Mars or bust! Elon Musk talks Star Trek and space colonies at MIT

Excerpt from
betaboston.com

SpaceX has its roots in billionaire Elon Musk’s interest in reaching Mars. That much is part of the legend. But you don’t realize how serious Musk is about sending humans to other planets until he’s speaking live.

“The basic ingredients are there,” Musk told a sold-out crowd in MIT’s Kresge auditorium.

Of course, humans are going to need to figure out a few things if we’re going to make it to our neighbor planet. Robust, reusable landing gear (which SpaceX is tussling with already) is at the top of the list. Also energy: Power generation on Mars is going to be an “interesting problem,” Musk said.

In Musk’s view, an investment in becoming a “multi-planet” species is essential for our longevity.

It could come fairly cheap.  “One percent of our resources, we could be buying life insurance collectively for life,” Musk said. And it just requires a small reshuffling of our priorities. “Lipstick or Mars colonies?” he asked.