What if Mars was our plan B?
This is where Elon Musk, a major advocate for Martian colonization, comes in. For him, Mars represents a kind of “collective life insurance” for humanity. The idea: to build a civilization capable of surviving autonomously on the Red Planet, independently of Earth.
His company, SpaceX, is actively working toward this goal, with the ambition of sending the first humans to Mars. On the American side, the White House recently redirected a portion of NASA’s budget toward crewed space missions, making the conquest of Mars a national priority in the face of international competition.
Whether or not one subscribes to this vision, one thing is certain: reflecting on the future of life in the universe is also a beautiful way to better appreciate the present.
The Earth still has many good days ahead of it — let’s make the most of them.
Studying the Earth
