would go or something like that. But actually Mars will be very …
Dec 10, 2025 · The Katie Miller Podcast · asked by Katie Miller
Q: Okay, would you rather save humanity from extinction, extinction on Earth, or guarantee its survival on Mars?
It's a false dichotomy. I think I'd say guarantee Earth. Earth's much better than Mars, to be clear. But Mars is just our best option if we want to become a multi planet species. It's really our only option. If you want to become a multi planet species, you've got Mars, which is very difficult, but not impossible. Earth is much better than Mars, but you know, we can't. I think it was Tsiolkovsky or I think he said …
Jan 22, 2026 · Davos · asked by Larry Fink
Q: When you look across those efforts what do they have in common from an engineering standpoint?
Well, they're all very difficult technology challenges. But the overall goal of my companies is to maximize the future of civilization. Like basically maximize the probability that civilization has a great future and to expand consciousness beyond Earth. So take SpaceX for example, that SpaceX is about advancing rocket technology to the point where we can extend life and consciousness beyond Earth to the moon, to …
Jul 23, 2026 · The Economist: Interview with Elon Musk · asked by Zanny Minton Beddoes
Q: Have you shifted your attention away from Mars or are you as interested in colonizing Mars as you ever were?
I'm interested in the set of actions that propagate consciousness into the future to the maximum degree possible so that the future light cone of consciousness is as big as we could. You know like the. There's an exciting future where we're a space faring civilization out there among the stars and the great things that are envisioned in the non dystopian sci fi books and movies become real one day. I sort of want …
Sep 25, 2026 · Interview with CCTV · asked by CMG interviewer
Q: So tell us, what's the current crucial step for your Mars mission?
Well, like I said, the most profound and fundamental invention necessary for making life multi planetary is rapidly and completely reusable rockets. Otherwise the costs are impossible. With our Falcon 9 rocket we recover the boost stage and the fairing, but not the upper stage. And this is like throwing away a medium sized jet on every flight. And you can imagine if an air flight, if you had to throw away the planes …
In his own posts on X
@elonmusk · Nov 30, 2024
@PeterDiamandis Exploring is a relatively minor factor, compared to making consciousness multiplanetary, as the latter greatly extends the probable lifespan of civilization
View on X ↗@elonmusk · May 25, 2025
@MarioNawfal Not an exit plan. Multiplanetary means life/consciousness on many planets, not just moving from one single planet to another single planet.
View on X ↗@elonmusk · Dec 21, 2025
@cb_doge Yeah. Making life multiplanetary to ensure the long-term survival of consciousness will be expensive.
View on X ↗@elonmusk · Jul 25, 2026
@brivael Peter is not correct about me in this case. I have always known that dangers from Earth will also pose dangers to Mars. Obviously so. However, the immense difficulty of traveling to Mars means that there is a much higher likelihood of mitigating risks originating from Earth. A clear example of major risk reduction would be a deadly pandemic. Since it takes 6 months to reach Mars, there is an automatic 6 month quarantine! Even traveling at the speed of light, a deadly computer virus or AI attack can potentially be stopped due to Mars being ~4 to ~20 light-minutes from Earth. This doesn’t mean that a Mars civilization eliminates all risk, but it absolutely greatly reduces the risk of consciousness being extinguished. Moreover, Mars is a stepping stone to extending consciousness broadly within our solar system and ultimately to millions of stars within our galaxy, which would extend the probable lifespan of consciousness as we know it by many orders of magnitude. That said, what I personally find most motivating is not the risk reduction aspect of extending life beyond Earth, but rather the inspiring nature of exploration and being out there among the stars! Perhaps we will meet aliens or find the remains of long-dead civilizations that lasted millions of years …
View on X ↗@elonmusk · Jul 25, 2026
Asimov’s Foundation series was a major influence on me. That and the fall of Rome, from which Foundation takes inspiration, is what convinced me that we need to extend consciousness beyond Earth to avoid a potentially infinite dark age.
View on X ↗@elonmusk · Aug 30, 2026
Extending consciousness beyond Earth, ultimately to the stars, is a fundamentally good goal
View on X ↗
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