Famous entrepreneur and Tesla CEO and founder Elon Musk recently shared his thoughts on interplanetary exploration, and pointed at the existence of a certain something possessed by SpaceX, another company he established, that is “better” than the legendary Area 51.
Dispensing his insight at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, where he took to the stage alongside Jack Ma, Chinese billionaire and co-founder of Alibaba, Musk dismissed speculation about the government being in contact with aliens and covering up their existence from the public.
"There are people out there who think we have found aliens. Trust me, I would know: we have not," he said. "People ask me if I’ve been to Area 51. Ok, please. SpaceX actually has area 59 and it’s eight better than area 51."
Musk also spoke about future exploratory missions to Mars, arguing that their importance stems from "a certain irreducible probability that something may happen to Earth."
"Despite our best intentions and everything we try to do, there is a probability of external forces or some internal unforced error causing civilisation to be destroyed or sufficiently impaired such that it can no longer extend to another planet," he remarked.
Earlier, SpaceX moved to test its Starhopper vehicle, a prototype for the upcoming starship Raptor engines designed for the BFR rocket, which Musk hopes will carry the first humans to Mars.