SpeaceX CEO Elon Musk has said that the first human colony to be put on Mars will be constructed using “glass domes.”
Mr Musk, who this week climbed to the rank of world’s third richest person, has publicly and regularly spoken about his ambition to help put the human race on a journey toward becoming a “multi-planetary species.”
According to Musk, settlers to Mars will reside within glass habitats before humans are able to harness the environment on the Red Planet to make it more hospitable to human life. Putting his raw ambition on display, Mr Musk also said that he hoped to have one million people on Mars by the year 2050.
The tech maverick has previously said that humans can fire nuclear weapons at Mars’ poles in order to bring about a melting of ice caps that would then accelerate warming of the planet, making it more friendly to human life.
Speaking of the process, Musk tweeted, “life in glass domes at first. Eventually, terraformed to support life, like Earth.”
Life in glass domes at first. Eventually, terraformed to support life, like Earth.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2020
“Terraforming will be too slow to be relevant in our lifetime. However, we can establish a human base their in our lifetime. At least a future spacefaring civilization – discovering our ruins – will be impressed humans got that far,” he added.
Musk previously referred to Mars as a “fixer upper of a planet,” adding that “eventually you can transform Mars into an Earth-like planet … there’s a fast way and a slow way. The fast way is to drop thermonucular weapons over the poles.”
The slow process, according to Musk, would involve placing a giant mirror in orbit around Mars that would then reflect sunlight onto the red planet’s surface, gradually warming it.
